After riding for a time, you are finding that the brake lever has started to become loose and you are not happy about it. The amount of effort it takes to activate the brake levers will increase as the brake pads wear down and the cables stretch. As the best brakes are the ones that are responsive, letโs tighten that loose lever for 5 seconds!
If you want to tighten the brakes, you can certainly rewire them, but that can be a headache and you certainly do not have time to get dirty in the process. But in your case, we can deal with things quickly and easily with the use of barrel adjusters.
Turn the barrel adjuster counter-clockwise to tighten everything up once youโre facing the lever.
By compressing the housing and thereby making the cable more compact, you are eliminating part of the slack that was gained by stretching it.
Turn the adjuster, then pull the lever, until youโve found the right sensation. If the brakes are fully applied, the levers should be separated from the bars by a space that can be fit between the thumb and index finger, and any tighter than that is just preference.
Done! The process is a simple one that you can conduct at a traffic light, and it gives you extra time before you have to perform more involved maintenance work!
