brake mount bent

[Dejavu]

Hiya all

Due to financial constraints I bought my wife a cheap bike. Now I'm paying to upgrade it.

One of the first upgrades was to put linear pull (Tektro) brakes on the front. nice improvement on
the center pulls that were there. Now we're working on putting some linear pulls on the back. but I
saw that one of the studs is bent/not put on straight. I think bent, because the bolt is very stiff
in the hole.

Any tips on straightening it? (yes, I'd replace the hole thing if I could, but she likes it and the
money arrives in small parcels, not big carrybags - some day I dream....)

swarf, steam and wind

--
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[Ted Bennett]

DejaVU <[email protected]> wrote:

> Hiya all
>
> Due to financial constraints I bought my wife a cheap bike. Now I'm paying to upgrade it.
>
> One of the first upgrades was to put linear pull (Tektro) brakes on the front. nice improvement on
> the center pulls that were there. Now we're working on putting some linear pulls on the back.

Linear brakes are not an upgrade to well set up center pulls. Sheldon Brown has some good advice on
that. Also, are you aware that your center pull levers will not work well with linear pull brakes?
The leverage is quite different.

> but I saw that one of the studs is bent/not put on straight. I think bent, because the bolt is
> very stiff in the hole.
>
> Any tips on straightening it? (yes, I'd replace the hole thing if I could, but she likes it and
> the money arrives in small parcels, not big carrybags - some day I dream....)

Attempts to straighten it will probably make things worse. Try replacing the bolt, but this time put
a little grease on it. If it's no better, obtain the appropriate size tap (it's metric) from your
friendly local hardware.

> swarf, steam and wind

Yep.

--
Ted Bennett Portland OR

 

[Werehatrack]

On 7 Oct 2003 15:19:44 GMT, DejaVU <[email protected]> may have said:

>I saw that one of the studs is bent/not put on straight. I think bent, because the bolt is very
>stiff in the hole.

Just making sure I'm clear on what's going on; is this a threaded stud that's welded to the stay,
and which looks like it's not straight? Or is it a bolt that goes into a threaded hole in the boss
on the stay? Or is it a stud that is threaded into the boss on the stay, in which case the solution
should be obvious?

If the setup is a threaded stud that's welded in place, then while it might be possible to
straighten it, any attempt to do so runs the risk of breaking it off; this is, as they say, a bad
thing. Better to stay with the brakes that work with it in its present condition than to risk having
none at all until a more serious repair can be completed.

If the part that's bent is removable and replaceable, rather than risking a failure, I'd get a new
one. It's probably not terribly expensive.

--
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don't respond to something, it's also possible that I'm busy.

 

[A Muzi]

DejaVU wrote:

> Hiya all
>
> Due to financial constraints I bought my wife a cheap bike. Now I'm paying to upgrade it.
>
> One of the first upgrades was to put linear pull (Tektro) brakes on the front. nice improvement on
> the center pulls that were there. Now we're working on putting some linear pulls on the back. but
> I saw that one of the studs is bent/not put on straight. I think bent, because the bolt is very
> stiff in the hole.
>
> Any tips on straightening it? (yes, I'd replace the hole thing if I could, but she likes it and
> the money arrives in small parcels, not big carrybags - some day I dream....)
>
If your "cheap bike" is aluminum, the brake stud is replaceable. It unscrews.

If it's a brazed/welded on stud, see if there's a framebuilder/ frame repair shop in your area. They
will be able to straighten it cheaply and quickly.

If you want to give it a go, examine it with a straightedge first to see exactly where it is bent.
Carefully move the stud using a piece of tube or pipe 8mm=5/16" ID.

--
Andrew Muzi www.yellowjersey.org Open every day since 1 April, 1971

 

[Dejavu]

Ted Bennett <[email protected]> scribed in <tedbennett
[email protected]>:

>Linear brakes are not an upgrade to well set up center pulls. Sheldon Brown has some good advice on
>that. Also, are you aware that your center pull levers will not work well with linear pull brakes?
>The leverage is quite different.

Well, the linear pulls ar a lot easier to set up and the brakepads that came with the set are a lot
better than the junk that came on the center pulls (-: Yes, I know that linear pull leavers use a
longer secondary hole position. We found that oen quickly gets used to the pull needed to stop and 2
fingers are she needs. We *like* this.

