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TRP rear Spyre and HY/RDs freezing up and cease to work!
Interesting problem this week! So as many of you know this week was minus 7 degrees centigrade (19.4 Fahrenheit) in the night in many parts of the UK. The wife left for her commute at 6:30am on her GT Grade with the TRP HY/RD brakes. Ten minutes later comes back, the rear brake has seized on, the the brake lever has gone "floppy" like the cable is not "returning" so it's not springing back.
I have the TRP Spyres, exactly the same thing happened to me half an hour later!! Rear brake seized on after the first pull. Lever goes floppy.
Upon having a look at them, I reckon it's because the holes for the cable to come through mean that the cable outers are facing upwards, therefore allowing water to get down inside the cable outer. Of course when you go out into the cold and start cycling, this freezes, meaning the rear stops working. On the front brakes, the outers both face downwards, so it's not an issue. Any idea how to solve this one? Otherwise it means the bikes can't really be ridden if it's really cold. Obviously I'm now going to have to cover up the rear calliper when I wash the bikes. But water might still get in from rain.
Looking to you guys for a solution to stop it freezing up. I'm thinking, disconnect it, try and pour the water out, maybe add some lock anti-freeze, and a "v-brake" rubber boot thing, maybe packed with marine grease, to cap it off. What do you reckon?
I want to sort it out cos I thought disc brakes were awesome up to this point!
https://www.instagram.com/p/BNfLDKTjggX/?taken-by=stefmarazzi
If you're new please join in and if you have questions pop them below and the forum regulars will answer as best we can.
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9 comments
The perfect sealant for this situation (except using rubber boots) is to fill that area with a BIT of WATERPROOF sticky grease (we use this grease on rc boats flex shaft.) pull the lever, fill the area inside , let the lever, refill. will post pics soon. all this assuming you have sealed ferules at that point... REMEMBER! USE A LITLE AMOUNT just enough to seal the hole around the inner cable output from the adjuster, areas around disk brakes are not good for grease. I have these brakes for a while, I diped them on water but I had no problem so far because I use jagwire sealed ferule down there.
fantastic brakes and where to find them....
I have the gt grade and hy-rd's and had the same problem 2 weeks ago with the rear freezing after 5 minutes of my commute. The issue is water droplets in the outer cable, even small amounts freeze and grab the cable either making the cable go slack (brake stuck on) or lever hard (brake cannot be applied).
Solution which worked perfectly first time to -8c was to remove rear wheel (not strictly needed but a bit easier), support on a work stand to slightly tilt the back of the bike up (though the tilting isn't that needed), then at the top of the brake cable entry blob on a drop or two of wet lube (I used muc-off ceramic wet as I had it to hand), it will drip into the cable outer over the course of 5 minutes. Repeat 10 times over an evening (or until you get bored) and the issue will be fixed. I washed the bike at the weekend (+5c) and put a couple drops in again to help make sure any fresh water didn't cause any issues, again in -2c it worked fine.
TLDR: drip wet lube into the rear cable outer.
Good luck!
A good squirt of wd40 or gt85 (other products available) after each wash would probably go a long way to solving the problem.
I did try that, and also running some oil inside the cable outer, but without much luck. Only the grease seems to work.
My bike with Hy:Rds lives outside when at work, although under cover but still faces all weathers when I ride it to/from work and I had to replace the rear cable back in September which was a year after I put the bike together. My ride home is at 22:00 so pretty cold at times.
I've had this issue with Spyres and BB5's on my CX. Rain and road spray simply run down the cable into the housing. Brake calipers on chainstay mounts are more prone to it.
Your proposed fix is excatly what I did two years ago. It works well... If you include it in a planned maintenance schedule
Last week, I forgot to check the status of the fix but it didn't take long to find out that the grease packed into the boot had gone and water had got into the cable. Had to stop to buy a lighter to sort it out.
I'm watching the weather forecast as I type this whilst thinking "Bugger. I forgot to fix that cable problem properly last week".
Second choice bike for me tomorrow... although I still have my emergency lighter...
@SP - it's a totally different issue. Standard rim brakes don't have a cable pointing downwards and therefore able to channel water into the housing.
Spot on sir. Since disc calipers were moved to the "improved" position between the chainstay and the seatstay many cables now point skywards, inviting water to fill the cable outer. I regularly smear a blob of waterproof grease around the exit hole, it seems to work.
Granted, the position of the caliper does make fitting a rack or mudguards easier but at what potential cost?
Another case of bike designers not riding their own machines?
I had exactly the same problem with Spyres and I'm not big on bike washing. It doesn't take excessive washing - any rain will catch on the exposed cable inner and run down into the housing. Rubbish design.
I no longer have that bike, so not a problem this winter
Can you get any sort of wash that includes an antifreeze element?