My front bike brake has been broken for a while. It still pulled me to a stop, but the cable had snapped right after the pads, and could have easily slipped out at any time, sending me hurtling into oncoming traffic. Not good when it’s my primary means of transport.
Fortunately most bike repairs are fairly easy to do yourself, and this one needed nothing more complex than an alan key and a pair of wire cutters.
The frayed brake cable. It was damaged by the D-lock that I keep slung over the handlebars when riding it or parking in the shed so that I always have it with me for locking up in town.
The first thing to do is release the old cable. This is a two-step process. Start by loosening the grip at the wheel end of the cable using an alan key. It helps to have a combination tool like the one I’m using below as various bikes will use different sizes. There’s no need to remove the gripper altogether – just loosen it enough for you to slide out the cable. My cable was so frayed that I just loosened it up, snapped off the loose end of the cable and slid the rest out.
Use an alan key to loosen the grip that holds the cable in place.
Once the cable has been freed, you need to pull it out through the sleeve that keeps it dry and stops it rusting. To do this, apply the brake. Now that there is no tension in the cable, the lever should stay in the applied position, allowing you to swing out the bracket that holds the top end of the cable within the brake lever (below).
Without any tension in the cable, you can apply the brake remove and remove it by swinging out the bracket that holds it in place.
The top end of the cable has a cylinder on it, which stops it slipping out of the bracket. Align this so that you can slide it out through the hole in the bottom of the bracket, guiding the cable through the slot in the end.
Be careful here, and preferably wear gloves, as the cable will have been greased to help it run smoothly through the sleeve. You can grease your new cable, but I have found that enough remains on the inside of the sleeve to slide in the new one without doing so.
Once the new cable has been slid into place, it must be secured using the original gripper.
Push the new cable through the sleeve until it emerges at the wheel end, and then lace it back through the gripper. You can do the next step on your own if you have flexible fingers, but if not you might want to ask for help.
Make sure that the bike lever is in the fully off position (pushed away from the handlebars) and then simultaneously pull on the brake cable (wheel end) and position the arms of the brake so that the pads are just off the wheel. Hold this position as you screw the gripper back into place using the alan key.
You will know if you have done it right if you can pick up the bike and spin the wheel around without it touching the brake at all. Make sure that you can stop the spinning wheel by pulling on the lever.
Trim the end of your new brake cable so that it doesn’t interfere with your wheels.
Check to see if there is a way to safely trace your brake cable down the side of the braking mechanism to avoid it snagging on the wheels, and then trim off the end with a little to spare so that it doesn’t slip out of the gripper.
Brake cables are usually sold in just one size and no distinction is made between front and back cables, so you will have a lot to cut off if you have just replaced your front cable.
Carefully test your repairs before taking your bike back out on the road to ensure it is safe to ride.
Frugal tip: If you’re replacing your rear cable and the damaged part was near the braking mechanism, hang on to the cable you’ve removed. You can easily cut it down to size to use as a replacement for the front cable when that, too, starts to fray.
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