Is it brake caliper sabotage?

[oldandslow]

Just to point out that many (non-disc) brake systems have some kind of release to let the blocks move apart so that the tyre can pass between them when you are removing the wheel. It can be a button on the lever, a lever on the brake caliper, etc. If you ride with that released, the brakes will be weaker because of the extra travel for the blocks to meet the rim.

 

[Drago]

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=z5rRZdiu1UE&pp=ygUVQmVhc3RpZSBib3lzIHNhYm90cWdl

 

[Punkawallah]

I did say to my wife if she wanted rid of me, push me down a big hill with no brakes !

I hadn’t realised your wife -had- brakes?

 

[N0bodyOfTheGoat]

I had a nervous and cautious ride back home last night, after the ebike battery extender cage on the seat tube (fitted around Easter) suddenly started wobbling, when I was 30mins+ away from home. To make matters worse, I didn't have my new Lidl minitool on me with a torx bit to try tightening it, if that was the cause!

Thankfully, I got back without the ~£500 battery smashing onto the road, possibly going under the rear wheel and wrecking the electrics. Turns out that the top cage bolt had somehow loosened ~5mm and the lower bolt ~1mm, having not removed the battery for seveal months.

It was a big wake up call, to check the cage bolts at least monthly and take my new multitool with torx bit out on all future rides.

 

[sevenfourate]

View: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=z5rRZdiu1UE&pp=ygUVQmVhc3RpZSBib3lzIHNhYm90cWdl

Tune ❤️

 

[SpokeyDokey]

I had a nervous and cautious ride back home last night, after the ebike battery extender cage on the seat tube (fitted around Easter) suddenly started wobbling, when I was 30mins+ away from home. To make matters worse, I didn't have my new Lidl minitool on me with a torx bit to try tightening it, if that was the cause!

Thankfully, I got back without the ~£500 battery smashing onto the road, possibly going under the rear wheel and wrecking the electrics. Turns out that the top cage bolt had somehow loosened ~5mm and the lower bolt ~1mm, having not removed the battery for seveal months.

It was a big wake up call, to check the cage bolts at least monthly and take my new multitool with torx bit out on all future rides.

Loctite?

 

[Jameshow]

I once rode no brakes down a pretty steep hill bear me (pool bank) and has to stop using my shoes as brakes!

 

[N0bodyOfTheGoat]

Loctite?

When I first fitted the cage, iirc it was a bit of a fiddle, using a ~10" long ratchet drive and torx bit, that was tricky to reach the bolts inside the front triangle. When I sorted it last night I used the Lidl minitool torx bit, besides the width of the tool body reducing how much tightening I could do at a time, by feel both bolts now feels far more in the ~4Nm ballpark.

 

[KuroSan]

I once rode no brakes down a pretty steep hill bear me (pool bank) and has to stop using my shoes as brakes!

This was almost the norm for a lot of us kids in the 70's/80's. We all had the telltale trench across the sole of one trainer from jamming a foot sideways between the tyre and the brake mount bar!

 

[sevenfourate]

I once rode no brakes down a pretty steep hill bear me (pool bank) and has to stop using my shoes as brakes!

Standard way to stop on a BMX 👍