Yesterday I was giving my Bike Friday NWT a once over as I’d ridden it to Kailua over the weekend and wanted to clean it up a bit. As I was doing this one of the balance screws on my rear brake simply dropped off along with the associated spring. I couldn’t quite put it back on without bracing the bike better which prompted me to look at the other side of the brake…and noticed…
Yep! The bit of the brake that the screw threads into is broken on that side of the bike. What to do?
Well putting in the first screw really unbalances the brake so I simply left it off for a start. The bike, and brake, work okay that way; it’s the rear brake so it doesn’t provide the majority of the stopping power. Still I’d rather have it working well.
I went to my LBS but they didn’t have a direct replacement so I turned the Yaksters; Yak is the mailing list for Bike Friday owners.
I got a few answers, the most complete of which I’m putting here for posterity…thanks Alex!
Not really a big deal. All the screws do is adjust the spring tension. You only really need one side to get the brake pads centered over the rim. With only one screw you may need to make a couple of adjustments before using it to center the brakes. The first thing is what you already did, which is to try to use the existing screw to center the brakes. Are the brakes leaning more towards the side with the broken screw or towards the side with the good screw? That will decide what you do next. What you want to do is get more spring tension on the side opposite the way the pads are leaning. Start off by undoing the noodle so that the brake cable hangs loose. Lets assume the pads are leaning towards the side with the good screw. What you would do is look at the cantilever stud on the frame. You will see that at the base of the stud there is a semi circular plate with three holes in it. The end of the spring will be inserted into one of these holes, probably the center one. What you want to do is move the end of the spring so that it sits one position higher. That will increase the spring tension on that side. To do this loosen the mounting bolt and carefully left the arm out just enough to move the end of the spring. Then tighten the mounting screw back on. Put the noodle back on and then check the centering again. Now the pads should be leaning towards the side with the broken screw. Tighten the screw on the good side and that will pull the pads over. Stop when centered. Apply the brakes a few times to make sure they stay centered.
I’ll be giving that a try tonight when I’ve got a bit of time!
Aloha to all!