I recently picked up a used mountain bike for free, knowing it needed a little fixing up. I thought it was a pretty sweet deal, but I ended up spending about as much as I'd spend on a used bike in good condition. I've got everything fixed and put together, but now I'm having problems with the brakes. I have no idea what the names of the parts are, so searching for anything is useless, since I can't enter the proper terms to find.
Here's what I have: http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y93/SirFratley/IMG_2298.jpg
My problem is that the round thing in the center has no way of actually securing the cable in place, so it slides back and forth, resulting in virtually no brake tension. How do you get that round thing to actually hold the cable in position so it doesn't slide around? There's two slots for the cable in the back of it, and one seems to hold it better than the other, but it still moves around, no matter what I try, and these brakes just don't work.
Here's the back side of the round thing: http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y93/SirFratley/IMG_2302.jpg
Am I doing something wrong here, or do these style of brakes just suck? Should I just stick a screw in there and jury-rig it into holding still?
I've had bad luck with brakes on just about every bike I've had, except for the disc brakes on my last one, which was unfortunately stolen 2 years ago.
Here's what I have: http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y93/SirFratley/IMG_2298.jpg
My problem is that the round thing in the center has no way of actually securing the cable in place, so it slides back and forth, resulting in virtually no brake tension. How do you get that round thing to actually hold the cable in position so it doesn't slide around? There's two slots for the cable in the back of it, and one seems to hold it better than the other, but it still moves around, no matter what I try, and these brakes just don't work.
Here's the back side of the round thing: http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y93/SirFratley/IMG_2302.jpg
Am I doing something wrong here, or do these style of brakes just suck? Should I just stick a screw in there and jury-rig it into holding still?
I've had bad luck with brakes on just about every bike I've had, except for the disc brakes on my last one, which was unfortunately stolen 2 years ago.