There must be a knack to it....

[pembo]

My new bike arrived today, Genesis Vapour, and I put it together at lunch... apart from one thing!

The front calliper brake, it's clearly all been set up for me to just slot together but for some reason I just can't get the cable to stretch up high enough to slot into the hanger.

Is there some kind of knack to this or am I just being stupid?

[upsidedownmark]

pembo said:

My new bike arrived today, Genesis Vapour, and I put it together at lunch... apart from one thing!

The front calliper brake, it's clearly all been set up for me to just slot together but for some reason I just can't get the cable to stretch up high enough to slot into the hanger.

Is there some kind of knack to this or am I just being stupid?

Try taking the wheel out and pinching the blocks together for more slack?

[pembo]

Thanks, I kind of used this theory, I could take the wheel out and get it all connected but then the wheel wouldn't get past the blocks.

I got around this by letting the tyre down a bit so that I could get it through the gap and it was all sorted.

I just thought there must be a quicker way of taking the wheel off on a cyclocross bike seeing as there is the option to have wheel changes at pit stops.

[upsidedownmark]

It does sound like something is set up not quite right, but without even knowing what kind of brakes they are it's kinda hard to make an educated guess - that was just the solution likely to fit most situations

If they're cantilever you can usually unhook the cable from the lever part of the brake mechanism on one side.

[pembo]

Yes they're cantilever, sorry I thought I'd put that in.

I thought that was what you were supposed to do but it just wouldn't quite go over, it will probably be fine after a couple of rides once the pads have worn down a tiny bit, it was that close!

[Celtic Dragon]

Do they have a cam lever on the cable side? If yes, is it up or down? Down is locked, up is open and gives a little more room to get the wheel in.

[Jayfish]

sometimes the cable outer slips out at the brake lever, and renders you 10mm or so short.

[Bobley]

Back off the clamp bolt in the middle on the straddle cable and pull back through a mm or so of the main cable and re torque the clamp bolt. Then get the straddle cable into the canti and give it some welly on the lever to make sure the conduits are seated in the levers and housings. You may find it pings somewhere and pulls it all back in sync and then lets you then undo the slackening process above.

Is there no adjuster on the centre mount thus...

[Bobley]

Is this the beasties?



Can you pop the main cable out of the centre mount, then attach the straddle cable and finally re-attach the main cable?

[pembo]

That is the exact beastie, I tried both ways Bobley and it wouldn't quite stretch to get in. As you see, there is no adjuster to make it nice and easy.

I thought about loosening the clamp bolt in the middle to give me that little extra movement but after 2 of us were hanging off of it trying to get it undone we decided that the bike must have been put together by the hulk on a bad day!

What is a cam lever?

I'll check the cable outer at the brake lever tonight, I had to walk in today so that I can get my old bike home from work tonight so I can't just pop and look at it.

[GreenDog]

My old road bike has a button on each brake lever which when pushed in allows the lever to rise up a bit and this loosens the cable.

[Bobley]

Take the front wheel off, connect the cable, deflate the tyre, squeeze the wheel back on squidging the tyre through the gap, re inflate the tyre.

[Bobley]

For sure. I was just hoping that getting the wheel in place and riding it a bit would be enough to either bed it all in or at least be able to ride it down to the LBS and get them to reset the tension

[pembo]

Bobley said:

For sure. I was just hoping that getting the wheel in place and riding it a bit would be enough to either bed it all in or at least be able to ride it down to the LBS and get them to reset the tension

That's what I'm hoping for, given the amount of starting and stopping I had to do this morning the pads should wear down that little bit pretty quickly.