Sticky brake

rogerv78

Ok so went out for a ride today and when I got back washed my bike thoroughly like I always do as it was proper filthy.

When out on the ride the brakes were absolutely fine but after washing the rear brake wont release off the wheels fully, I have disconnected the cable from the calipers which are shimano 105 dual pivot and they are springing apart perfectly, the cable is internally routed through the top tube and have released the tension and pulled it back and forth from the lever under the hood to the end by the caliper and it feels restricted ( although not sure if there was some restriction before or not and if there's meant to be any or not ? ) I have sprayed some gt85 on the parts I can get to to see if that eases it but I'm not convinced ?

Is it just a case of, is it time to change the cable (the bike is nearly 3 years old and has done about 1600 miles) or is there something I'm missing, just confused as to why it suddenly started doing it after I cleaned it, which I do everytime ?

Hope this makes sense and hopefully I wont get any sarcastic and unhelpful comments I've had before on this forum ?

Thanks !

Roger

Secteur

When I was a newbie, i had a rear brake that wouldn't return properly - took it to the LBS that had previously worked on it (in the days before I did all my own maintenance) and they'd used a gear cable instead of a thicker brake cable - so check that!

This is one of the many, many poor results I've had at LBS's but I won't start another rant about that here...

Secteur

Ok having read your post properly it sounds like the calliper is fine (just double check the spring is good and well cleaned / lubricated).

If I were you. For the cost of a cable, I'd whip the old one out and inspect it carefully - any marks or fraying? If so, work out where it happened (there are several points at which cables can rub).

Even if the cable looks fine, pop a new one in and test it, and then get back to us... often just replacing it fixes the issue ( as unsatisfactory as it is to not figure out the exact issue)

k-dog

You probably just washed some grit into the internal brake routing. I'd pull it out and give it a good clean (cable and everything else you can get at) then reassemble and you should be fine.

rogerv78

Secteur wrote:

Ok having read your post properly it sounds like the calliper is fine (just double check the spring is good and well cleaned / lubricated).

If I were you. For the cost of a cable, I'd whip the old one out and inspect it carefully - any marks or fraying? If so, work out where it happened (there are several points at which cables can rub).

Even if the cable looks fine, pop a new one in and test it, and then get back to us... often just replacing it fixes the issue ( as unsatisfactory as it is to not figure out the exact issue)

Yeah thanks for the advice, dismantled the rear brake, got the cable out and found it a bit dirty and the beginnings of it getting quite bad, managed to clean it up and grease it, after a bit of fiddling and passing it back and forth through the outer sheaths I put it back in but in the process it got quite frayed and after cutting it down a couple of times it only just sits in the caliper clamp.

After all of that it does now seem to have cured the problem but I am still going to change the cable, I have packed the inlets to the top tube and where the cable enters through the brake lever, under the hood with grease as that seems to be where the water/dirt was getting in so hopefully it will prevent it in the future.

My question is do I need to change the outer casings as well as the cable as it seems like it comes in a kit ? Although I'm not too keen on doing the one under the bar tape ?

Is there any particular cable kit I should get or is the basic shimano one sufficient ?

Thanks again !

k-dog

Basic ones are fine. It's nice to do new others at the same time - if it's been corroding inside then the housing will go eventually. Not critical though.

The bit under the tape gets less mucky so you could probably get away with changing the bit near the brake too - just give the other part a good flush through before installing the new cable.

Secteur

As above, but before you thread the new cable, after removing the old one, you can flush the empty cable outers by using the red straw on a can of GT85 which will help clean out and lubricate your existing outers.