LarrySellerz

Hey guys, I crashed pretty hard last Friday and my bike is messed up. The rear wheel rubs terribly against one of the brakes, it looks like the whole braking unit thing got misaligned and I cant get it to go back to where it should be. I've been experimenting with trying to undo the quick release and realign the wheel to not rub on the brakes (did this on the side of the road after the crash to get home), but this makes it so one side of the wheel doesn't sit nicely into the dropouts. It looks really sketchy but its not that dangerous I think because ive done it before. My issue is that when I have the wheel aligned in the brakes my gears skip terribly. I have to choose between terrible wheel rub or gear skipping, and I keep on changing it during the ride because it seems like when I realign my wheel it starts to fall back into the dropout and starts rubbing harder again. I know I need to go to the LBS but I don't have time to get there until saturday and will probably ride about 40 miles just commuting to work and buying groceries before then. I also don't have the money to replace the braking unit until I get paid. Any advice?

cxwrench

Align the brake properly Larry. It's not rocket surgery. Fix that and you'll be good. Do NOT screw with the wheel in the dropouts, you already know what happens when you do that. I'm sure you can find a YT video that shows how to take care of the problem.

tomato coupe

Get a wrench thing and adjust the whole braking unit thing so that it doesn't rub.

Koyote

What he said. Aligning a brake caliper is so easy that I can even do it.

And it sounds like your derailleur hanger may be bent.

And since cxwrench forgot to say it: this belongs in the Bicycle Mechanics subforum.

Iride01 

Rim brakes? Then it sounds like you must have something bent. Maybe the stays or drop outs got bent. In addition to that the DR hanger might be bent.

Though I'm assuming your rim brakes look balanced when compared to the seat stays and aren't askew from the wreck.

Cdst

A photo would really help here

Reflector Guy

+2
We need to see the whole braking unit thing, to know if the full hexagonal torque-applying attachment set will be able to fix it, or not.

Zaskar

First, realign the brake and wheel. Single or "regular" mount, as opposed to direct-mount, brakes can become misaligned just washing the bike. Seriously. They rotate on that one post. So, put a wrench on the back side, grab the brake as one whole unit with your other and just realign/center it. As CX said - this isn't rocket surgery. Use the chain stays at the bb to visually verify the wheel is centered.

Now you can determine if you also bent your wheel, bent your d-hanger, got a concussion...

Iride01 

Strange, usually posts by the OP get at least 2 or 3 pages long by the end of the first day! <grin>

You are losing your touch LarrySellerz !

How 'bout a pic of the issue?

genejockey 

My suggestion is to check the frame alignment using the "string trick", and check the RD hanger alignment. The brakes are simple, as mentioned above, for caliper brakes they're on a single pivot bolt, and some even have wrench flats where you can use thin cone wrenches to turn the entire unit one way or the other to re-center the arms and pads.

Koyote

I'm betting the der hanger is bent. I normally wouldn't worry about frame alignment after a crash, but Larry is a big guy; if it's a steel or aluminum frame, and he landed ON it, it could've been bent.

njkayaker

How would that affect the brakes?
He says the chain skips when he puts the wheel in to remove the brake rubbing problem.

njkayaker

You mean the rear wheel rubs against one of the break arms.

It's not clear what your problem is.

The brake swings on a pivot above the wheel. This is "loose" enough so that when you squeeze on the brake, the brake centers over the wheel. You can usually push the brake into being centered on the wheel.

You really need to have somebody who knows what they are doing look at it.

Posting these sorts of things (without any pictures) is close to useless.

Polaris OBark

Put the wheel in properly. Get one of those thin cone wrench spanners to twist, or just brute-force, the brake caliper so that it is symmetric with respect to the rim. If everything then works as before, you are good to go. If not, check the wheel, frame, etc for bends/damage.

Koyote

It's Larry. Of course his der hanger is bent.

Hermes

Moved to Mechanics Forum.