# Back Brake sticking issue



## thebikingcello (Feb 3, 2011)

So for the past few days or week, my back brake was sticking after I let go of the brake level. I fixed it buy taking it off the bike, shortening up the housings, lubing the inside of the housing, flooded the inside of the brake with tri-flow, loosening the tension spring and whipping off all the extra tri-flow and blowing it out with a air hose a little. Its not sticking now, but what could have caused this? I trimmed the cable, did not help, lubed the housing, helped a little, lubed the whole brake, helped a little more but still sticky. loosened something that takes a 5 or 4 mm allen key and that helped a lot... cheap no name brakes.

oh well, it happens. I have no idea why it happened tho, I did not mess with the brakes much at all since I've had it other then centering them every now and then... 

well, if this happens again, I'll know what to do...

now the question: why did this even happen?


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## Ventruck (Mar 9, 2009)

My wild guesses are it's possible there was either fraying hidden in the housing you cut off or some bad bend/pinch.

You might've had too much housing, but I never saw the setup to really stand on that either. Cheap, no-name brakes tend to have weaker springs, which can make the braking system as a whole more sensitive to even just small amounts of friction. Happens on my 105 brake, as opposed to my stronger-spring Revl which can easily for its way open..


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## thebikingcello (Feb 3, 2011)

I took a good 3 inches off, my boss said I have a little to much cable. It looks much better at least  haha 

it brakes beautifully now, if it happens again in a few hundred miles, I might do the same or check it out more intently. It was kinda fun to wrench around this that brake, when I was done it was real rewarding.


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## Lynton (Jul 9, 2011)

What design are the brakes? Are they a dual pivot similar to a shimano brake? 

If so if you release the centering screw (the small allen screw on the side) too much it will decrease the spring tension by a considerable amount. With that design brake you are better having the mounting shaft set so one pad touches the rim and then screw the centering screw in as much as possible in order to centre the brake, this results in a higher spring pressure.


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## tihsepa (Nov 27, 2008)

Sounds to me like one of the pivots was sticking. He said he loosened somxething in the brake and lubed it and its free.

Me thinks the caliper was sticking in the second pivot.


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## rlconzatti (Sep 27, 2006)

+1 on the pivot point sticking. On my older bikes I have had to dismantle the caliper, clean all of the gunk off the pivot point and rebuild. No problems since


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## Kerry Irons (Feb 25, 2002)

*Simple test*



thebikingcello said:


> So for the past few days or week, my back brake was sticking after I let go of the brake level. I fixed it buy taking it off the bike, shortening up the housings, lubing the inside of the housing, flooded the inside of the brake with tri-flow, loosening the tension spring and whipping off all the extra tri-flow and blowing it out with a air hose a little. Its not sticking now, but what could have caused this?
> 
> well, if this happens again, I'll know what to do...
> 
> now the question: why did this even happen?


Actually, it doesn't sound like you'll know what to do. You threw a bunch of spaghetti at the wall and lucky for you some of it stuck. When you get this situation, you first can do the VERY simple test - disconnect the brake cable from the brake and see if it responds well without the cable attached. If it does, then you know the problem is in the cables or levers. If the brake doesn't spring back easily without the cable attached, then the pivots are too tight or the pivot points got contaminated or the lube got washed out. 

You can tell if it's the levers by pulling them once and seeing how easily they move back and forth. If the levers move easily and the brake springs back properly, then you will likely feel a lot of drag on the cables by pulling them with your fingers. This ain't rocket surgery.


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