hpr-knowledge-base/hpr_transcripts/hpr2154.txt

Episode: 2154
Title: HPR2154: Replacing a Bicycle Brake Cable
Source: https://hub.hackerpublicradio.org/ccdn.php?filename=/eps/hpr2154/hpr2154.mp3
Transcribed: 2025-10-18 15:00:49

---

This in HPR episode 2154 entitled Replacing a Bicycle Break Cable.
It is hosted by John Culp and is about 29 minutes long.
The summary is I replace a break cable and housing on my 1985 Schwinn.
This episode of HPR is brought to you by an honesthost.com.
Get 15% discount on all shared hosting with the offer code HPR15.
That's HPR15.
Better web hosting that's honest and fair at An Honesthost.com.
Hey all, this is John Culp and Lafayette Louisiana and it's been a little while since I recorded
an episode but I thought I would record one today, another one of my, what do they call
these things?
This whole series of me and maybe one or two other people doing things kind of out in
the real world and talking while we do them.
Today I'm going to be replacing the break cable on my bicycle.
I've just opened my shed and I'm going to pull my bike out.
I've mentioned in the past this bike is a 1985 Schwinn World Sport and it's kind of a
junky, I mean I don't know, it's not too bad.
I bought it at Goodwill and it was a pilot junk then because everything was all rusted
and filthy and it took some work to get it back in order but I know how to work on bikes
and I've got all the tools to do it so I got it in good writing condition and it works
great for me.
I've got a bike that I like very much.
It's in very good working order that is not a target for thieves.
The way I say trumpet guy's bike would be he rides a bike that has like a carbon fiber
frame and stuff.
It's a really nice bike but if he were to leave it outside parked in bike racks and stuff
it would be a target for thieves for sure.
What I've just done is put the bike up on this little repair stand that I have, I'll take
a picture.
This is not a job that's messy like the hub overhauled job so I'm going to take a picture,
maybe from this side.
It's really sunny right now, there's one, okay now take a picture of my little stand.
This gets the rear wheel up off the ground and I'll take a picture of where the problem
is there's a crack in the cable housing.
I don't think I've changed the brake cables since I bought this bike.
I don't even know how long ago it's been four or five years and I changed all the cables
then that both the shifters end the brake cables and the other day when I turned the wheel
a little bit farther than normal.
I saw a crack up here in the cable housing so what I'm going to do is replace the cable
in the housing and I think I'm going to make the housing a little bit longer this time
and that I think will help relieve a little bit of the tension.
We have to take another picture right here so you can see there's a little bit of an
art to getting the cable housing just right.
I'm going to take a picture showing where the cable housing keeps rubbing against the handlebars
probably contributing to to it breaking down a little bit.
I have in my shed here a bunch of brake cable housing and I've got a box of like a hundred
brake cables for maybe a 90 of them I'm sure I've used.
I haven't used as many of these as I thought but I'm going to pull a new one out.
I've got a bunch of them.
I bought the box of brake cables I think it was like 39 dollars for a hundred of them
and I thought we'll shoot they're not going to go bad and I will use them eventually
if not for my own bikes then for helping people repair their bikes.
So I've got a new brake cable out here I've got the the housing
and I'll take a picture of these.
I'm going to have pictures that I know a couple of people have remarked that they would like to
have had pictures with the the hub overhaul job because they didn't really understand what I was
doing so that that won't be a problem here there's my housing there's the new brake cables sitting
across a chair and I need to get my tools.
I did an episode a year or two ago about my what's in my bicycle repair toolbox so that's
it's the very toolbox that I'm getting out right now.
