2004 Dual Front brake - return sticky

Triathlon Forum
1

Bought my first road bike in about 10 years off the internet (model year close out bargain), and overall I’m extremely pleased with it. One thing that falls into the minor annoyance category though, is that the front brake is sluggish to return after you release it. Consequently, the lever kind of rattles a little after you’ve braked and then let go. It brakes fine, though.

It’s a Cervelo branded brake, and the lever is not spring loaded, so I would normally write it off as one of the trade-offs at this price point, but the thing is that the rear brake, which is the same design, works just great and it’s got a longer cable run. So, since most of my experience is working on moutain bikes, I was thinking maybe I did something wrong when I assembled the bike. Couple of questions for people familiar with this bike/brake:

  1. Should the cable run underneath the aero bars? The cable length seemed too long for this, so I’ve got it running over the top of the left aero bar then down between the bars to the brake.

  2. Is there some way to increase the spring force on the return for this brake?

Any help would be much appreciated.

2

It’s likely the cable coating.

That happened on my Dual, exactly as you describe. Change cable & housing and problem should be solved.

I do have mine routed under the aerobars…by the way.

3

Put lube on cable when inserting it in the housing. Lubed brake and shift cables work very nicely.

4

Use Teflon cables. They are one of the best advances in bike industry.

5

Had a similar problem – the return spring had worn/bent. It was toast.