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Drag brake question

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Drag brake question

Old 03-20-21, 08:15 PM
  #1  
Shinkers
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Drag brake question

Hello,

I'm looking at an application where I will be using a thumb shifter to operate a caliper as a drag brake. This is not for a tandem, but it seems like this has been done on some tandems in the past so I'm hoping someone here will have some insight.

I'm wanting to know what the best way to deal with the shift cable/brake cable mismatch. I'm assuming most people are just running a shift cable and housing to the brake. Is there a slick way to deal with the difference in housing/ferrule size at the caliper? I know that as a drag it doesn't necessarily matter much but thought maybe someone had a neat trick for this.

Thanks!
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Old 03-21-21, 02:40 AM
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Ross200
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Brake housing from the thumb shifter to the drag brake for us. Index shifter housing will blow up in brake applications.

There are step-up/step down ferrules that might help if you have a mismatch.
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Old 03-21-21, 08:20 AM
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Okay, so how are you fitting the brake cable to the shifter?

Thanks!
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Old 03-21-21, 07:01 PM
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1.2 mm shifter inner wire with 5 mm OD compassionless brake housing with metal ferrules. The rig is currently in storage "off site" so pix not immediately available-sorry.
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Old 03-21-21, 08:35 PM
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I’ve used brake cable with a barcon for an Aria drag brake and also for a disk where it was our third brake. Just file the lead head down till it fits the barcon inset. DO NOT use a shift cable for a brake cable.
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Old 03-22-21, 05:54 PM
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So in that case are you not using a ferrule at the barcon?
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