oldlady62

I'm making this 30 year old bicycle ready to ride. Finally got the new tires and correct sized tubes. But, I took one brake pad off back in June so I could find a replacement. The current pads had no stopping power, well, even 15 years ago they had no stopping power, so I cleaned the rims and found replacements. But when I took off the pad, I didn't realize I lost this washer-type part. It's hard to see, but it's conical - 5/8 inch on the larger side and 1/2 inch on the shorter side. Any suggestions what I should do besides buy new brakes?

Tomorrow I guess I will make the trip to the large local bike shop. I'm not up on the best bike shops in this area. (I wish I was in Seattle!) If the bike shop can't help, I guess I will try to MacGyver something from Home Depot.

Former location

Missing part

dwmckee

If your LBS does not have it, maybe buy a used similar brake set in ebay to cannibalize the part from...

oldlady62

Yeah. I think for the price of a used set it would be worth it rather than spending the time and hassle of trying to track this thing down.

Mad Honk 

Find a co-op in town or ask for it in the C&V in search of forum. This place has tons of folks willing to help out. Smiles MH

Dsprok

Is it metal? Use a metal detector.

blakcloud

Sure, everyone has one of these in their garage don't they?

Miele Man

I'm pretty sure I have one of those parts in my spares box. I'm in South-Central Ontario, Canada.

If you're in the USA it'd take about ten days for it to reach you. If you can wait that long, let me know and I'll look for it. If I do have it I'll get you to PM me your address so I can mail it to you at no charge.

Cheers

pdlamb

Bike mechanic work spaces should be covered in short white carpet to catch things like that. Unfortunately, mine's concrete -- little buggers like that spherical washer can roll a looong way. (Fortunately, when mine went walk-about, I found it after half an hour!)

_ForceD_

Here's a weird suggestion. If you know where you dropped it...get a similar-size washer, drop it from the same place, and see where it bounces to. Look for your missing washer in that area. Doesn't work every time...but I've found missing things this way.

Dan

rydabent

Check with a couple of bike stores. They may have one in their junk drawers.

joeruge

These things are very similar to Spherical Washers. You might have some luck at an Ace if you ask for that. You can likely find a suitable substitute looking through McMaster-Carr. https://www.mcmaster.com/91944A430.

You may not have a metal detector in the garage, but you likely have a strong magnet on your frig. Put it in a zip-lock bag and sweep around the area. You maybe lucky and pick it up. That's assuming this washer isn't aluminum or stainless. Most likely it is steel and would jump onto a strong magnet.

Going to your local bike co-open or practically any bike shop is a probably the best idea. They probably have a can or draw filled with this kind of odd hardware. A great opportunity to strike up a conversation and start a relationship. Bike people are good people.
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Retro Grouch 

Years ago I took my 12 year old grandson with me to do tech support on a big cross state ride. I think the first thing that I taught him was to spread out a tarp to catch any dropped parts before setting up our work stand.

Homebrew01

If it's steel, Drag some rare-earth magnets around the area.

Thomas15

That washer looks like the ones used on brake shoe assy for V-Brakes. If so when you replace the shoes on v-brakes you get new ones so anyone that does this kind of work should have quite a few of these laying around.

madpogue 

I thought about that, too, but I think it's larger diameter than the ones for V-brake shoes/posts.