Plan it's a gorgeous day today absolutely gorgeous day the first one we've had in quite a long time
it's been hot for many months and today it's nice and cool breezy not great for my allergies but
man it feels good out here okay what am I looking for here to release the brake cable in the back
I need my I think it's a five millimeter hex key
I think it's a five millimeter let us see
yep take a picture of that I think I can do this without taking my
my penny A bag off
so I've got a picture here of the the rear brake it's the rear brake cable that I'm replacing
and the hex key so I need to I don't think I have to undo that part of it it's going to release it
to get this out completely I'm going to have to cut off the end actually I'm going to take off
this bag it's kind of getting in the way I've got these grocery bag penny air that are excellent
for just dumping stuff in there and carrying it around but they kind of get in the way right now
okay
I need my bicycle cable cutter
these bicycle cable cutters are like they're they're very much like regular wire cutters only
the the teeth are a little bit different I'm going to take a picture of the the teeth here
they're angled in such a way to help you get a a cut on cables and housing that won't
distort like distort the shape of the thing so what I'm going to do first is cut off the end of the
cable where the crimping thing is on there I'm going to pull the cable out
another picture
there might be too many pictures here but then I pull the whole cable and housing out
through all the little guides that are on the frame and up here at the handle where the break
lever is where you've got to look at the there are two little things right here that you have to
align just right so that the whole appears and that the cable will come out and take another picture
yeah and that's not going to work out I'll come out from this side
and now I can take it out okay so I've got the old cable out
at the handlebar you got to take the adjuster things and turn them around until the little slots
line up that will allow the cable to come out of there and then you pull the thing out now so
I've got the old cable out I will just throw that in the recycling bin here in a little while
and I'm going to take a picture of the the broken part of the old cable housing too
it looks like it's just the outer sheet that was compromised
and what I'm going to do is use the old one to determine the length of the new one
only I'm going to add I think I'm going to add about an inch maybe two inches to the length
uh and that will get it to just about the right length I think this has a little thing called
a feral on the end this is the little um metal thing I'll take a picture of the feral
a feral is this little metal thing that kind of tighties up the the end of the cable and you
always put one of those on the end of the cable housing before you finish the job okay so here's
a picture of the end of the cable with the feral next to it I think I'll go ahead and put a new
feral on I've got a box of like a hundred of these things and next thing to do is to measure out
the length of cable housing I've got looks like I've got enough to do several bikes worth here so
that's good I wasn't sure before I did this job and and looked at my supplies this morning I wasn't
sure how much cable housing I had but I think when I ordered cable housing I must have ordered like
50 feet of it I can't remember it's been so long ago that I ordered it but I've got plenty I
could do several bikes with what I have most of time but you don't need nearly this much cable
housing on like newer bikes because of the way the frames are set up they require shorter
runs of housing this one requires a cable housing run that goes all the way from the handlebars to
the rear wheel sorry I mentioned my allergies didn't I that's what that's about okay so there's
a little trick to cutting the cable housing you don't want to just you don't want to just like
put it in your cutters and just squeeze as hard as you can the way they say to do this is to kind of
gently squeeze the housing so I've measured this where it's like maybe two inches longer than
the old one gently squeeze the housing and kind of get through the plastic outer coating a little
bit or the rubber whatever this material is and then kind of bend it a little bit what you want to
do is try to cut it in such a way that you're not going to crush it because the opening on either
end where the brake cable goes through needs to be as perfectly round as possible so that there's no
resistance so what I've done is I've cut through the cable housing a little bit and I've exposed
the metal like coil inside and I'm gonna gently see if I can get a picture of that
that's too close
I'm gonna gently slide the teeth or blazer whatever of the cable cutters in between two of these
things just kind of slide it in there so I can cut only through one side of the thing that did
pretty well okay it's cut off and so what I do now is I take one of the tools I mentioned
in my what's in my bicycle repair toolbox and use it to work on the hole until it's perfectly
round now if you had one the best way to cut this off would be to use like a dremel or something
with a little spinning disc that would do a perfectly flat cut straight across without crushing it
failing that you can use these cable cutters and now I use the tool which is just a nail
just a regular nail I stick the point of the nail right in the end of the housing and then
kind of wiggle it all around to make sure that the opening is as round as it can be
and it's not crushed I do it on both ends just kind of put it in there and move it all around
I wonder if I can get a picture of that it's hard to hold that in place when I'm gonna try
it keep having to get my phone out of my pocket and so okay there's a picture of the nail sticking in the end
somebody's my turnout kind of shaky sorry oh oh sorry I'm sniffling on in my microphone as well
this is from the allergy all right so I think the ends of this are sufficiently round
I dig around in my box and my toolbox and find the fair rules and here they are
take a picture of the box of fair rules non crimping fair rules and they are called
I'll make sure I put this in the sun and get a better picture
okay I will put one fair rule on either end which one of these is the old one
okay that's the old one I throw that way over there so I don't accidentally put it back on
I don't think I would anyway I don't think I would because it just gets massive part in the middle
that's all cracked them and yucky looking this one is nice shiny and white so I'll take
one fair rule and put one on each end of this there's one end
and here's the other actually I think I should before I put the front one on I'm gonna run it
through the thing on the frame can I get a picture of that
better run it through the little housing guides on the frame these little circles that are
welded on there and then keep pulling until it's all out from this end
and then put the fair rule on the other end here this is the end up by the handle bars
now I'm gonna take the new cable and slide it into the slot on the brake lever
and then you have to put it through the little thing like this
