Newbie Question: Brakes

[Andy84]

Hi I have been lurking on the site for a couple of months now, I had a lot of questions answered through searching (thanks cyclechat), however I don't seem to be able to find anything related to this question, so thought I would finally sign up.

After a few years of riding my mountain bike on slick tyres, I bought a Tricross Sport from Evans. This was delivered built, however the extra 'v' type breaks that were supplied were not fitted.

I called their help line, and also dropped in to my local store. On both occasions I was told they were useless anyway, one guy even called them suicide levers!

I'm not too bothered either way as this is my first road bike, and I find the dual pivot breaks fine to use now, I just wanted to check with you guys as the demo/show bike in store had them fitted?

Thanks in advance.

Andy

 

[Brandane]

Hi Andy,

I just got one of those less than 2 weeks ago. Are you talking about the extra set of levers at the top of the bars? (Newbie too, don't know the technical term for them ).

I was surprised that they weren't fitted to mine either, as the one I saw in the shop had them. I was told they are no longer fitted to the 2010 model, and as you say, apparently they were crap anyway!

Great bikes though; I am thoroughly enjoying mine since becoming a "reborn" at the age of 47. Have put 132 miles on it in the last week, which for me is hard going!

Enjoy the new bike, and this site which is also addictive .

Al.

Edit: Talking of brakes; is there a way to get the "quick release" to actually release without having to slacken off the cable first? I like to stick my bike in the back of the car and take it away to try different routes. Can't get the wheels off without releasing brakes, and can't release brakes without slackening cable. Surely that cannot be right?

 

[Andy84]

Thanks for the reply.

Yeah, I forgot about that, I've been used to disc breaks on my mountain bike, so when I first tried to take the wheels of it took me a few seconds to work out what it was stuck on!

There is a bolt type thing on the hanger which holds the front break cable, you can turn that to loosen the front break, more difficult to take the rear one off though.

 

[Arch]

I don't know about fancy modern STI levers, but all the drop bar brake levers I've had have had a quick release of some sort, a button that releases the lever a little bit to slacken the brakes....

The extra levers you're talking about don't tend to work well, or at least they didn't years ago, I didn't know they were still supplied. There is a better alternative to let you brake from the top of the bars, levers that you insert into the cable run, like the Cane Creek cross toppers.

http://www.wiggle.co.uk/p/cycle/7/Cane_Creek_Crosstop_Brake_Levers/5360012608/

These do work much better, from what I've heard.

 

[Randochap]

I'm not familiar with the specific bike but modern "inline" secondary brake levers are quite powerful (compared to the old 70s "suicide" levers, which were an abomination. I'd advise customers to allow me to "recycle" them.)

Still, they are not much use, unless you spend all your time on the tops. If that's the case, why not get an upright bar and appropriate levers/shifters?

You should have no trouble dropping out a wheel past the brake blocks. Most decent systems include releases at the lever and/or brake caliper. See the beginning of the Fix a Flat video at VeloWeb Garage.

Hope this helps.