Bike Tips - Back Brakes (Straight Cable)

Brakes. Some people love them, some people hate them. Some people want good working brakes, but just don’t want to be bothered with working on them. If you actually put forth some effort, it’s not really that hard. Using some simple techniques, you too can have dialed in brakes.

Brake stuff needed: Brake system, lever, cable, cable stop, cable end pieces (go on end of housing…), straddle cable (and straddle guide piece)

Tools needed: Allen Keys, adjustable wrench, cable cutters, lube for cables, and grease for brake mounts.

Lever: The first thing to do is find the right kind of lever that best fits your needs. If your bars are short and the lever might go onto the bend, consider a pre-bent lever (obviously.)

Cable: Next, find the right cable. If you like to spin your bars a lot, but don’t want to be bothered with a gyro, go with a derailleur cable. This basically means that instead of the cable housing (the housing is what you put your cable through) coiling, it is linear, thus the inner cable wont bind up and lock your brakes up. So, you can spin your bars a ton of times, and they will still feel fine. If you don’t do any barspins, any cable will do.

Brakes: Choosing the best brakes is pretty tough, but you should just go with what you really want. Evolvers, 990s, and Hombres seem to be quite popular; however, you can really get any brakes to work well.

Brake Pads: Having good brake pads are really important. The best I have come across are Odyssey 1X4s and Kool Stop Eagle’s. The bigger the pad, the more dust they are likely to attract, so just keep that in mind.

Installing the brakes (Straight Cable): 1. First, get your brake lever on, wherever it feels most comfortable. This is actually important, because if it is positioned badly, you will have a terrible pull at your lever.

2. Next, install the brake arms (but don’t worry about tightening them down and adjusting the spring tension just yet. A very good idea would be to completely lube up the brake mounts with some grease. White Lithium is a good idea, but any sort of grease should help. The grease will allow the arms to move smoothly when the brakes are pulled in, and this is key.

3. Now it is time to do any cutting to your brake cable that you want. This depends on how long you want it, so really it’s just a personal preference. DO NOT just cut straight through the housing and cable at the same time. In fact, just to be safe, don’t even cut the cable yet. Just cut down the housing. Use some cable cutters such as these http://www.pcpolyzine.com/0202feb/cutter.jpg , or even better, if you have access to some Park Tools cable cutters that are meant specifically for bikes.

4. Before you install the brake cable, there is one thing to remember, and I will quote G-Sport George, “LUBE THE F-KING CABLES!” Lubing the cables is very important, because it really does make a difference to how good your brakes are going to work/feel. Look for lube such as tri-flow, or White Lightning. Just squirt some into the cable housing, on the cable itself… just go crazy with it. Once you have done this, you can install the cable. Put the ball/head of the brake cable into the brake lever. Once in you can bring your cable back in through the cable guides, and all the way to the cable stop. If you don’t have a stopper for your cables, you can always just use an old barrel adjuster from some brakes. So get your cable through, and prepare for the hardest part.

5. Get your straddle cable guide piece, and tighten it down onto the main cable. Don’t attach it too close to the cable guide, or else it will hit it when the brakes are pulled. Make sure you tighten it down damn good, to avoid the cable from pulling out. Next, take your straddle cable (the cable that goes from the brake arms to the guide piece… this is no special cable, you can just use any extra cable you have lying around) and also get one of the two brake lugs. Put the straddle cable through the brake lug, and tighten down real good. Now, put the lug with the cable in it back in the brake arm. Holding the other end of the cable, guide it through the straddle guide, and around to the other brake arm. Now take the other cable lug, and put the cable through, but DO NOT tighten it down yet. Put that cable lug into the other arm, but don’t let the cable come out of it. A good idea is to get a pair of pliers, and hold the end of the extra straddle cable. Now that both lugs are situated in the brake arms, you can pull the straddle cable with the pliers until the cable is tight, and the pads are right up or even touching the rim. Don’t worry if the pads are touching the rim, because spring tension will fix this. Again, make sure the brakes are tight, but of course, do not make it so tight that they are impossible to pull in. So, once at desired tightness, tighten the cable lug real good. Now, from the looks of things, you have your brakes ready, but you still have a little more work to do…

6. DON’T cut the extra cable pieces off just yet, because you MIGHT need to adjust them for some reason. So just to be safe, leave them be. It is now time for spring tension. For some reason people think that this is complicated, but it is really easy actually. You will need an Allen key, and an adjustable wrench. Very loose springs will give you a kind of mooshy brake feel. Tight springs will snap back, but be a little hard to pull in. This is another preference. I usually make them tight, but not super tight. Anyway, take the Allen key, and put it in the spring bolt, and also, put the adjustable wrench right on the piece that the bolt is holding down (it should be able to move easily at this point. Now, look at your brake arm; it should say which way the spring tension goes. So, all you have to do, is turn the adjustable wrench in that direction, and once at desired tension, turn the allen key until it tightens down all the way. You will probably see the brake pads move out a bit, and this means everything is going right. Do the same for the other side, getting the tension you want. Feel your brakes now, do they spring back just the way you want? If not, just work a little bit more with the tension until it fits your needs.

7. Now, on the brake pads. This is pretty easy. The pads come with a whole ton of spacers. Put the amount you want on the pad post, and put them onto your brakes. Put enough spacers on until the pads are fairly close to the rim. The closer to the rim, the better; at least I think so. Now, once at desired distance to the rim, squeeze your brakes in, so the pads lock up on the rim. This will make it easier to tighten down the pads (so they won’t move. Tighten down the pads, and…. YOU’RE DONE!

Now all is left to do, is cut any excess cable off, and either put a cable end piece on, or just some table (to avoid the ends from fraying.) Also, consider using a zip tie up near your head tube to keep the cable in place.

One extra tip: Keep your rims clean as often as you can. Just wiping them down with a wet cloth will help tons. I highly recommend looking into buying some Simple Green. It is just an ordinary All-Purpose cleaner, but when you clean your rims with it, it adds a bit of stickiness, which makes the brakes work awesome.

That looks like a lot of words up there, and it is… but it all seems like pretty easy stuff, right? Hope it all makes sense, and good luck. If you are having trouble after reading this, don’t be afraid to ask on the site.