# Brakes Sticking ... brake hoods?



## jfd986 (Jul 17, 2011)

My rear brake lever doesn't snap back. When I yank on the cable housing behind the lever a little bit and THEN i jam the brake, it snaps back. Do I need to replace the cable and housing, is this a corrosion issue? Or will lube do the trick? Would having brake hoods prevent this from happening in the future? Should I just do this:

1) Replace both cables and housings since my bike is 30 years old
2) Tape the housing to the handlebars
3) Cork tape the handlebars again
4) Hoods?

Does the taping of the cable housing to the handlebars prior to taping the bars themselves add only aesthetic effect or is it protective as well? Also, when purchasing aero hoods for dia-compe brake levers, I was wondering, does the housing just fit snugly within the hood? I looked at it on amazon, and nobody seemed to explain where all this excess cable is supposed to go. Am I supposed to install a brake hood when the brake lever is loose/detached, before the cable and housing are threaded in, after .... ? Are the hoods supposed to help with corrosion issues or are they just for comfort?


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## AndrwSwitch (May 28, 2009)

Lots of questions.

A typical road bike brake setup has springs in two places - one to return the lever to the rest position, and one to reopen the rear brake. There are three major potential sources of friction. The pivots in both the lever and the brake can get dirty, or sometimes corroded if a bike is sufficiently old. 30 years is a lot. And there can be friction between the cable and the housing.

Squeeze the brake closed with one hand and work the lever with the other. Feel smooth? Brake levers usually have a very long service life, so I bet it's fine. Does it snap back when it doesn't have to fight the cable, housing and brake?

How did it feel to squeeze the brake itself? Was it smooth? There may be a fair amount of resistance, from the spring, but if it feels gritty, that's a problem.

Add a drop of tri-flow to all the pivot points and work the brake a couple times. If the cable and housing were on the bike when you bought it, they're probably old enough that you'd see some improvement replacing them. When you're squeezing the brake with your hand, you may be able to unseat the housing from the stops on the frame. Try running the housing up and down the cable. Feel smooth? Is the cable rusty or corroded? The housing should move smoothly on the cable, and the cable should be relatively clean, especially where it's protected by the housing.

I don't think presence or absence of covers on the hoods should matter. Taping the housing to the handlebar before wrapping the handlebar makes it a lot easier to wrap the handlebar cleanly. You can also make sure you don't accidentally pull the housing away from the brake lever while you're wrapping if it's taped in a good route first. For less than a cent's worth of electrical tape, or really whatever you have around, kind of a no-brainer IMO.

Very old brake levers didn't have hoods. They're mostly there so that you have another place to put your hands.

There shouldn't be any excess cable or housing. Cut both to length. parktool.com should have some well-illustrated instructions for this.


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## Akirasho (Jan 27, 2004)

... a friend of mine had a sticking rear brake... caused by a buildup of gunk/rust in the rear loop housing...

After throwing the quick release, was able to detach the cable from the guides, slide up the housing and use a scrap of a Scotch-Brite pad to whack the offending before relubing (grease works better than oil cuz it stays in place and doesn't attract at much grime) and hooking things back up... done deal.


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## jfd986 (Jul 17, 2011)

Okay so I tried what switch said, and I squeezed the brakes myself , and the brake pads contacted, and when I let go of them they sprung back out just fine. When I squeezed the rear lever, they contacted, but when I let go of the lever the brakes wouldn't spring back out. What does that tell us? I think it's the housing/cable, can anyone confirm?


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## AndrwSwitch (May 28, 2009)

Either it's the housing and cable or it's the brake lever. Did you try working the lever with the brakes squeezed, to remove tension on the cable?

From what you said earlier, it sounds like the lever is functioning fine when there's nothing screwing it up... So housing and cable sounds like the most likely source of the problem.


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## psycleridr (Jul 21, 2005)

Change cable and housing for the cheap and likely fix. If it still doesn't work then it's the brifter


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## jfd986 (Jul 17, 2011)

"Either it's the housing and cable or it's the brake lever. Did you try working the lever with the brakes squeezed, to remove tension on the cable?

From what you said earlier, it sounds like the lever is functioning fine when there's nothing screwing it up... So housing and cable sounds like the most likely source of the problem."


