Monday, June 28, 2010

Replacing bike brake pads

Yesterday when the fiancee and I went out on bikes to Jake's Ice Cream, I noticed that my rear brake pads on my Trek 7700 FX were clear to the nubbins.

I remember I'd replaced them before, although I couldn't find any notation of it in this blog or anywhere.

I'd hoped to get a run in using my trip to Atlanta Cycling as an errand but I couldn't find my old Cannondale hex wrench tool, so I couldn't remove the brake pads. Just as well because the pads still on the bike helped serve as a guide as to proper placement of them when it came time to taking them off.

So I drove to Atlanta Cycling and bought brake pads. I bought a set of Bontrager Linear Pull Brake Pads for $14.99, a pretty good deal. Just buying the pads themselves (you can pull out a pin on the pad assembly and slide the new ones in) cost the same price.

A new hex wrench tool cost me $11.99. I was in business.

I came back home and used the hex wrench to unfasten the brake assembly. When it's in place it's impossible for me to remove the rear tire. Once un-hexed, it was a snap to pull off the brake pad assemblys. All I had to do was unhex it and make sure I kept track of where the washers were.

Then I put on the new ones, making note of where the old pads were in relation to the tire.

This ultimately didn't seem to matter as I used the tire itself when I put it back on as to where I should properly place the brake pads, tightening them along the way.

Finally I rehooked the brake assembly and made sure the brake pads were properly spaced apart from the tire (and not rubbing against it).

A short spin around the neighborhood served as a test of the new brakes and made me feel extremely handy today!

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