How about that Sheldon Brown? What that guy doesn’t know about bikes… Well I’m sure there’s some smartalec out there who violently disagrees with what he says about left-hand-threaded knurled filching grommets (or some such) but for average plonkers like me his advice is gold.
Take my latest brake problem for example. My commute machine has those basic direct-pull cantilever jobbies—simple and effective. But lately they’ve been scraping a bit on the rim. Hmmm, had that old wheel got a bit wonky-fied on the descent from Mt Stanley a few weeks ago? Well, the rim is getting worn-out and needs replacing anyway, maybe a new wheel is what I need?
Nope. Now it’s scraping on the other side. Fiddle, fiddle. Bark knuckles. Swear. No improvement.
Hmm. Time to stomp inside and consult Sheldon.
Right off the bat I get his page on adjusting cantilever brakes. Good start. And then it falls into my lap: centering direct-pull cantilever brakes. Have a tamper with that little grub screw down there. Twiddle, twiddle. Readjust the cable tension. Sweet. Couldn’t be easier, once you know how.
Where would hopeless nonmechanicals like me be without the incredible resource that is sheldonbrown.com? Have you been saved by Sheldon? And is there anywhere else to turn when you need good advice on bike maintenance?
[Photo: Brake mechanism by zimpenfish on Flickr]
Yes indeed, Sheldon is a cycling god.
Posted by Chris Gerhard | 19 October 2007, 5:58 amSheldon Brown is one of the most wonderful things about the internet. One of the greats. I’m so sorry to hear he’s ailing.
Posted by Surly Dave | 19 October 2007, 10:48 amSheldon is so incredibly nice on the Internet also. He never got caught up in all the ridiculous little arguments that would pop up on Usenet. He even responds fairly quickly to personal emails.
Posted by Fritz | 20 October 2007, 8:26 amI’m going to have to disagree. Just because I have exactly the same problem and found exactly the same page! Except for me, it isn’t doing squat!!! And it seems to be the ONLY page on the web describing this problem.
I’m very new to this tho, so I may be missing something obvious =(
Posted by jason | 8 July 2008, 6:30 am