We all need some method of braking to stop ourselves on our bicycles. Either the foot in the front wheel trick (not recommended), back pedal brakes, rim brakes or disc brakes. In this article I am going to be talking about the most common form of brake that is available today.
The brake that uses a pair of pads to apply friction to the rims of your wheels. It’s common name is rim pull brake. There are several varieties of this type of brake. Cantilever and side pull are just a few.
These pads are operated by pulling a lever mounted on your handlebars. Usually there are two levers. One controls the front brake, the other controls the rear. Over a period of time, the pads wear down, and the brake no longer works. Eventually the pads wear out altogether, or start making horrible scraping noises.
Picture showing new pads, and the "wear line" marking.
So when do you know it’s time to change them? Some brake pads have a wear line indicator on them, as shown in the photo above, others have a hardened area that makes an awful sound when you apply the brake. This means the pad is worn out. Others have no indicator at all to indicate that they are worn out, and require visual inspection.
This pair of brake pads are considerably worn down.
So if your brakes aren’t working, and visual inspection shows that the pads are not worn out, then the first thing you should check before taking the brake pads off, is to see if you can adjust them. Depending on the type of rim pull brake that you have, there are several ways of applying adjustment. Minor adjustment can be made at the lever or down on the caliper itself by turning a thumbscrew to adjust the cable tension. This pulls the pads closer together.
If this method fails, you need to wind all of the adjusters off, to take all of the tension off of the brake cable. You then need to undo the cable at the brake mechanism, and squeeze the pads to the rim, and re-tighten the cable. You can then use the thumbscrew adjusters to fine tune the adjustment.
As mentioned above, with most brake pads you can see quite easily how far they have worn by just looking. Either they have worn down so much they have stated to create a groove in the rim, which you should of known because of the noise it generates, or they may have uneven wear due to wrong adjustment.
When replacing the brake pads, take note that some can be put on either side, eg left or right while others are made for the left side of the rim and vice versa for the right side of the rim, so make sure that you get them the right way around. Before replacing the pads, back all of the cable adjusters off so that there is no tension, and in some cases of badly worn pads, you may need to release the cable to get the new pads in.
After replacing the pads adjust the cable and make fine ajustments with the thumbscrew adjusters near the hand lever on the handle bars or at the brake mechanism itself. Make sure that the pads are not rubbing against the rim. Lift the wheel up and spin it, and listen and watch for any rubbing against the rim.
Noisy Brakes
Noisy brakes are a common problem, especially in Perth in winter. Because Perth is built on the sandy coastal plain, wet sand finds it’s way into the brake pads, and makes noises when the brake is applied. The other cause of noise in the brakes is the wear indicator, so check for wear first.
A brand new set of brake pads. Note the nice clean surface.
A used pair of brake pads. Note the embedded material.
If you have noisy brakes, you may need to remove the pads for cleaning. The two pictures above, show the comparison between new pads and used pads. The used pair have material embedded into the pad. This is usually the common cause of noise, and also damage to the rim. This can be cleaned off with a nylon brush, or in serious cases, some light sandpaper.
On a loaded touring bike pulling a trailer, you will need a lot of stopping power. Due to this, your brake pads may wear much quicker because of the extra weight and heat. When out on tour always remember to take spare parts for your brake set up, because some times there are a lot of large open spaces between bicycle repair shops.
