Good Fortune Must Be On Your Side
You’re on your weekly weekend ride to see how many more speed records you are able to break (at least in your own mind) while hurtling down the biggest hill you can find. Descents are fun, especially the rapid ones and your bicycle brakes always do the job right? Bike brakes consistently work don’t they? Why not learn even more about how to repair bikes. I guarantee that it will make you a better rider.
Most of the time you do get lucky with your brakes but in order to make sure that they work every single time, you’ll want to maintain them. What follows is a discussion on how to change out your brake pads when they get too worn down to perform properly.
There Are Several Categories of Brakes
Normally, you will notice that there are 2 primary types of brakes found on the common bicycle. You have your Hub brakes (e.g. disc brakes) and you could have your Rim brakes. Let’s discuss the more popular of the 2; Rim brakes.
These kinds of brakes get their name from the method of braking action that they exhibit; they seize the rim of your wheel and generate friction. The braking action takes place because of the rubber pads grasping your wheel thus slowing you down. The rim style brakes commonly are available in either a cantilever action type or a side pull type.
The biggest difference that you will notice between these 2 varieties is in regards to where the cable pulls from. The place that the cable pulls from affects the way the brakes work; the side pull types get actuated from the side of the brakes whereas the cantilever types get actuated from the center. The one factor that both of these types of brakes share though is their rubber brake pads. These brake systems both work off the same principle; that is they need a lever to be pulled which then transfers down to the brake pads allowing them to squeeze your rim. Each time you use your brakes, you gradually wear down the rubber from the brake pads.
Gradually, you’ll eventually get to the stage where there is no longer enough rubber on your pad to safely stop both you and your bicycle. Your bicycle maintenance process will assist you to recognize this prior to your brakes become too warn. Coming from a safety viewpoint, it is best to replace them before they are totally worn down.
How Do You Know Your Pads Need to be Replaced
Let’s discuss several of the ways that you can use to enable you to determine whether it’s time to replace those brake pads. If you are experiencing what sounds like metal on metal when you brake, then there’s a pretty good possibility that your pads have been worn out entirely (take a look). Brake pads arrive fabricated with grooves sliced into the braking side of the pad, normally running along the pad’s entire length.
Making use of your brakes creates a large amount of high heat and the grooves serve the purpose of helping to keep your pads cool. Take a good look at your pads and if you cannot see grooves, then you know you should have them swapped out. Allow us to presume then that you do need to replace your pads, what exactly do we need to do? Look’s like you need to exchange them.
The Simple Way To Replace Them
Replacing your old pads with new ones is a straightforward procedure that you can perform yourself. Locate the small set screw on your pad (or in certain cases a hex bolt) and loosen it up. The only thing that is required to be accomplished now is to slip the pad out of it’s socket. Install the new pads in reverse order to what we did to remove the old worn out ones. With the pad in its place you may re-tighten the set screw and you will be back in business.
Convinced that learning how to repair bikes is a good idea? Why not visit http://howtorepairbicycles.com/how-to-replace-a-bicycle-chain and start that learning?
I Said It Would Be Easy
Congratulations, you now know how to replace your bicycle brake pads and have successfully implemented one area of a cycle servicing system. Now that you’ve got completely new pads, try to keep them newer longer by frequently cleaning the mud and dirt off of the pads either before or after all of your rides. A simple wipe down following your ride will go a considerable ways to maintaining them in great condition.
I learned a great deal from http://en.wikibooks.org/wiki/Bicycles/Maintenance_and_Repair and I know that you will as well.
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