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How to Tighten the Brakes on a Bicycle

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Part of the video series: How to Fix Bicycles

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Summary: How to tighten the brakes on a bicycle in this expert self help video

Views: 11,181 | Tags: repair, diy, fix, maintenance, bike, bicycle, flat, chain, bicycles, cycling, bicycle repair

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About the Expert

Michael Novelli Michael Novelli has been BMX bike stunt riding for over 11 years. He has traveled and competed in numerous professional competitions across the United States.... read more

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by jaminroe

Dude, your videos are great! Thanks a bunch. Keep posting!

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by Jacky

Brilliant! For the complete novice (moi), this shows you simply and quickly how to do the job - I can now do at home what I used to have to take my bike to the shop for!

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Video Transcript

How to Tighten the Brakes on a Bicycle

Hi! This is Mike on behalf of expertvillage.com. For more information about bicycle maintenance please visit Prairie Path Cycles in Winfield, Illinois or visit our website at www.prairiepathcycles.com. In this clip I’m going to be showing you how to tighten your brakes. Now the first sign you’ll notice that you need to tighten your brakes is it when you pull your brake lever it goes almost all the way to your grip which it shouldn’t do. You should be only pulling it about a quarter or half way to the grip if you are brakes are adjusted correctly. Now the first method you are going to want to use to try to tighten your brakes is up by your brake lever. There is a barrel adjuster that when you turn left or counterclockwise pulls out, which tightens up the cable and brings your brake arms closer to your wheel, which will tighten it up and there is a little locking nut on the barrel adjuster that snugs tight to your brake lever and once you get that done you can check your brakes and you can see they are still pulling a little bit too much so if you do need a bigger adjustment than what your barrel adjuster can do there is a nuts on the rear brake arm, which when you loosen up hold down the cable and push the brake arms closer to the rim. Once you get it close enough to the rim but still not touching tighten that bolt back up and then check with your brake lever again to see where it is at and you can see now it doesn’t pull nearly as much as how it was before but if you decide that still it is a little bit too tight or little bit too loose you can use your barrel adjuster to fine tune it to get it exactly how you want to pull and that is how you tighten your brakes.

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