Flak Jackets installed. Front brake is working perfectly. I put some teflon down the lines, but they shouldn’t need it. I oiled the brake mech itself. Hmmm… Is the cable hanging up somewhere along the way?
Anyone had this problem? I’ve got the cheapo dia-compe brake levers. I’m guessing that’s the problem. I notice the head of the cable stays stuck out at the lever when I brake. Bummer…
Replace the dia-comps? Shoot the bike and start all over again? 
-Robert
Sounds like a stuck cable. It shouldn’t be the lever, but ya never know. I ride a Zipp bike and use shift cables on the brakes. With a regular brake cable the rear return is poor at best, but with the smaller shift cables as brake cables it “pops” back. Its great. I now have all shift cables as brake cables. I still use brake housings with the shift cables to the calipers.
Hmmm. I have extra shifter cables here and can do that. Are they strong enough? For a temporary repair I could see doing that, but I have a race coming up. Plus I’ma bigga fatta sloba! :), Hate to break a cable trying to slow on a downhill turn. I’ve done way too many face plants already.
Thanks for the heads up. I’ll try that for tomorrow’s ride and see how it works. If I die my wife and lawyer will be contacting you.
-Robert
Contact who???/ I didn’t post that, someone stole my screen name. : ) What post???
I spoke with a few “wrenches” and was told it should not be a problem. I’ve been running them like this for about 8 months now without a hitch. Good Luck!
Thanks, Paul. Hey, they’re lighter too!
-Robert
Try squeezing the brakes at the mechanism (leave the cable out of the equation). If it doesn’t snap back, it’s the brake; if it does, it’s the cable (or possibly the lever; but that can be checked similarly by squeezing the brake manually and seeing whether the lever action is sticky).
getting-old:
You are a genius!
It worked like a charm. I just fixed it and you want to know why I did it now?
Well, I went for an 80 mile training ride today and initially forgot about it sticking. Yes, that’s right, I’m brain dead. I was hitting about 190 watts and going 17 mph and saying to myself “boy this wind sure is bad”. :0- Actually, the wind was only about 3-5 mph. Duh! I went about 10 miles and my quads were toast. Then I looked back and saw the brake hugging the wheel like a soldier on leave. I ended up taking about 5 extra minutes for the 80 miles, but hey, now I know how to toast my quads on the flats.
Thanks for the help. Obviously, that thick brake cable was the demon. It’s straight as an arrow, however. Hmmm…
-Robert