I have a front rack I want to add but the saddle wire hanger is in the way of where the support bracket would fit. Is raising this as simple as loosening the hanger nut and letting out some slack on the left-side arm?
Apologies if this is a simple question but I’ve never had canti brakes before and I’m not in a hurry to mess with something that’s working well until I understand what I’m doing. 😅
Thanks y’all.
by BirdBruce
2 Comments
>Is raising this as simple as loosening the hanger nut and letting out some slack on the left-side arm?
More or less. BUT those cables are looking rough. The straddle cable has some broken strands. I would replace them. Then you can set it wherever you like
https://www.sheldonbrown.com/canti-trad.html
You have the simpler version of this question because wide-profile cantis are relatively insensitive to changes in the straddle height. Here you can raise it to get the clearance you need. If this were a low-profile canti, that wouldn’t work at all; the brake geo would be garbage afterward.
The straddle you have won’t work to re-use.
Take away both cables completely. Install the rack. From where you’re at now you want to be raising the straddle carrier as little as possible, so any options you have in the rack install that let you achieve that, do so. Then with the rack in place and level, put a new brake cable in, brake lever barrel adjuster all the way in, and attach the straddle so it just clears the rack stay plus about 3mm up to accommodate it settling in after the first few squeezes. Old main cable becomes new straddle, put that in place, take out the barrel adjuster a few mm to accommodate current pads intermediate wear state and give you some wiggle room, draw it all up lightly, anchor the straddle, squeezy squeezy to settle it all in, and make final adjustments as needed.