Brake upgrade and handle bar wrap clean up.

As part of the Xtracycle rebuild that has been taking place, I decided it was finally time to properly upgrade my brakes.  The Xtracycle requires V-brakes which need relatively long "pulls" on the brake cable.  The brake levers on my old Raleigh were anything but long pull so I used a little gizmo called a travel agent to increase the length of pull a bit.  It worked, but only if everything was perfectly adjusted.  So....given my general attention to maintenance, this usually meant my rear brakes were not that great. So with some Xmas $$ I finally bought a new set of brake levers.  The replacement goes a little something like this.

Starting point with busted up, worn out wraps....the ghetto tape job was from a trial run at brake cable replacement.

Here's the "travel agent" that was helping out the old levers.

First step, pull the brake hoods back and remove tap and twine holding wraps in place.  If your wraps are shellacked like mine, grab some course sand paper and make a mess!

I like to use just a strip of sand paper and work over the bars like a shoe shiner would.

Once you've got them sanded enough, remove the wrap!

It will now look like a twisted nightmare of cork.

Detach the brake cable from the brake assembly and pull the cable out through the brake lever.

Inspect the brake cable while you have it out....if it needs replacing now's the time!

 

Now you can find the set screw holding the lever on the bar and release it and remove the brake lever.

Reverse the procedure to install the new lever.  If you need to this is a great time to replace the brake cable housing....mine was about 26 years old and cracked in multiple places....it was time!

Find a cable housing route that works for you.  I use electrical tape to hold mine in place.

Repeat for the second lever!

I ended up keeping the travel agent along with the new levers.  Now I can skid the back wheel even with the studs!

Finalize all cable routing, and brake lever positioning.

Re-wrap the bars....I "tack" them in place with electrical tape until I can do the permanent twine wraps.

The next and final steps will be to twine wrap both ends of the wrap (stem side and bar end) followed by several coats of shellac to get just the right color.  I haven't even had time for this yet....meaning, yes, I'm riding around with sand blasted ghetto handlebar wraps with electrical tape.  Time permitting I finish up this weekend so you can see the final product!