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I have one of these on the back of my road bike and the caliper doesn't seem to have enough spring tension in it to make the brake retract all the way. This results in the cable flapping around and hitting the top tube which gets quite annoying. I can't see anywhere to adjust the spring tension and can't seem to find anything on the internet about it. The front one is fine, I didn't have to do any adjustments to it when I first put it on. Any ideas?
Quite possibly a problem with the rear section of outer cable, often caused by a tang on the end of the spiral wrap catching the inner, and not helped by having too much outer causing a hump in the cable rather than a smooth curve.Also worth checking that none of the caliper pivots are binding.
The cable runs free in the rear section, I removed the cable to check and it's definitely the caliper. It doesn't seem to retract all the way back out once pushed into the rim.
seized caliper?
Hope not, I've only had the bike from new for about a month :\ I'll take it apart and clean it all up I suppose.
Possiblity of dirt or similar gumming up the pivot points.
It may be worth removing it then removing the brake blocks(to prevent contamination)give it a quick soak in degreaser and then apply fresh lube to the pivots and work it through by squeezing by hand to see if that frees it up.
I dont know what brand of brakes are fitted(possible rebranded Tektro) but a lot have a small grub screw in the top of the arm which when screwing in,increases the spring tension.
Failing the above it may just be knackered,time for a upgrade?
As I said it's new and has been doing this straight out the box. I would have taken it back but ordered online (from triton) so seemed like too much effort and expense in sending it back!
Hose it down in WD40 or similar; it's just a sticky caliper and will free up no problems.