For the best performance, your bike’s brakes need to be adjusted frequently. Every cyclist should know how to adjust bike brakes and, while all the moving parts can make it look intimidating, it’s not as complicated as it looks.
The fundamentals of maintaining, adjusting, and aligning your bike brakes are covered in this article.
Table of Contents
How To Adjust Bike Brakes?
Method 1: Adjusting Your Brake Pads
1. Examine your brake pads before making any modifications. When you pull the lever on your bike’s brakes, the brake pads are what keep the front tire attached to the wheels. If worn beyond the “wear line” line, you will need to replace the brake pads.
If the wear lines on your brake pads aren’t marked, you should keep them by making grooves in the pads.
You can either pick up new brake pads at your neighborhood bike shop or order them online.
Make sure your wheel is correctly positioned in the dropouts as well. If it doesn’t, your brakes won’t be in contact.
2. Check where the pads are making contact with the rim by pressing the brake lever. Both brake pads ought to be touching the rim of the front tire. The space between the pad and the tire should touch the rim in the middle of the pads. Too low or high a connection between the rim and the pads could cause them to make contact with the bike’s spokes or rubber.
Get down on your hands and knees to see the brake pads as you squeeze the lever.
Make sure the quick-release mechanism on your bicycle is not faulty or coming loose. The brakes won’t function if it isn’t tightly fastened.
3. Bolts holding the brake pads in place can be loosened by using an Allen wrench. Turn the Allen wrench in a counterclockwise direction to loosen the bolts. If you don’t remove all of the bolts, your brake pads won’t fall off the brake pad holder.
4. The brake pad holder allows the brake pads to be raised and lowered. They should be able to move up or down after the bolts are taken out. You could raise them to the center if they were placed too close to the rim. Lower them until they are in the middle if they were too high.
5. The brake pad bolts can be tightened using an Allen wrench. Till all bolts are securely fastened, keep rotating the Allen wrench counterclockwise. Check to see if the brake pads are installed correctly. If necessary, adjust.
Method 2: Tightening Your Brake Cables
1. To check for tightness, pull each brake lever. When you pull the brake levers, they should be about 1 1/2 inches (3.8 cm) away from the handlebars’ grip. If the levers touch the handlebars as you pull them, the brake cables may be too loose.
2. Leasing the barrel adjusters will allow for simple brake cable adjustments. Your brake cables may need to be slightly loosened, in which case the barrel adjusters can be loosened. Where the brake cables and brake levers converge is where the barrel adjusters are.
To loosen the brake cable, turn the barrel adjuster counterclockwise. If the barrel adjuster is released, the brake cable will be slightly tightened.
Check to see if the issue has been resolved by releasing the barrel adjuster and pulling the brake lever. You’ll have to modify the caliper if the brake cable is still too slack. You can leave the barrel adjuster in place. Do not tighten it.
3. Bolt holding the brake cable to the caliper should be removed. The caliper is the main component of the brakes, to which the brake pads are attached. The little cable sticking out of the caliper is the brake cable. Find the bolt that is holding the brake cable in place. Utilizing an Allen wrench, turn it until it begins to slightly loosen.
Keep the bolt in place as best you can. To loosen the bolt, turn the Allen wrench two or three times counterclockwise.
4. Pulling the brake cable outward will tighten it. Pulling the cable should be simple once the bolt has been loosened. Once you’ve used your fingers to pull the cable taut, hold it in position.
As you pull the cable, the brake pads on your front tire’s rim need to be snugged up. They should be snug enough to offer some resistance as you turn the tire, but not so tight that they completely stop you from turning it.
If you are unable to turn the tire, pull down on the brake cable-less instead.
5. Be sure to tighten the bolt connecting the brake cable to the caliper. Until the Allen wrench stops turning, turn it clockwise two or three times. The cable should stay in place once the bolt has been tightened.
6. Ensure that the handlebar barrel adjusters are tight. You need to turn the barrel adjusters clockwise several times until they are completely tightened. By tightening the barrel adjusters, the brake pads will be separated from the front tire. After tightening the barrel adjusters, your brake cables ought to be in good condition.
Check the brake cables by pulling the brake levers. Pull the brake levers 1 1/2 inches (3.8 cm) away from the grip on your handlebars at this point.
How To Adjust V Brake Pads?
Brake cable and pad adjustments for v brakes go hand in hand. After all, the time will come when you’ll need to replace or adjust them.
The time may be now if you can feel your brakes pulling while you’re riding, they make a loud screech when you apply them, or they’re not even on both sides. Here’s what to do.
Check Your Brake Pads
When attempting to diagnose a problem, it is wise to start with the brake pads because they are one of the most frequent causes of misalignment and poor brake traction.
It’s time to buy new brake pads if the brake pad has worn past the wear line or unevenly.
