Bike Tips - Dialing Front Brakes

No matter if you have a 990, Hombre or Evolver, if you follow these instructions, you will get your brakes to work better than ever. Trust me, odds are your local bike shop doesn't know shit about dialing brakes.

Start off by making sure the brake arms fit on the posts. Sometimes the arms are too snug. If that is the case, you need to sand or dremel the posts a hair at a time. The posts should be greased lightly before the brake arms are put into place.

Next you will install the springs which should also have a dab of grease on them. Put the lock nut on and then lightly grease the bolt and install it into the post until it just gets snug and then back it off a hair until later. If you have a 990, throw away the plastic dust caps. They just cause friction and don't really do anything.

The next thing is to adjust the brake pads to where you want them by pushing the arm in until the shoe hits the rim. Make sure the whole pad touches the rim. If you want your brakes to feather better, toe them in so that only about 50% of the shoe hits the rim. You know you should sand the new brake shoe first, right? At least scuff it on the ground once or twice and then wipe off the dust.

I'm not going to get into all the variations of cable routing but I will say that the shorter the cable-the less friction-the less lost energy. Keep the cables short but make sure they aren't kinked. Get a bottle of Tri-flow or Slik 50 One Lube and put the little straw into the cable housing and drip enough into the housing that it comes out the other end. Make sure you grease the barrel of the cable where it goes into the lever. While you're at it, lightly grease the pivot of the lever.

I have also noticed that a lot of frames are set up so the barrel adjusters aren't in line with the brake mounts so the cable rubs against the adjuster when it's pulled. You can cut an old cable and get the teflon liner out or go to a bike shop and get a small piece to slide onto the cable and into the adjuster so it glides rather than grinds. You might also want to do this on a front brake where the cable goes between the arms but not too long or it will jam up and decrease the effectiveness of you brake.

Now that you have the cables routed to the brake, it's time to tighten them into position. With NO tension on the springs, position the shoes against the rim and then gently pull the cable snug and tighten the pinch bolt/knarp/clamp thing. If you are using a gyro, do the bottom cable first and then the upper cable. Make sure the lower cables are screwed all the way out of the gyro tabs and the uppers are all the way into the gyro tabs.

All right, it's finally spring time! The mistake people often make is that they put too much tension on their springs thinking that it will make their brakes better. It just makes them harder to pull. All the springs do is pull the shoes off the rim when the lever is released. Put the correct allen wrench into the bolt and gently twist the tensioning bolt just enough so that the shoe comes off the rim. Lock it into place with the allen key and do to same on the other side. Since you didn't pull the cable super tight before clamping it, the springs will pull the shoes away from the rim a little bit.

Make sure both shoes contact the rims at the same time. To keep them even you just need to put a little more tension on whichever side hits last.

To get the feel you want, you might need to adjust the pinch bolt on the cable. If you need to do this you must first release the spring tension so you aren't fighting the springs. This will also give you a reference point for where you want to move the cable to get the desired effect. As far as the pull, you can increase the spring tension to where you like it but you should remember to keep it to a minimum. Spin the barrel adjusters to fine tune and remove any slop.

Clean your rims with water or if they are really dirty use fantastic, windex or the fluid from you car's windshield wipers if you're in a pinch. After the first cleaning all you should need is to wipe them down with a wet rag or a spit covered finger. Just keep the dust off. If you rely on Simple Green or some other product, you aren't doing your brakes right and they will just get gunked up again.

Rules of thumb are:

Lube every place two things move against each other
Don't make your cables too long
Minimal spring tension makes for better brakes.


Sorry to write a novel here but hopefully this will help all the riders out there who still use brakes.

-By Brett Downs