Shop Talk - Vets' bikes | Boom! | Shop Talk - Brake Repairs |
I
get a lot of bikes donated. I have refurbished roughly 300, scrapped
about 50, handed off another 50 to a bigger operation in Chicago. I
have never seen a bicycle with the brake barrel adjusters in any
position other than locked down tight against the brake lever housing.
I can only surmise that most people
have no idea what they are and how to use them. If you are not one of
those, skip this post.
I'll start by showing a
photo from online ads to clarify what the heck
a barrel adjuster is. I encourage ordering replacement(s) if you've
crashed and trashed these as I find on mst kids' bikes. Just be sure to
get the right thread size. there are several sizes and styles.
It screws into the brake lever housing; the cable sheath fits in it. It has two parts. The bigger part does the work; the other is a collar to lock the adjuster in place. With it screwed all the way in the only possible adjustment is to unlock it by turning the collar to release it and then unscrew it some, tightening the brakes. Thats fine if you just want to take up slack as the shoes wear. But when you want to remove a wheel and the brakes wont let you, don't you wish you had that thing in about the halfway position so you could screw it in and slacken the cable enough to unclip the levers?
If
you use it to take up slack as the brakes
wear, you might be able to replace brake shoes without
needing to
adjust the cable at the wheel end. The less you mess with that
connection,
the better. I replace a lot of cables with ends messed up to where they
cannot be disconnected without replacing.
The reason for the locking collar is so that you can put the barrel in
any position, fine-tuning the gap between the brake shoes and rim,
minimizing the amount of travel needed at the handle.
If the wheel is trued well and the shoes aligned well, you can get a
hair-trigger response for excellent braking. If the wheel has a slight
offset somewhere you can tune it to just avoid that thub
thub thub and still have good braking.
Once you select the barrel position, you keep it still while tightening the collar against the handle so the barrel is locked in place.
Brakes
CAN be adjusted by
loosening the nuts holding the cable
at the wheel end, and that is necessary for major changes. But the
barrel adjuster provides fine-tuning after positioning the cable close
to where it should be. Doing fine tuning by clamping and releasing
repeatedly is a good way to mess up the cable, start it fraying. I
replace up to 4 cables on most of the bikes I get, and many of them are
still good except the end looks like a used NYE firecracker. If you
lose that little cap off the end, replace it! You can get a package of
them online cheaply, like $5 for 100. Just do a web search for bike
cable end caps. Use a few and give them to biking friends as
party favors or something. If the cable has come untwisted but not
wrecked by a kid's foot repeatedly hitting it, you may be able to
restore it. You'd be surprised how well
retwisting a splayed cable can work. Grip it gently with pliers held
aligned with the cables, as close as possible to the still-intact
section. Rotate the pliers, letting the cable slip but applying a gentle
rotary drag to it. Work your way out to the end. If it has not been too
deformed you can get it back to a nice smooth tight twist. You may need 2 or 3 repetitions. Clip off
enough to make a clean end if needed. Put the cap on & crimp it. be sure to get all the strands in the cap.
Here's a pointer if
you ARE adjusting the brake cable at the wheel: