[BikerB]

Hi,

I have a caliper brake for my road bike that won’t spring open. It’s definitely not the cable. The brake mechanism freely opens and closes. It just won’t spring open again. What could be the issue?

 

Here is a video of the brake caliper opening and closing but only by because my hand is opening and closing the brake – https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iw5HtnyJouc

Topic

[BikerB]

gthornton101 wrote:

I had a similar thing on my old SRAM Apex rear brake – took it apart (it was gunked up with crud in between), thoroughly cleaned, reassembled, and works fine!

 

This is exactly what happened. I thought that all 3 bar linkages were freely moving. It turns out that one bar linkage was practically jammed. It was the smallest of the linkages and i didn’t notice it not moving when i manipulated the brake caliper. I find it interesting that it requires all 3 bar linkages to move to allow the spring to be able to return the brake to the normally open position. 

 

As already suggested as a fix, i repaired the brake by stripping it down, thoroughly cleaning it, regreasing the pivots, and reassembling the brake caliper. Now it works like a beauty. 

 

 

Thanks for the help everyone!

[gthornton101]

I had a similar thing on my

I had a similar thing on my old SRAM Apex rear brake – took it apart (it was gunked up with crud in between), thoroughly cleaned, reassembled, and works fine!

[oldstrath]

If the spring is intact and

If the spring is intact and in place, then try cleaning everything thoroughly.

[CXR94Di2]

Obvious faults first, spring

Obvious faults first, spring has jumped off from lugs or spring has broken.  The spring mounts down one arm and in the centre behind the mounting post.  You need to separate the arms to see if the lug has snapped or spring has jumped off lug

[Author]

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