Trek Shift 3 Tektro alloy linear-pull Brake pad Toeing
#1
Newbie
Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2024
Posts: 3
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times
in
0 Posts
Trek Shift 3 Tektro alloy linear-pull Brake pad Toeing
I am new to the forum so i can't post pictures yet but i have a question about how to align brake pad on cheap components.
I do some bike repair on the side as a kind of hobby. I have a fair amount of regular customers that I do tune ups for. It is mostly casual riders. When I have a new customers they generally bring in barn fresh bikes that they want to start riding again. So in comes the Trek Shift 3 bike with Tektro alloy linear-pull brakes. The brakes are very cheap, but they are about as good as they where when they were new. First I tried adjusting the cable but found the that I had to really open the brakes up to get the brakes not to rub and the lever was close to bottoming out on the grip. The wheel is true to within a 1mm. As i start to check the centering of the brake I noticed the pads are not lined up properly with the rim. As I fix that i notice two things. 1) to align the pad with the rim i have to set the brake pad post to the extreme lowest position. 2) The pad also has severe toeing in the wrong direction . The pad has conical washers but even when loosened and adjusted to the maximum toe in the washers allowed, the pads still are toed in the wrong direction. I couldn't even achieve parallel pads with the rim.
What i did to fix this situation was to just slightly bend the pads to the proper adjustment.
next time this happens should i do the same thing? or is there a better procedure to fixing this issue?
Thanks for your feedback
I do some bike repair on the side as a kind of hobby. I have a fair amount of regular customers that I do tune ups for. It is mostly casual riders. When I have a new customers they generally bring in barn fresh bikes that they want to start riding again. So in comes the Trek Shift 3 bike with Tektro alloy linear-pull brakes. The brakes are very cheap, but they are about as good as they where when they were new. First I tried adjusting the cable but found the that I had to really open the brakes up to get the brakes not to rub and the lever was close to bottoming out on the grip. The wheel is true to within a 1mm. As i start to check the centering of the brake I noticed the pads are not lined up properly with the rim. As I fix that i notice two things. 1) to align the pad with the rim i have to set the brake pad post to the extreme lowest position. 2) The pad also has severe toeing in the wrong direction . The pad has conical washers but even when loosened and adjusted to the maximum toe in the washers allowed, the pads still are toed in the wrong direction. I couldn't even achieve parallel pads with the rim.
What i did to fix this situation was to just slightly bend the pads to the proper adjustment.
next time this happens should i do the same thing? or is there a better procedure to fixing this issue?
Thanks for your feedback
#3
Newbie
Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2024
Posts: 3
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times
in
0 Posts
Thanks! [MENTION=150156]bboy314[/MENTION]
#4
I am new to the forum so i can't post pictures yet but i have a question about how to align brake pad on cheap components.
I do some bike repair on the side as a kind of hobby. I have a fair amount of regular customers that I do tune ups for. It is mostly casual riders. When I have a new customers they generally bring in barn fresh bikes that they want to start riding again. So in comes the Trek Shift 3 bike with Tektro alloy linear-pull brakes. The brakes are very cheap, but they are about as good as they where when they were new. First I tried adjusting the cable but found the that I had to really open the brakes up to get the brakes not to rub and the lever was close to bottoming out on the grip. The wheel is true to within a 1mm. As i start to check the centering of the brake I noticed the pads are not lined up properly with the rim. As I fix that i notice two things. 1) to align the pad with the rim i have to set the brake pad post to the extreme lowest position. 2) The pad also has severe toeing in the wrong direction . The pad has conical washers but even when loosened and adjusted to the maximum toe in the washers allowed, the pads still are toed in the wrong direction. I couldn't even achieve parallel pads with the rim.
What i did to fix this situation was to just slightly bend the pads to the proper adjustment.
next time this happens should i do the same thing? or is there a better procedure to fixing this issue?
I do some bike repair on the side as a kind of hobby. I have a fair amount of regular customers that I do tune ups for. It is mostly casual riders. When I have a new customers they generally bring in barn fresh bikes that they want to start riding again. So in comes the Trek Shift 3 bike with Tektro alloy linear-pull brakes. The brakes are very cheap, but they are about as good as they where when they were new. First I tried adjusting the cable but found the that I had to really open the brakes up to get the brakes not to rub and the lever was close to bottoming out on the grip. The wheel is true to within a 1mm. As i start to check the centering of the brake I noticed the pads are not lined up properly with the rim. As I fix that i notice two things. 1) to align the pad with the rim i have to set the brake pad post to the extreme lowest position. 2) The pad also has severe toeing in the wrong direction . The pad has conical washers but even when loosened and adjusted to the maximum toe in the washers allowed, the pads still are toed in the wrong direction. I couldn't even achieve parallel pads with the rim.
What i did to fix this situation was to just slightly bend the pads to the proper adjustment.
next time this happens should i do the same thing? or is there a better procedure to fixing this issue?
• Spherical washers are assembled in the correct order and orientation so they can actually work as intended.
• Brake bosses are parallel as seen from above, to give the brake arms a chance of adjusting properly.
But beyond that, with cheap components sometimes the best you can manage is to persuade them into the right sort of shape with whatever implement does the job - often a crescent wrench. Once you've done this the fix should be permanent, so not too worrying that you've bent aluminium parts, but do be careful to only bend as much as necessary.
Likes For grumpus:
#5
Newbie
Thread Starter
Join Date: May 2024
Posts: 3
Likes: 0
Liked 0 Times
in
0 Posts
Two things to check:
• Spherical washers are assembled in the correct order and orientation so they can actually work as intended.
• Brake bosses are parallel as seen from above, to give the brake arms a chance of adjusting properly.
But beyond that, with cheap components sometimes the best you can manage is to persuade them into the right sort of shape with whatever implement does the job - often a crescent wrench. Once you've done this the fix should be permanent, so not too worrying that you've bent aluminium parts, but do be careful to only bend as much as necessary.
• Spherical washers are assembled in the correct order and orientation so they can actually work as intended.
• Brake bosses are parallel as seen from above, to give the brake arms a chance of adjusting properly.
But beyond that, with cheap components sometimes the best you can manage is to persuade them into the right sort of shape with whatever implement does the job - often a crescent wrench. Once you've done this the fix should be permanent, so not too worrying that you've bent aluminium parts, but do be careful to only bend as much as necessary.
thanks! Grumps
next time I will need to double check the washer order
#6
Senior Member
Join Date: Jul 2005
Location: Boulder County, CO
Posts: 4,563
Bikes: '80 Masi Gran Criterium, '12 Trek Madone, early '60s Frejus track
Liked 512 Times
in
387 Posts
What's a matchbook cover, you might ask. Ask your grandpa.