Where is the quick release on my brakes?

David Kerber wrote:

I doubt that has anything to do with it; my Fuji Touring definitely
does not have short chainstays or a radical seat tube angle. It's
just the neither the brakes nor the levers have a QR on them. It
looks like the brakes (Avid Shorty Canti's) were intended for systems
which have QR's on the levers, and the levers (Tiagra STI) were
intended for systems with QR's on the brakes.

I haven't used Avid Shorties, but on every canti brake I have used,
I've been able to set them up with enough slack so that I can
release the transverse cable from the brake arm. This is how it
is supposed to work. If you can't do that, then your pads are
very close to the rim, which means the brakes will become firm
very early in the lever travel. That makes it difficult to modulate
braking, or to get full strength braking if you have small hands.
The cure is to lengthen the cable slightly.

With road levers, there should be a threaded cable adjuster somewhere
in the system, usually at the cable hanger. In a pinch, screwing this
in gives enough slack to get the transverse cable out. I have seen
bikes with cantis and no barrel adjusters. This is half-assed and
comes from braindead people specing bikes who forget that mountain
levers have barrel adjusters but road levers don't. If you have such
a bike, put some adjusters inline or at the cable hangers. They'll
save pain and suffering when setting up the brakes and when adjusting
for pad wear.

On Sun, 14 Sep 2003 20:05:06 -0400, David Kerber
wrote:
the x-over wire. You might have to deflate the tire though.

Now I really feel like an idiot. If I had just deflated the tire, it
would have come out just fine. I ended up removing on of the brake arms
to get the wheel off. Duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

Hrmph...I thought the whole reason for asking was to avoid
having to deflate the tire! I guess I'm glad I didn't reply
to zoot and say that.

That IS the usual reason for having QR brakes.

--
Rick Onanian

On Sun, 14 Sep 2003 17:45:54 -0700, Zoot Katz
wrote:
What I meant, is drop the wheel. Move the axle either forward or back,
clear of the dropouts or fork ends and then stuff the tire up tight
against whatever's stopping it. Then the rim should be above the brake
pads so you can get slack in the X-over wire.

....at which point, you can release the wire, and the brakes
open, and you don't need to deflate the tire. Cool.

--
Rick Onanian

On 14 Sep 2003 22:09:46 -0700, salmoneous wrote:
Am I reading this thread correctly? Does somebody really sell a setup
that doesn't allow a quick and brainless wheel removal?

Somebody probably does, but in this thread, it was not a
matched, or even a single-manufacturer system. It was a
lever made for a system whose calipers have QR, and brakes
made for a system whose levers have QR.

--
Rick Onanian

On Mon, 15 Sep 2003 16:26:17 -0400, David Kerber
wrote:
adjusted anything but the fit on it yet. I'm just swapping the 700x32c
tires for 700x25's to get a little lower rolling resistance for my daily

The narrower tires ought to make it easy to do sans QR.

--
Rick Onanian

David Kerber wrote:
In article ,
says...
On Mon, 15 Sep 2003 08:01:48 +0000, David Kerber wrote:

I doubt that has anything to do with it; my Fuji Touring definitely
does not have short chainstays or a radical seat tube angle. It's
just the neither the brakes nor the levers have a QR on them.

My old center-pulls had Q/R's on the cable hanger. If those are still
available it would solve the problem.
I'll check into that; thanks for the suggestion.
--
Dave Kerber Fight spam: remove the ns_ from the return address
before replying!
REAL programmers write self-modifying code.



Might also check into cable splitters like they have for disconnecting
the cable altogether for folding bikes.



--
Check out my bike blog!

http://diabloscott.blogspot.com

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In article ,
says...
On Sun, 14 Sep 2003 20:05:06 -0400, David Kerber
wrote:
the x-over wire. You might have to deflate the tire though.

Now I really feel like an idiot. If I had just deflated the tire, it
would have come out just fine. I ended up removing on of the brake arms
to get the wheel off. Duhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!

Hrmph...I thought the whole reason for asking was to avoid
having to deflate the tire! I guess I'm glad I didn't reply
to zoot and say that.

That IS the usual reason for having QR brakes.

Yes, I know, but my whole reason for removing the wheels was to change
out the tires GGG.


--
Dave Kerber
Fight spam: remove the ns_ from the return address before replying!

REAL programmers write self-modifying code.

On Mon, 15 Sep 2003 16:26:17 -0400, David Kerber
wrote:

In article ,
says...
On Sun, 14 Sep 2003 16:07:32 -0400, David Kerber
wrote:

I have a Fuji Touring 2003 model, and need to remove the wheels, but
can't figure out how to get enough slack in the brakes to do this.
Where is the QR for the brakes? They are Tiagra STI's with Avid Shorty
Canti brakes.

snip

Having just read the entire thread (at least as much as has reached my
ISP's news server), it looks like Sheldon is right; adjusting cantis
is becoming a lost art.

snip

If I were setting it up myself, that's what I'd to as well. However,
this is a new bike (I picked it up two weeks ago today) and I haven't
adjusted anything but the fit on it yet.

What I meant was that adjusting cantis is becoming a lost art...even
to bike shops. It's shouldn't be a complete surprise your bike came
with the cables adjust the way they are. :-(

BTW, I should correct my attribution above. While Sheldon responded in
the thread I started in May about adjusting cantis, it was actually
Mike Shaw who said, "Talk about a lost art! Adjusting cantis is going
the way of the dodo."


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