4

Found a some what rusted bike frame on side of road, and I’m working on fixing it. The rear brakes seem to be sticking quite a bit, they stay in the actuated position after release.

There doesn’t seem to be any rust on the cable from what I can see. I can’t get the cable out of the brakes cause of a rounded bolt. There’s a little bit of rust on the hardware of the brakes and all (they’re tektro r313).

I took the brakes out by themselves and pushed them through their full range and they seems to come back ok.

What’s the possible issue?

Improve this question
2
  • @david forgot to mention the stripped bolt is on the trigger and it holds it together I was trying to take it out to get a look at the whole length of wire
    – Aihson Avais
    Commented Jun 27 at 16:48
  • 1
    What kind of cable brakes are they? Calipers, V brakes, disk brakes, something else?
    – Criggie ♦
    Commented Jun 28 at 0:02

2 Answers 2

Reset to default
6

For dual pivot caliper (like the Tektro r313) and single pivot calipers...
If all three of the things listed below are true your brakes should work:

  1. Cable moves freely in the housing
  2. Brake arms moving freely
  3. Brake lever moves freely

You have verified number 2, the brake arms move freely.
Given the brake arms are moving freely, chances are good that the cable rusted inside the housing where you can't see it. Less often the brake lever is sticky.

The anchor bolt and nut holds the cable to the caliper. A rounded nut needs to be replaced because you will need to adjust cable tension.

Improve this answer
2

It would be helpful to know what style of brakes they are. One contributing factor that can be easy to miss on cantilever and linear-pull brakes is the return spring. This is the spring that provides the force to return the brakes to their disengaged position when you release the lever. Depending on the construction of the brakes it may be a coil spring in the hardware stack that mounts the brake to its post (seen here and discussed here), or it may be a linear spring that hooks behind a post on the brake caliper as seen here. Common causes of the brakes not properly retracting include the spring being absent, improperly installed, not hooked on the post in the case of a linear spring, or damaged so it is no longer springy.

I've also seen cantilever brakes with enough rust on the posts that the brakes would stick when retracting, even if they could be retracted by hand with seemingly little force.

Improve this answer
2
  • One more, not a usual case on most bikes, too many bends in the outer cable (and as such resistance on the inner cable.)
    – Willeke ♦
    Commented Jun 27 at 21:08
  • 1
    The post indicates that the brakes are Tektro r313 which is a dual pivot brake.
    – David D
    Commented Jul 2 at 14:20

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.