Another set of brakes slowly on its way.....

The first brake arm of a new set. This is the same design as the previous set but with the CNC program tweaked a bit.

 The brake arm will be cut from the block with a bandsaw, deburred and cleaned up. The slot for the brake pad still has to be machined, along with a few other operations.

Quick Release Skewers - Complete :)

The quick release skewers are now finished and in use. The final lever profile changed quite a bit from the original. The final profile is much more hand friendly. These will go for black anodising the next time I get some done.

 The final nut profile also changed, the nut is a bit bigger and the profile was machined with a ball nose cutter to give a rounded profile at the bottom of the grip area.

Quick Release Proto

My prototype quick release skewer, a bit rough and ready, the lever design will be tweaked before making a new (hopefully final) set.

 I am happy with the profile of the nut side; it matches the brake cable barrel adjusters I made. I may increase the size slightly on the next version.

brake cable carrier hanger thingy

I got a few 'cable carriers' done all in black when I had the cyclocross brakes anodised. Here is one such carrier in its new happy home, happily carrying cable:

 Just have to make the brakeset to match now. Material ordered today, but other 'inventions' are holding up progress on my next set of brakes.

Finished Cyclocross brakes

The latest brakes finally fitted to my cyclocross bike. They are working well and stopping shouldn't be an issue this season, though going fast enough will :)

The brake cable hanger is shown below, this is a lot stiffer than the original and the cable routing is nice and smooth.

 The brake cable adjusters are shown below, when the brake pads wear the brakes can be re-adjusted by turning the red barrels. One cable ferrule came back from the anodisers red, and one black..... oh well.

Red n black

After the brakes had their bearings and springs assembled they were fitted to my cyclocross bike. This picture shows one brake arm attached, ready for brake pad and cables.

Brake Assembly

When all the bits and pieces returned from anodising, the brake assembly could begin. Two sealed bearings are pressed in to each brake arm and 'spring stop' bolts fitted to the back of the arms. There are a few other jobs to do.... but almost complete. 

Parts ready for anodising

These are my first parts ready for anodising. The small box of parts will be red, the large box will be black.

The boxes were labelled clearly but the inevitable happened and the parts in the red box were anodised black and the black box anodised red :) A day later this was corrected after the parts were stripped and re-anodised.

The Brake Cable Hanger

This is my Brake Cable Hanger; it holds the front brake cable, the inner cable exits the bottom of the round bit down to the front brake. The Hanger is clamped to the fork steerer tube by an M4 bolt that fits in to the round hole on the side of the hanger.

This Hanger does not flex like the one supplied with the bike. The flex of the original hanger caused brake 'judder'.

The latest brake....

This is one of the brake arms from my latest brake set. This set is going on my cyclocross bike.

 And new things... I have made cable tensioners and a front brake cable hanger. I will take some pictures of the complete set when it is on the bike.

;;;;LO PRO VERSION;;;;

The Second version of the brakes were given a much lower profile, an enclosed cable clamp area and narrower cable slots. All just a bit neater...

The machined brakes emerging....

This pic shows the first brakes still attached to the aluminium bar that they were milled from. The brakes were then cut from the block, flipped over and the excess material machined off. The holes for the bearings were reamed out to 16mm so that bearings could be pressed in.

Start of Blog...

Progress with my machined bicycle components will be updated here. Here is some old stuff to get started....

The first set of cantilever brakes and straddle cable holder made in 2010

My cable holder in silver, next to Purple Paul Components Moon Unit and Avid Tri-Dangle, must think of a name for my design :)