Brake assembly rebuild

I just finished taking apart, cleaning, and reassembling my Ultrega brakes.
They were three-years old and had 13,300 miles. Not counting the cable and
cable sleeve, there were 61 separate pieces in each of the two assemblies,
assuming I counted correctly. I had expected a couple of screws and a couple
of washers. I think I will let them go for more than three years before I do
it again.

Wow! That's why the cost so much.


--
Conniebiker

Alfred Ryder wrote:

I just finished taking apart, cleaning, and reassembling my Ultrega brakes.
They were three-years old and had 13,300 miles. Not counting the cable and
cable sleeve, there were 61 separate pieces in each of the two assemblies,
assuming I counted correctly. I had expected a couple of screws and a couple
of washers. I think I will let them go for more than three years before I do
it again.

I did my 105 ones last year. I think I'll just dribble oil into the
pivots in future.

I had to(!) rebuild a Campy Record brake from the 70's (crudded up to
the point it wouldn't release quickly). Although I didn't bother with
tearing apart the QR cam, I think I had like 6 parts to deal with.

GO RETRO!!!!

Alfred Ryder wrote:
I just finished taking apart, cleaning, and reassembling my Ultrega brakes.
They were three-years old and had 13,300 miles. Not counting the cable and
cable sleeve, there were 61 separate pieces in each of the two assemblies,
assuming I counted correctly. I had expected a couple of screws and a couple
of washers. I think I will let them go for more than three years before I do
it again.

On Sat, 08 Jan 2005 05:21:56 GMT, "Alfred Ryder"
wrote:

I just finished taking apart, cleaning, and reassembling my Ultrega brakes.
They were three-years old and had 13,300 miles. Not counting the cable and
cable sleeve, there were 61 separate pieces in each of the two assemblies,
assuming I counted correctly. I had expected a couple of screws and a couple
of washers. I think I will let them go for more than three years before I do
it again.

Dear Alfred,

An exploded diagram for the now-venerable 9mm Glock 17 shows
that a gunsmith can separate it into 34 parts.

The much more elderly 1911 Colt .45 was even more
complicated--48 parts.

Of course, that's the entire pistol, so add 17 or 7 more
parts for ammunition.

If you didn't count the cable and sleeve, I suppose that you
skipped the far end of the brake, too--how many more parts
would you estimate are lurking on one side of the handlebar?

Carl Fogel

I just finished taking apart, cleaning, and reassembling my Ultrega brakes.
They were three-years old and had 13,300 miles. Not counting the cable and
cable sleeve, there were 61 separate pieces in each of the two assemblies,
assuming I counted correctly. I had expected a couple of screws and a couple
of washers. I think I will let them go for more than three years before I do
it again.

Dear Alfred,

An exploded diagram for the now-venerable 9mm Glock 17 shows
that a gunsmith can separate it into 34 parts.

The much more elderly 1911 Colt .45 was even more
complicated--48 parts.

Of course, that's the entire pistol, so add 17 or 7 more
parts for ammunition.

If you didn't count the cable and sleeve, I suppose that you
skipped the far end of the brake, too--how many more parts
would you estimate are lurking on one side of the handlebar?

Carl Fogel

Why stop there? Now that you have mentioned the handlebar, you are
obligated to count the stem, the bar end plugs, and the tape (usually
four pieces for road bars), and the stem bolts, and the headset races,
and each cute little ball bearing in that headset.

So as not to make other little steel balls feel left out, now you must
enumerate them where they live in hubs, bottom brackets, pedals, and
freewheel/cassette. Spokes, nipples and chains(hundreds of individual
bits!) are of course essential parts of Steve's bike, as are bottle cage
bolts, rim strips, seat rails and axle cone locknuts. Oh, and spoke
washers! Hub shells can be seperated from bearing races, jockey wheels
and their bushings can be parted.

Where does it all end for the lover of bicycle minutiae? For a full
accounting, are we allowed the use of wrenches and presses only, or may
we proceed to oxy-acetylene torches and hacksaws?

Maybe I should ride more.

