brake failure

Marian

So here I am riding on impossible dirt roads in the rain in Guangxi
province and my brakes have just stopped working. At least at the
beginning I was able to deal with this on some of the gentler
downhills by doing a Fred Flintstone with my left foot while I was
riding and later on I figured out that if I got up off the saddle and
sat on the top tube pulling on the brake cable I could slow myself
still farther but the brakes are just refusing to stop the bike.

I've done a cursory inspection, cleaned them, tightened them, loosened
them, tightened them, moved things, moved things back, spun the wheel
up, pulled on the brake lever and all I get is a scthscthscth noise
which gradually results in the wheel slowing down but not really
stopping. And this when nothing is on the bike.

They worked fine yesterday.

Heck, they worked fine this morning.

It was just when the rain and the mud started getting bad (along about
the same time that the really bad downhills stopped but around the
same time that the road condition deteriorated further) that this
happened. The levers still squeeze but the wheels don't stop
anymore. The person who was riding with me on a mountain bike (who
has since gone home) had the same kind of V-brakes as my front brake
(plain jane no name Shimano) and I've got Deore for my rear brake with
original brake pads that are nowhere near the wear line (only about
700km old).

What happened?

What can I do about it?

-M

Lou Holtman

Marian wrote:
> So here I am riding on impossible dirt roads in the rain in Guangxi
> province and my brakes have just stopped working. At least at the
> beginning I was able to deal with this on some of the gentler
> downhills by doing a Fred Flintstone with my left foot while I was
> riding and later on I figured out that if I got up off the saddle and
> sat on the top tube pulling on the brake cable I could slow myself
> still farther but the brakes are just refusing to stop the bike.
>
> I've done a cursory inspection, cleaned them, tightened them, loosened
> them, tightened them, moved things, moved things back, spun the wheel
> up, pulled on the brake lever and all I get is a scthscthscth noise
> which gradually results in the wheel slowing down but not really
> stopping. And this when nothing is on the bike.
>
> They worked fine yesterday.
>
> Heck, they worked fine this morning.
>
> It was just when the rain and the mud started getting bad (along about
> the same time that the really bad downhills stopped but around the
> same time that the road condition deteriorated further) that this
> happened. The levers still squeeze but the wheels don't stop
> anymore. The person who was riding with me on a mountain bike (who
> has since gone home) had the same kind of V-brakes as my front brake
> (plain jane no name Shimano) and I've got Deore for my rear brake with
> original brake pads that are nowhere near the wear line (only about
> 700km old).
>
> What happened?
>
> What can I do about it?
>
> -M


Change the pads, that is all you can try. Cheap brakes come with shitty
pads. In this conditions disk brakes come in handy by the way.

Lou

Lou Holtman

Lou Holtman wrote:
> Marian wrote:
>> So here I am riding on impossible dirt roads in the rain in Guangxi
>> province and my brakes have just stopped working. At least at the
>> beginning I was able to deal with this on some of the gentler
>> downhills by doing a Fred Flintstone with my left foot while I was
>> riding and later on I figured out that if I got up off the saddle and
>> sat on the top tube pulling on the brake cable I could slow myself
>> still farther but the brakes are just refusing to stop the bike.
>>
>> I've done a cursory inspection, cleaned them, tightened them, loosened
>> them, tightened them, moved things, moved things back, spun the wheel
>> up, pulled on the brake lever and all I get is a scthscthscth noise
>> which gradually results in the wheel slowing down but not really
>> stopping. And this when nothing is on the bike.
>>
>> They worked fine yesterday.
>>
>> Heck, they worked fine this morning.
>>
>> It was just when the rain and the mud started getting bad (along about
>> the same time that the really bad downhills stopped but around the
>> same time that the road condition deteriorated further) that this
>> happened. The levers still squeeze but the wheels don't stop
>> anymore. The person who was riding with me on a mountain bike (who
>> has since gone home) had the same kind of V-brakes as my front brake
>> (plain jane no name Shimano) and I've got Deore for my rear brake with
>> original brake pads that are nowhere near the wear line (only about
>> 700km old).
>>
>> What happened?
>>
>> What can I do about it?
>>
>> -M
>
>
> Change the pads, that is all you can try. Cheap brakes come with shitty
> pads. In this conditions disk brakes come in handy by the way.
>
> Lou


O, and clean the rims. Maybe they are contaminated with some oily/greasy
stuff.

Lou

catzz66

Marian wrote:
>
>
> What can I do about it?
>
> -M

I would suspect the pads, like Lou said. I am more prone to picking up
foreign matter in my pads when it is wet and I am having to ride through
mucky roads. My pads are pretty good. I am still on the factory ones,
but it is not a big deal to change them out. Look at the rims. If you
have been riding with junk in the pads, it is pretty easy to score and
scratch your rims.

Sometimes for me, it is just grit and I can flush it out with the garden
hose. I have also been known to borrow a little pond water if I am far
away from home and wash everything down in the middle of a ride.