Top tip: Because synthetic colors in the rubber compound can produce that awful honking sound whenever you apply the brakes, we advise choosing brake pads that are either black or naturally colored.
Pull The Brake Lever To See Where Your Brakes Need Adjusting
As soon as your brakes are set up correctly, applying the brake lever will cause both brake pads to press evenly against the wheel rim.
Without touching the tire or sticking out past the rim’s lip, the brake pads should squeeze against the center of the rim. You want your brakes to make the most surface contact possible with the wheel rim.
You will be able to identify the source of the misalignment if one side of the brake squeezes more loosely than the other, overlaps the rim, or only squeezes slightly.
Loosen The Bolts Holding The Brake Pads In Place
After determining the area that requires adjustment, use an Allen key to loosen the bolt on the first brake pad. Loosen the opposite side as well since you might need to adjust both to fix the first.
It’s critical to avoid loosing them excessively. If you do this, the pads will come out of the holder and all the bolts and washers will fall to the ground. Simply loosen the bolt enough to allow the brake pad to be moved 5mm forwards and backwards as well as slightly up and down in the holder. This ought to be adequate to properly align your brakes.
Top tip: If you need new brake pads, you must completely wind out the old ones before installing the new ones. Just make an effort to keep track of the placement of any washers and bolts on the stem so you can duplicate it when securing new pads.
Move Your Brake Pads Into The Correct Position
You can now change the position of your brakes on your wheel. Push them closer if they were previously too far apart to close the space between the pads and rim. If they were too snug, move them a little bit farther out from the rim than you had them.
Don’t forget to line up the pads with the arc of the wheel, making sure they are flush and not rubbing against the tire or overlapping on the inner edges of the rim.
Your brake pads should be a few millimeters away from the rim in the ideal situation. Your brakes will be more responsive when you pull the lever if there is less space between the brake pads and the rim. Before pulling the lever, make sure the pads are not actually in contact with the rim.
Tighten Your Brake Pad Bolts Back Up
After you’re satisfied with how your pads are positioned, use the Allen key to retighten the bolts. As you tighten your brakes back up, be careful not to pull them out of alignment.
Additionally, make an effort to balance how tightly you’ve tightened the bolt on each side. This will guarantee that both brake pads operate simultaneously and equally, with equal responsiveness.
How To Adjust Your Disk Brake Pads?
Disk brakes, like v brakes, slow you down when you press the brake pedal because they have two pads that squeeze against a moving part of the wheel. In the case of disk brakes, this is the rotor, a metal disk located in the middle of your wheel.
Disk brake pads may deteriorate and misalign with the rotor over time. Even worse, worn brake pads can be hazardous and are harder to spot than those on v brakes, so it’s crucial to maintain them occasionally. Here’s how.
Stand Your Bike Upside Down On A Flat Surface
Your brake rotor must be adjusted while the wheel is being spun. So you should stand the bike upside-down so that its handlebars and saddle are resting in order to get ready for that.
An alternative is to simply ask a friend to lift the bike when it’s time to spin the wheel, or to buy a bike stand.
If you anticipate performing your own maintenance in the future, a bike stand might be a good investment.
Check The Alignment Of The Rotor
The rotor should be visible if you look down your wheel, where it is sandwiched between two brake pads inside the brake caliper. The caliper needs to be adjusted if the rotor is spaced unevenly on either side.
From here, it might appear that everything is fine. However, rotors can occasionally sustain damage or bend and only reveal themselves when the wheel is in motion. So, spin the wheel.
The rotor rotates with the wheel, so if it is bent, it should wiggle as it does so. In most cases, this means you need a new rotor, but you can true the rotor using a special tool that essentially lets you bend it back into shape.
If you spin the wheel and there is no lateral movement, you have successfully adjusted the rotor.
Loosen Your Disk Brake Bolts
You must realign the caliper if it appears that your rotor is closer to one brake pad than the other. To fix this, you must first remove the bolts at the top and bottom of the caliper.
Be careful not to completely loosen them. In order for them to move around a little bit without coming apart, their fittings should have just the right amount of slack.
Squeeze The Brake And Tighten The Bolts
Spin the wheel after your brake caliper has become loose, and then pull the brake lever firmly.
Both pads will align with one another as a result of the brake caliper’s grip on the rotor.
Retighten the bolts while the brake is still in place.
Release The Brake Lever And Test
When you let go of the brake lever, it ought to rest between the two brake pads inside the caliper. Although you should be able to see it, make sure there is no lateral movement by spinning the wheel to check.
In order to make smaller adjustments and move the caliper until they are evenly spaced, loosen one bolt at a time.
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FAQs
Why My Brakes Rub All The Time?
The calipers’ alignment is what causes problems the most frequently. The user must take action and correct the caliper alignment to prevent premature pad wear.
What Tools Are Needed To Fix The Rubbing On Bicycle Brakes?
The only tool needed for adjustment is an Allen wrench.
