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Side-pull brakes broken. Pull to one side and get stuck. (lemmy.world)
submitted 4 days ago* (last edited 3 days ago) by to c/bicycle_touring@lemmy.world
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Update: It's fixed. More info in the comments.

I searched and couldn’t find any general bicycle forums here on Lemmy. This one seemed to be the closest match out of the three I found. So I hope it’s okay to ask for help here.

I have the exact same problem as in this video:

https://youtu.be/aP-N6D7NKtc

But the solution he presents does not work for me. All of the videos on YT about sidepull brakes have the same general solution and none of them work.

I center. I tighten. Etc. And when I pull the handle, the cable yanks the whole caliper sideways and I’m right back where I started.

I used to work on my cars when I owned them. I can fix my computer. My sink. My toilet. Everything on my bike except the brakes. They make no sense to me.

The anchor and the pivot of sidepull brakes are the same. So the fact that the caliper is being yanked to one side makes sense. The functional brakes I see don’t make sense. How do these things work?

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[–] 1 point 3 days ago (1 child)

The mechanism works because the "head" of the bolt is in the middle. It's a double ended bolt basically. The nut on the end that goes into the bike only attaches it to the bike, and it's tightness has no impact on the functioning of the brake, other than stopping the bolt rotating.

There are 2 nuts at the other end. The inner one needs to be loose, to allow the brake leavers to rotate freely, and the outer one is tightened against the loose one to keep it in place.

I'll try making a diagram when I get home.

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  • [–] [S] 1 point 3 days ago

    I think I finally figured it out. I took the whole thing apart, examined it, and re-assembled it.

    It seems to all hinge on the notches the spring slides in to. If the notches aren't lined up and/or the spring slips out of the notches when the brake is pulled, the brakes get stuck.

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