How to Adjust Bike Brakes | Bike Maintenance

Learn how to adjust bike brakes and keep your brakes working smoothly and safely from expert Jesse McDonough in this Howcast video.

Hi my name is Jesse McDonough and I'm here at Spokesman Cycles in New York City right by Union Square. I'm a bicycle tour guide in New York and formerly a bike messenger and I'm here to tell you a bit about the bike. Let's talk about brake adjustments. There's a number of different reasons why your brakes can need to be adjusted. The brakes themselves can be rubbing on the rim; they might not be tight enough. But we'll start with just tightening the brakes themselves. So first you see this brake, it's in pretty good shape. You really want two finger lengths between the handlebar and the break where you squeeze, so here you got plenty of room, but on this side the break itself goes almost all the way to the handlebar, way more then two finger-lengths. So here clearly is not tight enough. We're going to try to start with a minor tightening with the barrel adjusters. So here the barrel adjusters just twist and as you pull them out of the break handle itself this will tighten the break. In this case it's probably tightening it a bit more but not necessarily enough, you still have less then two finger-lengths. So now that opening the barrel adjuster did not tighten your brakes enough what we're going to have to do is open up the break so that you can tighten your brake cable here. So you're going to take an Allen wrench and all you got to do is unscrew this just a bit so you pull the break cable tight here so that the break pads are resting along the rims, so you can hear them rubbing along the rims here and at that point you want to tighten the cable to exactly where is should be and if you notice I left the barrel adjuster opened so that way now the rim is just barely rubbing along the brake pads but as you tighten the barrel adjuster as the brake cable is already tight again it should open up just perfectly so that your brakes are the exact tension you want them but at the same time aren't going to be rubbing on the wheel, so we tighten the barrel adjuster here and see how that worked. Perfect. Got two finger-lengths and a nice tight brake.

[TommyDaniels-ztzy]

It might be from 13 years ago but this clip has just saved me from having to bring my bike to the repair shop. Thank you!

[SoraVids]

This short video was from YouTube’s golden age - quick to the point no vlog or advertising in the video. An old hidden gem!

[poor_impulsive]

that was perfect advice - quick and easy - straight to the point and no stupid annoying music - very nice

[calebd]

Omg the quality is so good for 9 years ago

[sickeningnoandrealfierceto]

Thanks this really helped!! I almost died so many times when I could have just tightened them so easy. I was going too fast the other day and pulled the brake but nothing happened and my life flashed before me...

[katan]

After about 1hr if annoyance found this guide and boom! Brakes adjusted perfectly in about 10mins! Thank you from the UK!

[lukegodfrey]

Thank you for the tutorial.. pretty simple, but I had no clue how to do it.

Being able to stop when I want to will be a life preserving bonus... thank you!

[mentatchris]

Exactly what I needed to help my son with his bike. Thank you!

[lenkamerman]

Wow, clear and easy to follow, I no longer want to end it all on the last step of putting my son’s bike together, thanks!

[richardcutler]

Thanks for this - I'm 47 years old and until now hated adjusting my brakes. This made it so easy. Most importantly, at no point did I have to shout or swear. So even my partner and neighbours are happy. Brilliant stuff!

[kylehollandsworth]

This was a helpful guide. My brakes were so loose they literally wouldn't stop the bike, I had to put my foot down while riding to make it work. Now, after this video, my brakes work perfectly.

[Vivaxsolutions]

Very sensible advice in the shortest possible time; Thank you.

[alanhudson]

I'm a total novice at bike maintenance and this video is the best one I've watched . Clear and easy to follow . Thanks very much, helped me loads

[claimgame]

13 years later. This videos still saving me

[misslauralizz]

Perfect! Just went and tightened my brakes - took me 15 minutes! Brilliant - and straight to the point tutorial. Can't ask for more.

[PanarchyInTheUK]

Thank you, your video gave me the confidence to tighten my brakes myself and it worked perfectly. I feel very empowered!

[anthonym]

wow this video was perfect. my back brakes weren't tight enough. this totally helped. thanks a lot

[clmaloyed]

Followed along and was quickly able to fix my brakes. They no longer scrub against rim. Thank you!

[ElusiveEli]

The quality is so good for 12 years ago

[MikesMiyu]

I gave this a thumbs up because...have you seen some of the others? This one has clear, steady closeups, edited logically, and clear dialogue.