Cycling UK Forum

I got my son an old bmx so we can fix it up together.

First stop is the rear brake overhaul.

It has a plastic lever as standard and I got him a new metal tektro lever,however the distance they attach are different as you can see in the picture I’ve added.

The new white one attaches closer that the standard one which is creating too much slack in the upper gyro cable when attached?

Is there a work around for this or are there 2 different lever types?

Any help great appreciated

Your pic shows that the Tektro lever may use a nipple cable head which fits in the pivoted retainer shown in your photo protruding from the front of the lever. In use this pivoting retainer is pulled into the lever increasing its operational pull. Try pushing this in and you should find that the lever movement is increased.

This is the gyro cable end into the lever/s

Having set up hundreds of the damn things over the years I offer this:

Start from scratch - ie, take out all the existing adjustments ar every point - you can't have a too long cable by their very nature (I am assuming you have bought the correct replacement cable or that the fitted one was correct.) Make sure that the gyro unit is moving freely, if it sticks at all you won't get it to work well.

Fit the cable to the lever first then connect to the gyro. Balancing the gyro is actually quite simple if you do it methodically, don't try to take up all the slack at the top or bottom but a bit of each. You shouldn't be using the lever adjuster to do this, that's to allow take up of pad wear and cable stretch.

In theory its a five minute job

foxyrider wrote:Having set up hundreds of the damn things over the years I offer this:

Start from scratch - ie, take out all the existing adjustments ar every point - you can't have a too long cable by their very nature (I am assuming you have bought the correct replacement cable or that the fitted one was correct.) Make sure that the gyro unit is moving freely, if it sticks at all you won't get it to work well.

Fit the cable to the lever first then connect to the gyro. Balancing the gyro is actually quite simple if you do it methodically, don't try to take up all the slack at the top or bottom but a bit of each. You shouldn't be using the lever adjuster to do this, that's to allow take up of pad wear and cable stretch.

In theory its a five minute job

Thanks for the advice

It appears the 2 levers have different attachment lengths?

There is only 1 upper gyro cable listed to buy that I can see?

Fraz101 wrote:

foxyrider wrote:Having set up hundreds of the damn things over the years I offer this:

Start from scratch - ie, take out all the existing adjustments ar every point - you can't have a too long cable by their very nature (I am assuming you have bought the correct replacement cable or that the fitted one was correct.) Make sure that the gyro unit is moving freely, if it sticks at all you won't get it to work well.

Fit the cable to the lever first then connect to the gyro. Balancing the gyro is actually quite simple if you do it methodically, don't try to take up all the slack at the top or bottom but a bit of each. You shouldn't be using the lever adjuster to do this, that's to allow take up of pad wear and cable stretch.

In theory its a five minute job

Thanks for the advice

It appears the 2 levers have different attachment lengths?

There is only 1 upper gyro cable listed to buy that I can see?

What do you mean by attachment length?

yes in theory there is only one upper gyro cable usually on offer but I've seen all sorts of bodges on used bikes! lower gyro cables are usually offered in different lengths so its worth getting a match for that as you don't want loads of excess cable hanging off your fork!

if you mean the difference in the inner vs outer cable length yes this needs to match the lever. You should get another lever that is a closer match to the old one, or resign yourself to making special cables or putting longer slotted barrel adjusters in the system.

FWIW to me, that tektro lever looks more like is it meant for a MTN V brake than a BMX brake, i.e. it might well have the wrong cable pull anyway.

cheers

Thanks for replies

All good now,new cables and lever fitted and adjusted.

Cheers