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Rear Brake Sticks

Old 04-12-21, 12:50 PM
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Rear Brake Sticks

I'm trying to tune a bike with rim brakes. When I pull the right lever on the handlebars the rear brake engages...but then it doesn't let go, I have to pull the brake lever manually back up again to release the brake.
How do I fix this? I've never encountered this problem in 25+ years of biking.
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Old 04-12-21, 12:54 PM
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Have you adjusted the cables or are the cables sticking? Are the pads and caliper properly aligned? Try all of that and see if it starts working if not maybe try new cables and housing.
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Old 04-12-21, 12:57 PM
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It is common. Either the cable is gummed up/corroded/damaged, or the pivots of the brake(either on the frame for V or cantilever brakes, or inside the caliper on caliper brakes) are corroded or rusty.
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Old 04-12-21, 01:06 PM
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Check the cable housing and ferrules. Especially the one closest to the seat tube. It might be as simple as squirting some WD-40 in there. Or just replacing the cable and housing.
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Old 04-12-21, 01:31 PM
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Also it is possible that the brake lever has been somehow damaged and is introducing drag into the system.

If your bike has split cable stops you can easily detach the cable and check each part - each segment of cable housing, the lever and the brake itself - to determine what is not moving freely.

You can also do this with non-split cable stops but you will need a tool (usually a 5mm allen key or a 10mm wrench) to detach the brake cable from the brake to check things individually.
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Old 04-12-21, 01:56 PM
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If your bike has split cable stops, pull the brake calipers/arms apart at the rear and check for slack in the exposed part of the cable. Slack here would indicate an issue in the lever or the cable/housing on the front end.
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Old 04-12-21, 02:00 PM
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The cables are sticking. If they aren't SS cables, there is some corrosion inside the housing, or there is grease that is dried and gumming up the works. You could try dripping lube in the housing. The best thing is to replace the cable and housing.
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Old 04-12-21, 02:08 PM
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On the really weird side, check that the brake pad doesn’t have a lip that is diving under the rim like the lip in this picture.* The lip is often enough catch the pad and keep it from releasing especially if the brake spring is weak. I often trim the lip if there is still wear available on the pad.



*(picture borrowed and edited from here)
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Old 04-12-21, 02:19 PM
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Undo the cable at the brake. Pull on the lever while holding the cable in your other hand. This will immediately tell you if it's a cable/housing problem. If it feels smooth and there's no drag check the caliper itself by squeezing the arms together, they should snap back quickly and smoothly. If that's ok it might be a pad wear problem like cyccommute posted. It's not hard to figure any of this out if you just look at it logically. Break the system down into its separate parts...lever, cable/housing, caliper/pads.
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Old 04-12-21, 02:31 PM
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Originally Posted by cxwrench
Undo the cable at the brake. Pull on the lever while holding the cable in your other hand. This will immediately tell you if it's a cable/housing problem. If it feels smooth and there's no drag check the caliper itself by squeezing the arms together, they should snap back quickly and smoothly. If that's ok it might be a pad wear problem like cyccommute posted. It's not hard to figure any of this out if you just look at it logically. Break the system down into its separate parts...lever, cable/housing, caliper/pads.
While I agree, I would probably check the pads first. They are the easy low hanging fruit. Cables next, then tear apart brakes. It’s usually the cables that are the problem but it’s always good to start with the easy ones.
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Old 04-12-21, 02:48 PM
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True, super easy visual check.
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Old 04-12-21, 03:35 PM
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"Brake sticks"? Isn't that what the guy from Team Cinzano does to Dave in "Breaking Away"?
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Old 04-13-21, 02:51 AM
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The last one I had like that turned out to be a bent rod within the caliper after someone strapped their bike down badly. The thing is that if the brake engages cleanly but fails to disengage, the problem may be surprising
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Old 04-15-21, 11:53 AM
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Update:

Thanks everyone for the advice. I only glanced at the brake but now that I inspected it more closely what happened was that near the brake lever, where there is that small silver cylinder where the brake lines goes into...the cable was out of it.

So all I did was put the brake line back into that silver cylinder and the brake works fine. It was like a 5 second fix.



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Old 04-15-21, 12:24 PM
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+1 on loosen the anchor screw and pull on the cable. The only thing I'll add is to pull the cable out, wipe it off and re-lube it. Don't know if this was mentioned or not but, once the cable is out manually squeeze the calipers with your hand to see if they are binding.
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Old 04-15-21, 01:30 PM
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What kind of brake caliper? How old is the bike? Many older bikes came equipped with brakes that really weren't very good.
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Old 04-15-21, 07:45 PM
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Originally Posted by The Big Wheel
Update:

Thanks everyone for the advice. I only glanced at the brake but now that I inspected it more closely what happened was that near the brake lever, where there is that small silver cylinder where the brake lines goes into...the cable was out of it.

So all I did was put the brake line back into that silver cylinder and the brake works fine. It was like a 5 second fix.


Well, there’s your problem That “silver cylinder” is a barrel adjuster. It allows you to take up slack in the cable.
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Old 04-16-21, 08:43 AM
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Originally Posted by The Big Wheel
Update:

Thanks everyone for the advice. I only glanced at the brake but now that I inspected it more closely what happened was that near the brake lever, where there is that small silver cylinder where the brake lines goes into...the cable was out of it.

So all I did was put the brake line back into that silver cylinder and the brake works fine. It was like a 5 second fix.
Well you got a lot of advice for the next time a brake gets sticky.
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Old 04-16-21, 09:21 AM
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This is probably not the problem here but I thought the info might be useful. I just finished working on a bike with side pull caliper brakes and took it for a test ride. When I applied the rear brake it grabbed violently and made a horrible noise. When I got it back to the shop and inspected the rear brake I found that the nut securing the pivot on one of the arms was very loose. When the brake was applied, the arm would move and cause the pad to jamb against the rim and make it grab and howl. That is the first time I have encountered this but it is worth checking the pivot to make sure the nut is tight.
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