Okay Switch, I squeezed the brakes together THEN pushed the lever and the lever stuck. When I let the brakes go and pulled on the cable directly behind the brake lever then the lever snapped back, but I don't think this is diagnostic. I think the diagnostic thing is what you suggested, which was squeezing the brakes together , then trying the lever, which caused stickiness. 

Now that you have this information, is it most likely the lever? Or still the cable / housing ?


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## AndrwSwitch (May 28, 2009)

Actually, that sounds like maybe the lever. Disconnect the cable from it and see if it moves freely. If not, you need new levers. Housings and cables are cheap, so you may as well do them while you're at it.


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## jfd986 (Jul 17, 2011)

Okay, so when I disconnect the cable the lever sits there, and when I press it down it goes down. When I lift it back up it goes up. It doesn't "move" on it's own, but it doesn't stick when I try moving it, it goes straight down and straight up. Does that mean it's the cable and housing?


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## AndrwSwitch (May 28, 2009)

Most brake levers have a little spring in them to make them go back up. It's not really necessary, since it's generally pretty weak compared to the one in the brake. If you're not feeling any resistance, then yeah - you can keep the levers and just do the cable and housing. If there's a little resistance, though, do the lever too. Brake levers cost about $20, so while I think it's dumb to waste good components, it's not like you're saving a lot of money either if your brake levers are trashed too.


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## jfd986 (Jul 17, 2011)

Yeah, I crosschecked what you just told me by disconnecting the front brake lever (which works fine) and uh, yeah, there's no little spring. I guess my bike is from nineteen eighty before-we-started-putting-springs-in-the-brake-levers. Either that or BOTH springs are gone (yeesh). 

Am I doing the right math here?

Amazon.com: XLC Brake Cable & Housing, Universal Black / Lined: Sports & Outdoors

$6

Amazon.com: XLC Brake Cable Tips - Bottle of 500, 1.5-1.8mm: Sports & Outdoors

$16 (or $7 if I buy 10 ferrules, I love how the quantity jumps disproportionately)

Amazon.com: Park Tool Professional Cable & Housing Cutter - CN-10C: Sports & Outdoors

$24.60 (Or should I go for a cheaper one?)

So $46 for one brake cable? I'm doing something wrong here, right? There's some other way to go about this?


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## AndrwSwitch (May 28, 2009)

Your LBS sells it by the foot and will cut it for you. Should come out under $15.

Or get this one.

Amazon.com: Shimano Brake Cable Sets: Sports & Outdoors

If I'm reading the description correctly, it's a full set, with ferrules and end caps. You can cut it with a wire cutter (or hack saw, maybe would be better) and file the ends square. You'll need something to reopen the liner. The tip of a knife works. It's a little tedious, so I usually just get it done at my shop.


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## jfd986 (Jul 17, 2011)

Reopen what liner? Liner for what, I thought there was cable and housing and ferrule and that was it?


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## AndrwSwitch (May 28, 2009)

There's actually a lot to a modern cable housing. It's a spiral-wound square wire tube with a plastic jacket and a slick plastic liner. The inner liner usually gets pinched shut when the housing is cut. The square wire tends to get a little deformed by the initial cut - I've always had to clean it up a little with a wire cutter and a file or bench grinder. For best performance, it's worth being a little anal about housings. There's a good picture a little way down this page.

Cables

Historically, shifter housings were the same stuff. It doesn't work so well for modern indexed systems, so shifter housings have had a different structure for many years.


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## damnilocano (Feb 10, 2010)

Did you check that nothing was pressing on the brake lines? My mechanic was grilling me about riding in the rain and thought some gunk got stuck in there.. come to find out, it was my computer mount touching the cable (after he moved it to flip my stem).


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## jfd986 (Jul 17, 2011)

Cool, thanks for the lesson. Alright the decision is this : Let it ride until I put more miles on the bike, and then when I amass some more funds, just change everything or buy a new bike. I understand that opening the liner, filing to square ends etc. can be tedious, but it's the tediousness that I enjoy, so I'll just do it anyway.

Alternatively, if I choose to buy a new bike (which I can't do right now because I have no car, for circumstances into which I won't go for fear of boring everyone with US-Canadian car insurance law details) I can wait until someone agrees to buy it, then quick-fix the one cable at the bike shop.


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