So I’m a bit of a biker wannabe. I own a 21-speed mountain bike and I’m currently in the process of exploring the trails in my area. Fun times.
Anyways, today, I had my parents join me, and we crammed all three bikes into the SUV. To achieve this feat, we had to take off the front wheel of all three bikes. Not a problem, they’re designed for this.
Once we get there, I try to re-assemble the bike, but in doing so, I realized that the front-wheel no longer lined up with the brakes. To elaborate - Taking the wheel off necessitated loosening the brake cord, and when I re-attached the wheel and re-tightened the cord to its previous position, the brake no longer worked effectively. Either it was too loose, or one side’s brake pad was so tight that it was always engaging the brake, while the other side didn’t touch the rim at all.
The wheel needs to be exactly centered in the fork. If it’s not, it will be at a camber and this camber will cause uneven brake pad wear.
If you replaced the wheel and positioned it by simply snugging the axle up against the dropouts, it’s likely the wheel was off center; this is not a good way to center the wheel. If you happened to accidentally replace the wheel so that its direction of turn was opposite to what it was before, it’s possible you created an opposite camber because of some way the axle is seating. As a consequence, brake pads that were previously offset for the initial camber were now worse than neutral.
It’s best to loosen the pads when you remove a wheel. When you replace the wheel, make sure it’s centered and turns true with the same amount of distance between the rim and the fork blades. Then adjust the brake pads.
That left pad looks pretty worn to me, by the way.
Of course it’s also possible the wheel is centered correctly and you adjusted the brake differently…
Thanks for the replies - The brakes work great so far. They squeak a little, but I can stop on a dime, so I don’t think I’d be looking at any catastrophic break failure any time soon.
Chief Pendant, the uneven brake alignment is exactly what I’m talking about. No matter what I do, I can’t seem to get the brake pads to clamp down equally. Not having much experience messing around with my brakes (this being the first time), I basically followed this sequence:
[ol]
[li]Used an allan wrench to loosen the little clamp that holds the brake cable taut[/li][li]This disengages the left brake-pad, allowing the wheel to slip out[/li][li]Reverse to replace wheel.[/li][/ol]
There doesn’t seem to be a way for me to remove the wheel without loosening the clamp that controls the brake cable. The construction of the brake-pad-holder (?) doesn’t allow it to move in and out, only up and down.
And your problem with the rubbing after mounting the wheel? It’s not the brakes, your front wheel is not dished correctly. Take it to a shop and ask them to true it.
Try squeezing the two arms that hold the brake pads together and then disconnect the rigid tube from the right side arm. There should be no reason to have to undo the cable.
As far as the wheel centering goes, you did not say if your wheels have a quick release skewer or has nuts that screw onto a protruding stud on each side.
If you have QR you probably are not centering the wheel before tightening the QR. What I find works is to hold the bike right side up and press downward on the fork until the skewer is centered and fully up against the slots in the fork. Then and only then tighten the skewer.
If your wheel has 2 nuts, then they have to be tightened equally or it will cause the wheel to deflect to one side or the other.
I just wanted to emphasize that you shouldn’t have to undo the cable to remove the wheel (although I am not sure what rigid tube **Rick **is referring to here). There is generally a lever of some sort on the handlebars near the brake levers/shifters that will loosen the brakes for wheel removal. Your photo only shows the brakes themselves so I can’t guess at how your bike might be set up.
It’s certainly possible that the wheel is not true (i.e. asymmetric). However I think it’s more likely that you didn’t get the wheel seated properly in the dropouts the first time, and you did it properly after you flipped the wheel. As someone said above, it usually works better if you do it with the bike upright. Lower the fork onto the axle, and move it side to side a little bit to make sure it’s seated properly.
To be clear, it’s best to slip the cable free of the brake arm, loosening both arms. You don’t reallly loosen the pads
[ol]
[li]The cable from the brake lever on the handlebar goes into a curved piece of tubing (the noodle)[/li][li]The noodle has a more or less conical end furthest from the brake lever on the handlebar[/li][li]The conical end of the noodle fits into a hinged piece at the top of the one brake arm[/li][li]If you squeeze the two brake arms as close to each other as you can, you will create some slack on the noodle,[/li][li]Pull the conical end of the noodle free of the hinged part of the brake arm[/li][li]At this point, both brake arms should have enough play so that a fully inflated tire will fit between them[/li][/ol]
This assumes that you aleady flipped the quick release on the axle.
I’ve found that the best way to center the wheel is with both wheels touching the ground. The weight of the bike guides the fork down over the axle.
Once I took a look at the website Dr. Love mentioned, I had a mild epiphany. Yes, my bike has a quick release, although for some reason, I had always thought that one shouldn’t mess around with it, since it looks like one wrong-move could release the brakes.
Double emphasize what scr4 said and add that you should take special care in tightening the quick release skewer. One of the worst, most preventable accidents is to lose the front wheel. Doesn’t happen? Yes it does, and to experienced riders who were a little bit careless. The results of losing a wheel can be tragic. While it can happen with any bike, it’s probably worse and more likely with a mountain bike.
