Hello all, I'm building up a bike (2010 Kona PhD) that I bought off marketplace recently. For some reason this guy had fully disassembled everything, taking everything off the frame. It's been a good learning experience for me at least, everything has gone back on well except I'm running into slight difficulties with the front brakes. The bike has linear pull brakes, and I bought new pads for them since the old ones were missing. I think they were pretty heavily worn when he was disassembling so they got thrown.
The brakes on the bike are linear pull avid brakes. As near as I can tell based on the 99 spokes posting and manufacturer's picture, these are the original brakes that came with the bike. Unfortunately the internet archive version of the original kona webpage didn't get the specs sheet saved.
Anyways I went to install the new threaded stud brake pads and the rear ones went on no problem, but in the front I'm having issues with the clearance. I already swapped the sets of spherical spacer washers so that the narrow one is on the inside, but I'm still running into problems. The brake arms are still significantly angled outward when the pad contacts the rim, and there is not much clearance for the arms to spring outward when the braking force is released.
Should I try to move both sets of spacers to the outside of the pad? My understanding is this would eliminate the omnidirectional adjustment that these special spacers provide, but it seems like that's the only way to get the pads closer to the brake arms. Or are there other, thinner brake pads out there that I should look for? If so please send recommendations. I've got the stock Jagwire mountain brake pads (I believe "sport" is the model) new from my LBS.
Another somewhat related mystery with this brake situation in the front on this bike. With the carbon fork there is only one set of holes on the brake mounting posts for the spring pin to sit in instead of the regular 3 options. The issue with this is the brake springs are hardly engaging at all, providing too little tension to spring the arms back out even with the adjustment screw cranked all the way in. Should I try to bend the long arms of the springs? It seems easy enough to get in there with some pliers and add a little more curvature to the spring arms to make them press a little harder
Thanks in advance for any advice! (second try at posting this because I messed up and didn't get the photos in first time around)
by wishy-washy_bear
2 Comments
You probably need a thinner pad, like Koolstop Thinline: [https://koolstop.com/products/thinline-threaded](https://koolstop.com/products/thinline-threaded)
Koolstop Thinline should help you here.
As for the spring issue, I’m not sure since you said you already have the adjustment screws tightened in all the way. Perhaps try cleaning and lightly sanding the brake post mounts to get smoother actuation. If they were my brakes I’d try bending the springs, done that to cantilever brakes before. But no promises that you won’t damage things.