--
Ted Bennett
Portland, OR

I just finished taking apart, cleaning, and reassembling my Ultrega
brakes.
They were three-years old and had 13,300 miles. Not counting the cable
and
cable sleeve, there were 61 separate pieces in each of the two
assemblies,
assuming I counted correctly. I had expected a couple of screws and a
couple
of washers. I think I will let them go for more than three years before
I do
it again.

snip

If you didn't count the cable and sleeve, I suppose that you
skipped the far end of the brake, too--how many more parts
would you estimate are lurking on one side of the handlebar?


Why stop there? Now that you have mentioned the handlebar, you are
obligated to count the stem, the bar end plugs, and the tape (usually
four pieces for road bars), and the stem bolts, and the headset races,
and each cute little ball bearing in that headset.

So as not to make other little steel balls feel left out, now you must
enumerate them where they live in hubs, bottom brackets, pedals, and
freewheel/cassette. Spokes, nipples and chains(hundreds of individual
bits!) are of course essential parts of Steve's bike, as are bottle cage
bolts, rim strips, seat rails and axle cone locknuts. Oh, and spoke
washers! Hub shells can be seperated from bearing races, jockey wheels
and their bushings can be parted.

Where does it all end for the lover of bicycle minutiae? For a full
accounting, are we allowed the use of wrenches and presses only, or may
we proceed to oxy-acetylene torches and hacksaws?

Maybe I should ride more.


Could someone with nothing better to do please pull apart their bicycle and
count the parts? I think the number might be impressive. It would be a clear
statement to those who don't appreciate bikes that they are more than simple
toys for kids. It should be a fairly new bike. And the person would have to
be snowed in for several days and also have the obsessive personality of the
TV character Monk.

Dear Alfred,

An exploded diagram for the now-venerable 9mm Glock 17 shows
that a gunsmith can separate it into 34 parts.

The much more elderly 1911 Colt .45 was even more
complicated--48 parts.

Of course, that's the entire pistol, so add 17 or 7 more
parts for ammunition.

Carl: I always thought of you as a nice, sincere, helpful guy. I'm still
thinking that, but is there another side to you that I wouldn't want to
discover on a bad day? :)

--Mike Jacoubowsky
Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReaction.com
IMBA, BikesBelong, NBDA member

wrote in message
...
On Sat, 08 Jan 2005 05:21:56 GMT, "Alfred Ryder"
wrote:

I just finished taking apart, cleaning, and reassembling my Ultrega
brakes.
They were three-years old and had 13,300 miles. Not counting the cable and
cable sleeve, there were 61 separate pieces in each of the two assemblies,
assuming I counted correctly. I had expected a couple of screws and a
couple
of washers. I think I will let them go for more than three years before I
do
it again.

Dear Alfred,

An exploded diagram for the now-venerable 9mm Glock 17 shows
that a gunsmith can separate it into 34 parts.

The much more elderly 1911 Colt .45 was even more
complicated--48 parts.

Of course, that's the entire pistol, so add 17 or 7 more
parts for ammunition.

If you didn't count the cable and sleeve, I suppose that you
skipped the far end of the brake, too--how many more parts
would you estimate are lurking on one side of the handlebar?

Carl Fogel

On Sat, 08 Jan 2005 23:49:48 GMT, "Mike Jacoubowsky/Chain
Reaction Bicycles" wrote:

Dear Alfred,

An exploded diagram for the now-venerable 9mm Glock 17 shows
that a gunsmith can separate it into 34 parts.

The much more elderly 1911 Colt .45 was even more
complicated--48 parts.

Of course, that's the entire pistol, so add 17 or 7 more
parts for ammunition.

Carl: I always thought of you as a nice, sincere, helpful guy. I'm still
thinking that, but is there another side to you that I wouldn't want to
discover on a bad day? :)

--Mike Jacoubowsky
Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReaction.com
IMBA, BikesBelong, NBDA member

Dear Mike,

Unfortunately, yes.

Carl Fogel

Carl is *quite* the badass. One merely needs to read his sonnets or
his exploits on his Mt. Fury - aptly named ride for a man with such
butchery to his name.

There oughta be an "Ode to Carl Fogel" - kinda a saddam hussein/burt
reynolds as the bandit sorta song. But with really cheap bicycles and
middle ages english poetry for lyrics.

I bet he packs heat on the Mt. Fury (a .45 for Carl, to be sure).

App