let's see if I can get a picture of this
and then turn those things around where the where the slots don't line up anymore
and that'll mean that the cable won't fall out then you got to put the end of the new brake cable
through this end of the cable housing and to just go inside the I think I had it going between
I must have had it going between that
yeah okay there just put moving the cable housing or it goes in between the gear shifter and the stem
like I said there's a certain art to routing cable housing getting it just the right length
and everything you just want to make sure that when you turn the wheel of the bike
you're not putting pressure on the cable housing and I think my old one was putting a little bit
of pressure on it probably because it was a little bit too short and I hope this one's not too
short too it would be too short because at one point I got new handlebars for the bike after I
had already put on the brakes and the new brake cables and everything at one point I got a new
set of handlebars I think I mentioned that my one of my neighbors was throwing away a BMX bike
and I took that bike and took the handlebars off of it and put them on this bike and those
handlebars are taller than the ones that were on there before and so that meant that the brake
cable was probably a little bit too short so let's see how this goes here
now push the cable through there so this feral is now stuck in the front get a picture of that
okay
there's a cable up front and now I've got the cable in the back
this is going through here
oops trying to do this one-handed I'm gonna drop my phone if I'm like here
okay
and then I'm gonna pull this down where the feral goes in like that
so now there's a big long piece of the brake cable sticking out the rear end
and so the cable is in place now and it looks like this is probably going to be okay it's
better than it was before I think there's probably enough leeway there where it won't crack at
least not for a good while and then I'll have to do the job again now the tricky bit is getting
the brake cable adjustment just right and this is where we get to use the most excellent tool the
third hand tool which basically allows you to hang on to the cable much more easily and apply
tension to it while trying to tighten down the little hex bolt where is my
I'm missing my five millimeter hex key where did I think of
I thought I had it sitting on my seat but I guess it fell down somewhere oh there it's sitting
on the top nail back in so I don't lose that you want the you have to tighten the brake cable
enough where the brake pads hover just ever so slightly away from the rim of the wheel
and that way when you when you apply the brakes you'll get a nice firm brake instead of a squishy
brake you don't want to squeeze your brakes only to have the brake lever go all the way to the
handlebars it would be nice and firm instead of squishy if squishy is a technical term so what you do
is I hope I can get a picture of this I think I can because of the nature of the tool but you
uh use this third hand tool which will grip hold like grab hold of the brake cable and as you
squeeze it it pulls the brake cable tight and can lock into position so that you can let go of it
and leave it hanging there and then do your tightening as necessary let's see if I can get a good
picture out so I'm going to squeeze it until it looks about right and then put that thing in place
okay and now just tighten it down
using the five millimeter hex key
you don't have to tighten this super tight you know I mean you want it tight enough where
it's not gonna come loose as soon as you apply the brakes hard but you don't want to over tighten it
either okay that's gonna be tight enough there now you check the feel of it okay that's too
squishy I need to make it a little tighter so I undo the uh undo the hex bolt again oopsy what was
that sound I don't know what that sound was undo the hex bolt again and then to get out the
third hand tool right through there
and then squeeze it tight now normally the way I would do this is I would squeeze it all the way
until the brake pads were just barely touching the rim and then I would make an adjustment up on
the little thumb adjusters up at the handlebars however the thumb adjusters on these things don't seem
to be working right I think they're stripped or something so they're not gonna work so instead
I'm just doing it right here at the connection point at the rear brake
okay I've tightened it down again let it go
now I'm gonna check that brake okay it feels good all right I've got my new brake cable installed
and the last thing to do is to cut off the excess cable and then put a
a little cable end on it I've got a box of those also
cable end caps they call these I'll take a picture of them
you guys are gonna have a lot of pictures in this episode
cable end caps
I'll cut off these bicycle cable cutters have a part on them where you put the end cap to squeeze
it together and it crimps it just right you don't have to use these things but it's a handy little
thing you can and you can crimp it just with a regular pair of pliers if you need to
so I'm gonna leave probably three inches sticking out the end just have a little bit of space to work with
I'll get one of these end caps out and slide the end cap on
take a picture before crimping
and then let's see open up here okay I know
okay slide it on there I know I've crimped it
I can't get it to clear and trying to take a picture of it after it's crimped to
see how that came out I think my phone does not have a very good camera on it you know
yeah it looks alright I guess anyway so I've got a new brake cable installed now and that's that
I hope you guys have enjoyed hearing that this is a really a pretty easy job to do and some people
say that you should replace your brake cables once a year I haven't really adhered to that rule
I've only done it when I've seen obvious wear on the brake cables one thing that some people
also do before they put the cable inside the housing is to rub a little bit of chain oil or grease
or something all up and down the thing I think the the cables I have feel like they're a little bit
pre-loved but if you put a little bit of lubrication on that something light not too gummy or sticky
then that helps the cable move very freely inside the housing and you'll get much better performance
from your brakes all right thanks guys I guess I will talk to you guys some other time bye
you've been listening to Hacker Public Radio at HackerPublicRadio.org
we are a community podcast network that releases shows every weekday Monday through Friday
today's show like all our shows was contributed by an HPR listener like yourself
if you ever thought of recording a podcast then click on our contributing to find out how easy it
really is Hacker Public Radio was founded by the digital dog pound and the infonomicum computer club
and it's part of the binary revolution at binrev.com if you have comments on today's show
please email the host directly leave a comment on the website or record a follow-up episode yourself
unless otherwise stated today's show is released on the creative comments attribution share
like three dot or license
you