Adjusting brakes

On Monday, July 20, 2020 at 9:14:23 PM UTC-5, John B. wrote:
On Mon, 20 Jul 2020 19:04:34 -0700 (PDT), AK
wrote:

On Monday, July 20, 2020 at 10:49:43 AM UTC-5, Stephen Bauman wrote:
On Monday, July 20, 2020 at 9:59:59 AM UTC-4, AK wrote:

I just found a broken spoke on my rear wheel.

I think my bike is plain wore out.

I need a better bike, but everyone is out except those bikes costing $800+.

Does anyone have any mountain bikes in stock?

Andy

The broken spoke probably means the wheel is wobbling from side to side, when it is spun. This means you had to increase the brake clearance to make sure the brakes did not rub. The increased clearance meant that the brakes did not lock onto the rim, when you applied the brakes.

The first order of business is to replace the broken spoke and true the wheel. You may find there are more than one broken spoke. This is best done by a bike shop.

Once the wheel is fixed, the brakes should be easy to adjust.

Bike is at the shop for spoke replacement and truing.

I saw some material on truing, but it was confusing at best.

Andy

There is a book - "The Bicycle Wheel", by Jobst Brandt, which can be
downloaded that explains the bicycle wheel in excruciating detail, but
it is probably more logical for the average rider to just take the
bike to a bicycle shop :-)
--
Cheers,

John B.

That is mostly true.

But as a retired scientist, I love to learn new things.

I will at some point learn how to true a wheel.

Best regards,

Andy

I tried to look at my bearings.

I have greased and repacked them many years ago.

It appears it takes special tools now to do so.