M-gineering

Marian wrote:
> So here I am riding on impossible dirt roads in the rain in Guangxi
> province and my brakes have just stopped working. At least at the
> beginning I was able to deal with this on some of the gentler
> downhills by doing a Fred Flintstone with my left foot while I was
> riding and later on I figured out that if I got up off the saddle and
> sat on the top tube pulling on the brake cable I could slow myself
> still farther but the brakes are just refusing to stop the bike.
>
> I've done a cursory inspection, cleaned them, tightened them, loosened
> them, tightened them, moved things, moved things back, spun the wheel
> up, pulled on the brake lever and all I get is a scthscthscth noise
> which gradually results in the wheel slowing down but not really
> stopping. And this when nothing is on the bike.
>
> They worked fine yesterday.
>
> Heck, they worked fine this morning.
>
> It was just when the rain and the mud started getting bad (along about
> the same time that the really bad downhills stopped but around the
> same time that the road condition deteriorated further) that this
> happened. The levers still squeeze but the wheels don't stop
> anymore. The person who was riding with me on a mountain bike (who
> has since gone home) had the same kind of V-brakes as my front brake
> (plain jane no name Shimano) and I've got Deore for my rear brake with
> original brake pads that are nowhere near the wear line (only about
> 700km old).
>
> What happened?
>
> What can I do about it?
>
> -M
Are the brakes setup so that the noodle bottoms out against the
clampbolt on the V-s? Check that there is sufficient space, if not
change the washers on the brakeblock holder around

--
/Marten

info(apestaartje)m-gineering(punt)nl

Tom Kunich

"M-gineering" <ikmotgeenspam@m-gineering.nl> wrote in message
news:g0p7uf$afe$1@localhost.localdomain...
> Are the brakes setup so that the noodle bottoms out against the clampbolt
> on the V-s? Check that there is sufficient space, if not change the
> washers on the brakeblock holder around

I'm certainly glad that I'm not practicing engineering in the Netherlands
where they apparently speak some sort of foreign language...... :-)

Lou Holtman

Tom Kunich wrote:
> "M-gineering" <ikmotgeenspam@m-gineering.nl> wrote in message
> news:g0p7uf$afe$1@localhost.localdomain...
>> Are the brakes setup so that the noodle bottoms out against the
>> clampbolt on the V-s? Check that there is sufficient space, if not
>> change the washers on the brakeblock holder around
>
> I'm certainly glad that I'm not practicing engineering in the
> Netherlands where they apparently speak some sort of foreign
> language...... :-)

How is your Dutch Tom? Flapdrol..

Lou

Andre Jute

On May 18, 2:40*pm, "Tom Kunich" <cyclintom@yahoo. com> wrote:
> "M-gineering" <ikmotgeens...@m-gineering.nl> wrote in message
>
> news:g0p7uf$afe$1@localhost.localdomain...
>
> > Are the brakes setup so that the noodle bottoms out against the clampbolt
> > on the V-s? Check that there is sufficient space, if not change the
> > washers on the brakeblock holder around
>
> I'm certainly glad that I'm not practicing engineering in the Netherlands
> where they apparently speak some sort of foreign language...... :-)

You must be one of those well-travelled Americans we hear about, Tom,
who have been all the way to Vegas. FYI:

1. In The Netherlands (note which words are capitalized) they speak
Dutch. It is their native language.

2. In The Netherlands English is a foreign language.

3. All the same, the Dutch speak better English too than most
Americans. (Hell, the Dutch and the Germans also speak better English
than most English people with impenetrable regional accents.)

4. The Dutch, who're pretty outspoken, would never dream of making fun
of you, dear Tom, because you can't understand plain English.

***

5. More generally, the difference between anglophones and cultured
people is that cultured people speak more than one language and
anglophones think they speak French when they raise their voices in
English (1).

6. Engineers, being generally much less sensitive to social nuance and
the finer feelings than people, are substantially more likely to be
monophonic than people.

Those are the facts. My opinion doesn't necessarily coincide.

Andre Jute
http://members.lycos.co.uk/fiultra/...%20CYCLING.html

(1) According to one of my literary protege, herself one of those
ultra-rare creatures, a linguistically gifted and sensitive engineer,
the French do not speak English as a homage to a world language but to
stop the British mangling French so. Sounds about right me.

Nate Nagel

Andre Jute wrote:
> On May 18, 2:40 pm, "Tom Kunich" <cyclintom@yahoo. com> wrote:
>
>>"M-gineering" <ikmotgeens...@m-gineering.nl> wrote in message
>>
>>news:g0p7uf$afe$1@localhost.localdomain...
>>
>>
>>>Are the brakes setup so that the noodle bottoms out against the clampbolt
>>>on the V-s? Check that there is sufficient space, if not change the
>>>washers on the brakeblock holder around
>>
>>I'm certainly glad that I'm not practicing engineering in the Netherlands
>>where they apparently speak some sort of foreign language...... :-)
>
>
> You must be one of those well-travelled Americans we hear about, Tom,
> who have been all the way to Vegas. FYI:
>
> 1. In The Netherlands (note which words are capitalized) they speak
> Dutch. It is their native language.
>
> 2. In The Netherlands English is a foreign language.
>
> 3. All the same, the Dutch speak better English too than most
> Americans. (Hell, the Dutch and the Germans also speak better English
> than most English people with impenetrable regional accents.)
>
> 4. The Dutch, who're pretty outspoken, would never dream of making fun
> of you, dear Tom, because you can't understand plain English.
>
> ***
>
> 5. More generally, the difference between anglophones and cultured
> people is that cultured people speak more than one language and
> anglophones think they speak French when they raise their voices in
> English (1).
>
> 6. Engineers, being generally much less sensitive to social nuance and
> the finer feelings than people, are substantially more likely to be
> monophonic than people.
>
> Those are the facts. My opinion doesn't necessarily coincide.
>
> Andre Jute
> http://members.lycos.co.uk/fiultra/...%20CYCLING.html
>
> (1) According to one of my literary protege, herself one of those
> ultra-rare creatures, a linguistically gifted and sensitive engineer,
> the French do not speak English as a homage to a world language but to
> stop the British mangling French so. Sounds about right me.

