Tried to fix a sticky brake lever and spent 3 hours on it

Honestly, I thought it was just a cable issue on my old mountain bike, so I lubed it up and adjusted the tension like three times. Nope, still felt like garbage. Turns out the return spring inside the Shimano lever had snapped clean in half, and I didn't notice because it was hidden behind the rubber boot. Took me a trip to the bike co-op in Portland and a $4 part to finally get it working. Has anyone else chased a simple fix only to find out it's some tiny hidden thing?

2 comments

2 Comments

gray_perez521mo ago

Waited three hours trying to fix a sticky brake lever on my bike when I could have just lived with it for a few more months. The return spring snapping is annoying but not exactly the end of the world. You probably could have put some grease on the pivot point and called it good enough for commuting until the whole thing finally gave out. Sometimes we over-engineer these little problems when a band-aid fix would get us by just fine.

laura_white991mo ago

oh man, my buddy mark had basically the same thing happen on his trek. he was convinced his brake pads were glazed over so he sanded them, swapped them out, even bought a whole new rotor. turns out the little plastic bushing where the cable housing ends had cracked and was letting the cable slip just enough to feel mushy. a 50 cent part at the shop and a 10 minute swap later it was perfect. he was so mad he threw the old bushing across the garage.

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