Brifters!

[ShawnoftheDread]

If your brifters have the cables already installed, it should be fairly easy provided you have a decent cable cutter. It took me about 15 minutes to change my grip shifters, though I should have replaced the cable housing but didn’t.

[Dirt]

You’ll need new housing to go with those new cables. There are special cable and housing cutters that make cutting a very easy process. There’s no substitute for the right cutting tool for cables and housing. The little ferrules (plastic things that go at the ends of the housing) are very important. They keep water out and keep the housing from cracking at the ends.

Sheldon Brown, may he rest in peace, is your friend. http://sheldonbrown.com/cables.html

[KelOnWheels]

I shall have to get a cable cutter (or go down to VeloCity and borrow one). The brifters came with cables & housing.

[thecyclingeconomist]

@KelOnWheels 37236 wrote:

I shall have to get a cable cutter (or go down to VeloCity and borrow one). The brifters came with cables & housing.

Come over and we’ll install in about 10 to 15 minutes. Get 4ft. of brake and 4ft. of shifter cable at the LBS. I have ferrules/cable cutter.

Shoot me a PM.

[thecyclingeconomist]

You get this installed?

@KelOnWheels 37236 wrote:

I shall have to get a cable cutter (or go down to VeloCity and borrow one). The brifters came with cables & housing.

[KelOnWheels]

@thecyclingeconomist 39503 wrote:

You get this installed?

Not yet, and I totally missed your previous post!

[KelOnWheels]

Midway on the ride in this morning I noticed my rear brake lever was pulling a lot farther than the front one, which it wasn’t doing yesterday… By midway on the ride home it was pulling all the way to the bar and I could NOT get the freakin barrel adjuster to turn…

Got home and managed to adjust it by unscrewing the adjuster quite far out.

Did one of my cables just decide to stretch a whole bunch or are my janky brifters trying to warn me of their (and my) imminent demise? I’d best get the new ones on!

Also my rear brake pads appear to be made of cheese as they are looking quite worn already. (When did I crash into the sidewalk and get the new brakes? Oh, end of August.)

I like cheese. What were we talking about?

[krazygl00]

@KelOnWheels 40654 wrote:

Midway on the ride in this morning I noticed my rear brake lever was pulling a lot farther than the front one, which it wasn’t doing yesterday… By midway on the ride home it was pulling all the way to the bar and I could NOT get the freakin barrel adjuster to turn…

Got home and managed to adjust it by unscrewing the adjuster quite far out.

Did one of my cables just decide to stretch a whole bunch or are my janky brifters trying to warn me of their (and my) imminent demise? I’d best get the new ones on!

Also my rear brake pads appear to be made of cheese as they are looking quite worn already. (When did I crash into the sidewalk and get the new brakes? Oh, end of August.)

I like cheese. What were we talking about?

Probably one of your brake cable clamp nuts came loose. Loose nuts. That’s your problem.

[KelOnWheels]

@krazygl00 40662 wrote:

Loose nuts. That’s your problem.

Ain’t that always the way…

[KelOnWheels]

@krazygl00 40662 wrote:

Probably one of your brake cable clamp nuts came loose.

I did try to check for that but I can’t find anything obvious where any cable looks like it’s slipped. SO MYSTERIOUS!

[Tim Kelley]

@KelOnWheels 40690 wrote:

I did try to check for that but I can’t find anything obvious where any cable looks like it’s slipped. SO MYSTERIOUS!

If it’s not your nuts, maybe you have a screw loose?

[DismalScientist]

Could you have lost a large chunk of your brake pads? (I don’t grok the notion of “cheesy” pads.) As pads wear, it takes more cable pull to engage them.
Changing brake pads is a fairly simple procedure and would suggest doing so if they are excessively worn, hardened, or otherwise not up to spec.

[KelOnWheels]

Seems I just wore out the pads and had some cable slippage. Now rockin some new KoolStop salmon pads courtesy of BicycleSpace.

And apparently I need to overhaul my headset.

[Author]

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