I realize this is probably just meant as a mild needle, but the truth is
that the YooEss is a very large country and therefore many people don't
ever encounter non-English speaking people throughout their entire
lives. That's changing somewhat of late; I've started to think that
learning Spanish might not he a completely bad idea, but it's not one of
those things that you can just go out and do in a weekend.

nate

(and you really, really don't want to hear me speaking French. You just
don't.)

--
replace "roosters" with "cox" to reply.
http://members.cox.net/njnagel

Tim McNamara

In article
<1c1f688d-c57e-448c-b4e4-40c8fd953b3d@f24g2000prh.googlegroups.com>,
Marian <marian.rosenberg@gmail.com> wrote:

> I've done a cursory inspection, cleaned them, tightened them,
> loosened them, tightened them, moved things, moved things back, spun
> the wheel up, pulled on the brake lever and all I get is a
> scthscthscth noise which gradually results in the wheel slowing down
> but not really stopping. And this when nothing is on the bike.

Sounds like you've worn through the pads. Look at the braking surface
and see if there is metal sticking through.

Ecnerwal

In article
<1c1f688d-c57e-448c-b4e4-40c8fd953b3d@f24g2000prh.googlegroups.com>,
Marian <marian.rosenberg@gmail.com> wrote:

> original brake pads that are nowhere near the wear line (only about
> 700km old).
>
> What happened?

Perhaps one of the mud puddles was a puddle of oil, or with an oil film.
This would coat the rims and pads, and screw up braking royally.

> What can I do about it?

Scrub the wheel rims (with soap and water), scrub the pads, if still no
better, replace the pads.

Others have had other good suggestions to check for, which you'll see if
you take stuff apart to scrub it down - pebbles lodged in things, pads
whacked out of adjustment, etc.

--
Cats, coffee, chocolate...vices to live by

Martin Borsje

Hear, hear!

;-)

A Muzi

> "M-gineering" <ikmotgeenspam@m-gineering.nl> wrote in message
> news:g0p7uf$afe$1@localhost.localdomain...
>> Are the brakes setup so that the noodle bottoms out against the
>> clampbolt on the V-s? Check that there is sufficient space, if not
>> change the washers on the brakeblock holder around

Tom Kunich wrote:
> I'm certainly glad that I'm not practicing engineering in the
> Netherlands where they apparently speak some sort of foreign
> language...... :-)

huh.
That seemed quite clear (and sorta good advice BTW) to me. It's both a
real and a common problem.

I already suggested cantilevers rather than liner brakes to her weeks
ago but those weren't readily available to her. Linear ("V") brakes are
more prone to crud embedding and have rapid pad and rim wear. That goes
double in dirt and rain.
--
Andrew Muzi
<www.yellowjersey.org/>
Open every day since 1 April, 1971
** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **

Tom Kunich

"A Muzi" <am@yellowjersey.org> wrote in message
news:f1fe1$4830773c$21269@news.teranews.com...
>> "M-gineering" <ikmotgeenspam@m-gineering.nl> wrote in message
>> news:g0p7uf$afe$1@localhost.localdomain...
>>> Are the brakes setup so that the noodle bottoms out against the
>>> clampbolt on the V-s? Check that there is sufficient space, if not
>>> change the washers on the brakeblock holder around
>
> Tom Kunich wrote:
>> I'm certainly glad that I'm not practicing engineering in the Netherlands
>> where they apparently speak some sort of foreign language...... :-)
>
> huh.
> That seemed quite clear (and sorta good advice BTW) to me. It's both a
> real and a common problem.
>
> I already suggested cantilevers rather than liner brakes to her weeks ago
> but those weren't readily available to her. Linear ("V") brakes are more
> prone to crud embedding and have rapid pad and rim wear. That goes double
> in dirt and rain.

Come on Andy, you'd think I didn't put a smiley on that. As a matter of fact
I'm and engineer and some of the best engineers I've worked with were Dutch.

But what is a "noodle" which "bottoms out on the clampbolt of the V's"? It
appears to me as if he did a straight translation from Dutch to English and
of course the names of things don't quite match up. That's what I found
humorous and not the fact that he didn't know what he was talking about.

For what it's worth, I've found the Dutch and Belgians seem able to speak
more languages with less accent than even the Swiss.