Questions tagged [brakes]
Disc/rim/drum/coaster brakes; braking technique, maintaining brakes, anything else about stopping a bike.
199
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Disc brakes squeak on Trek mountain bike
I have a Trek 3900 mountain bike with disc brakes, and I just took it out of winter storage to start riding it for the season.
Everything works well, except for one very annoying problem: when I stop ...
- 519
10
votes
2
answers
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Orders of the washers on threaded-stud brake shoes
So today I changed my v-brake brake shoes on my old MTB to put cartridge brake shoes.
I noticed that the order of the washers was different on both brake shoes.
On the newer one the brake arm was ...
- 317
7
votes
1
answer
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How do I bleed Avid Elixir brakes
My bike has a set of Avid Elixir R hydraulic brakes. The front brake barely goes on when I pull the lever and the back brake feels pretty soft. I think I need to bleed them. How do I go about doing ...
- 655
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5
answers
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Braking on a vintage road bike
I recently bought a vintage Gitane road bike. I understand that in the 70s and 80s they sold a lot of these road bikes with drop handle bars. Sometimes they came with the extra lever for an easier ...
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3
votes
4
answers
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Why dual pivot brakes, not longer brake arms?
Dual pivot brakes are marketed as having "more braking power", which in technical terms means higher mechanical advantage. Exactly the same effect can be achieved by longer brake arms (ones ...
- 1,635
2
votes
1
answer
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Disc brakes on leader doberman which has no tabs and adaptors
I have a leader doberman with a front disc brake that I want to install on the rear. I know that it hasn't a rear disc brake tab, but I have found an adaptor for the caliper (http://www.ebay.com/itm/...
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2
votes
2
answers
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Bedding In process for brakes
A few days ago, someone asked a question which touched upon the bedding-in process for their new disc brakes. Because the question did not have any answer already, I wrote one in which I said that ...
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97
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16
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Why are disc brakes rare on road bikes? (circa 2010) [closed]
Window shopping for road bikes, I can't see many that have disc brakes. What are the reasons for this?
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54
votes
16
answers
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Safest way to slow down a bike quickly if both sets of brakes fail
This may sound like a crazy question, however today in the wet my rear brakes decided to stop working effectively. It has been pouring rain here which makes the problem more apparent.
I managed to ...
- 1,509
40
votes
6
answers
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Why are regenerative brakes uncommon on e-bikes?
Few electric bicycles have regenerative braking. Most quality e-bikes seem to be settling on mid-drive, which even makes regenerative braking impossible because there is a freewheel between the wheel ...
- 20.1k
37
votes
10
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Why don't road bikes use v-brakes?
In my experience, linear pull brakes (v-brakes) have more stopping power than other types of cantilever brakes (let the flames start ;). Modern road bikes always come fitted with dual pivot brakes. ...
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25
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3
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How do I prevent disk brakes from squeaking in the rain?
When I got my new bike with disk brakes, I thought that they would perform much better in the rain. While this is true, they still squeak quite loud in wet conditions, which is quite annoying. Is ...
- 2,075
25
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3
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How do I stop my rim brakes making a squeaking/squealing sound?
I bought a Schwinn Frontier Sport few months ago and started riding happily. After a few weeks my front rim brakes started creaking. It's so annoying in public places. My rear brake doesn't produce ...
- 353
22
votes
4
answers
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How to tighten a brake?
This is probably a really basic question but I'm confused by the whole brake mechanism so...
My left (front wheel) brake has to be pulled in really far before it actually starts to brake (I guess ...
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How can I safely go downhill on an antique penny-farthing bike?
I recently picked up a vintage penny-farthing (high wheeler) at the flea market and, after restoration, adopted it as my normal mode of transportation.
It works well for the most part, but going ...
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