T
TomYoung
Guest
Hi all:
Still working on that bike for my daughter (it was a "freebie" that's
cost me about $50 in parts and lots of hours of work) and thanks to
the help I've received here everything seems to be working fine,
except that I can't get the rear cantilever brake to skid the tire.
I'm not sure if being able to skid the rear tire really means anything
in terms of fast and safe stops, but it seems odd that I can't
accomplish this with this bike.
The bike is an older mountain bike (26" wheels) hung with Shimano
Exage 300LX parts. The brakes themselves just read "Shimano" but I
assume they're either Exage 300LX or similar.
So... I've put on new cables and new housings and new housing
ferrules. Housing ends properly prepared as laid out at Sheldon
Brown's site. New brake pads (Ritchey Logic red) and new tires.
Brake pads properly toed in and positioned equally close to either
side of the rim. (Remarkably, the wheels were quite true for such an
old bike.) Because of the highly sloped top tube the rear brake
housing makes a fairly long reverse "S" bend to get up from the top
tube to the rear brake hanger, but friction through the system doesn't
seem too bad. A very hard squeeze of the brake handle brings the end
of the handle to within a 1/4" of the bar. The only thing I haven't
done at this point is clean the rim sidewalls, but the sidewalls
aren't particularly glazed with old brake pad material.
Anything else to be done, or is this as good as it gets?
TIA
Tom Young
Still working on that bike for my daughter (it was a "freebie" that's
cost me about $50 in parts and lots of hours of work) and thanks to
the help I've received here everything seems to be working fine,
except that I can't get the rear cantilever brake to skid the tire.
I'm not sure if being able to skid the rear tire really means anything
in terms of fast and safe stops, but it seems odd that I can't
accomplish this with this bike.
The bike is an older mountain bike (26" wheels) hung with Shimano
Exage 300LX parts. The brakes themselves just read "Shimano" but I
assume they're either Exage 300LX or similar.
So... I've put on new cables and new housings and new housing
ferrules. Housing ends properly prepared as laid out at Sheldon
Brown's site. New brake pads (Ritchey Logic red) and new tires.
Brake pads properly toed in and positioned equally close to either
side of the rim. (Remarkably, the wheels were quite true for such an
old bike.) Because of the highly sloped top tube the rear brake
housing makes a fairly long reverse "S" bend to get up from the top
tube to the rear brake hanger, but friction through the system doesn't
seem too bad. A very hard squeeze of the brake handle brings the end
of the handle to within a 1/4" of the bar. The only thing I haven't
done at this point is clean the rim sidewalls, but the sidewalls
aren't particularly glazed with old brake pad material.
Anything else to be done, or is this as good as it gets?
TIA
Tom Young