>> I saw that one of the studs is bent/not put on straight. I think bent, because the bolt is very
>> stiff in the hole.
>
>Attempts to straighten it will probably make things worse. Try replacing the bolt, but this time
>put a little grease on it. If it's no better, obtain the appropriate size tap (it's metric) from
>your friendly local hardware.

now that's fine plan I didn't think of (and I have a tap that size). but, the brake lever is at an
obviously different angle to the other one so just making the bolt easy to insert is not enough.

thanks

>> swarf, steam and wind
>
>Yep.

seeing as I'm new here, I'll explain this a little.... swarf - one of my hobbies is machining, I
mostly make tools steam - another hobby is steam engines wind - when I get time, I fly power kites,
build them too, and have built 2 kitebuggies. see web page http://terrapin.ru.ac.za/~iwdf/kite

swarf, steam and wind

--
David Forsyth -:- the email address is real /"\ http://terrapin.ru.ac.za/~iwdf/welcome.html \
/ ASCII Ribbon campaign against HTML E-Mail > - - - - - - -> X If you receive email saying
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[Dejavu]

Werehatrack <[email protected]> scribed in <[email protected]>:

>On 7 Oct 2003 15:19:44 GMT, DejaVU <[email protected]> may have said:
>
>>I saw that one of the studs is bent/not put on straight. I think bent, because the bolt is very
>>stiff in the hole.
>
>Just making sure I'm clear on what's going on; is this a threaded stud that's welded to the stay,
>and which looks like it's not straight?

That is correct. The brake lever on that side is obviously different to the other side, and the bolt
is very stiff.

>If the setup is a threaded stud that's welded in place, then while it might be possible to
>straighten it, any attempt to do so runs the risk of breaking it off; this is, as they say, a bad
>thing. Better to stay with the brakes that work with it in its present condition than to risk
>having none at all until a more serious repair can be completed.

the brakes as they are now, are very noisy, and a bit hard to pull for my wifes small hands.

>If the part that's bent is removable and replaceable, rather than risking a failure, I'd get a new
>one. It's probably not terribly expensive.

only the brake arms themselves are removable, and will be replaced with linear pull ones this
weekend. this is a welded steel frame

swarf, steam and wind

--
David Forsyth -:- the email address is real /"\ http://terrapin.ru.ac.za/~iwdf/welcome.html \
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[Dejavu]

A Muzi <[email protected]> scribed in <[email protected]>:

>> Any tips on straightening it? (yes, I'd replace the hole thing if I could, but she likes it and
>> the money arrives in small parcels, not big carrybags - some day I dream....)
>>
>If your "cheap bike" is aluminum, the brake stud is replaceable. It unscrews.

nope, steel, welded on stud.

>If it's a brazed/welded on stud, see if there's a framebuilder/ frame repair shop in your area.
>They will be able to straighten it cheaply and quickly.

ROFLMAO. yeah right. closest frame shop is 2000km away! I'm in darkest Africa in that respect,
though we do have a 'adventure gear' bike shop that sells Giant/GT etc. damn expensive. but they
cannot do any frame work.

>If you want to give it a go, examine it with a straightedge first to see exactly where it is bent.
>Carefully move the stud using a piece of tube or pipe 8mm=5/16" ID.

I believe I'll give that a try, and follow with a tap to free the threads up as Ted Bennett
suggested.

Thanks guys.

swarf, steam and wind

--
David Forsyth -:- the email address is real /"\ http://terrapin.ru.ac.za/~iwdf/welcome.html \
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[Johann S.]

DejaVU Said:

> One of the first upgrades was to put linear pull (Tektro) brakes on the front. nice improvement
> on the center pulls that were there. Now we're working on putting some linear pulls on the back.
> but I saw that one of the studs is bent/not put on straight. I think bent, because the bolt is
> very stiff in the hole.
>
> Any tips on straightening it? (yes, I'd replace the hole thing if I could, but she likes it and
> the money arrives in small parcels, not big carrybags - some day I dream....)

Hi David,

You could stuff the hole full of "pratley steel" and re cut the thread with a thread tap. I think
those linear pull brakes puts a lot of stress on a mount, but it should last. Pratley steel is
pretty tough stuff.

PS: unFAIL the MAILbox to send me email.

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