you
hi I'm Jean with performance bicycle and
today we're going to make an adjustment
on cantilever rim brakes the tools that
you'll need for this adjustment are a 5
millimeter allen wrench a 3 millimeter
allen wrench and an optional zip tie now
the first thing you do before you make
any adjustment on any brakes whether
it's rim brakes or disc brakes is you
need to make sure the wheels are in the
dropouts all the way so I'm going to
take this bike off the repair stand okay
we're going to release the front
quick-release make sure the wheels
settle all the way in the dropouts
and tighten the quick-release back up
okay on the back wheel we're going to
release the quick-release and we're
going to lock it back into place and put
the bike back up in the stand now we're
going to make an adjustment on the brake
pads themselves first thing I want to do
is I want to release the cable from the
brake or I can adjust the pads
themselves we're going to take that
optional zip tie and we're going to wrap
it around the very back side of this
brake pad on the front it can be a tight
little squeeze there we go what this zip
tie does is this zip tie creates a tow
in for the brake pad now the reason why
you want these brake pads to be towed in
is you might be experiencing some
squealing when you hit your brakes this
tow-in will help take away some of that
squealing next we're going to reattach
the cable right up here and we're going
to align the brake pad now we're going
to take our five millimeter allen wrench
I like using a three-way allen wrench
this is a four five and six millimeter
allen wrench it has a five millimeter on
there course and I like using this
because it just gives me a little bit
better handle on making the adjustment
I'm going to take the five millimeter
and we're going to release this locking
nut on here and we're going to push the
pad up against the rim now we want to
get the pad as high on the rim as we
possibly can push up against there get
as high as you can and make sure the
front of the pad and the back of the pad
this front section here and the back
section here where's it is make sure
that both of these are equal distance
from the edge of the rim also we want to
make sure that when we tighten this down
that the pad is flat up against the rim
that's hitting the rim solid instead of
maybe the front edge hitting or the
bottom edge hitting you're working
against the spring on these so sometimes
it's a little bit tight to lock that in
we're going to do this make the same
adjustment to the other brake pad also
okay once you've made that adjustment
release the cable again and remove the
zip tie that you put on and attach your
cable now after you've attached that up
squeeze brake lever several times to
make sure that both brake arms are
moving the same distance and that the
pads are moving off of the rim the same
distance on both sides in this case it
looks like this right arm is moving a
little bit more than the left arm is but
we're going to go ahead and make that
adjustment going to take our three
millimeter allen wrench in this case and
we're going to make an adjustment to
this little screw right here on the
bottom okay this screw right here
adjusts the spring tension on this
particular arm when you screw this in it
creates more spring tension and makes
the arm deflect more we're going to
squeeze the brakes a couple times and
see if they're moving equally they're
obviously they're not moving equally we
have the right arm moving a little bit
more than the left arm so what I'm going
to do I'm going to go in here to this
adjustment screw on the left arm and I'm
going to use my three millimeter allen
wrench and I'm going to screw this in a
couple turns as you can see now they're
balanced out quite a bit better it's uh
it's not perfect but it's enough so
where the wheel clears the the wheel
clears the brake pads on both sides and
that's what we're looking for make sure
though that before you make any kind of
adjustments like this that your wheels
are true it's very important it'll make
this adjustment quite a bit
easier okay that's how you adjust
cantilever brakes if you'd like to learn
more visit our performance bicycle
Learning Center or if you live near one
of our performance bicycle shops come in
and talk to one of our spin doctor
mechanics and have a great ride