Warning: spent 3 years clamping brake cables wrong on every tune-up until a guy at the Boise co-op showed me the trick | Bicycle Mechanics - Topic Shares
Wait, there's a trick to this? I've been squeezing the housing and yanking the cable like it owes me money for like five years now. My last tune-up the brake felt mushy so I just tightened the barrel adjuster until it rubbed, which I'm now guessing was the wrong move. How bad is it that I've basically been teaching myself bike repair through pure trial and error? Half my tools are still in the box because I'm scared to touch anything with ball bearings inside. Somebody at a co-op told me once that most home mechanics overtighten everything, and I felt personally attacked. Tell me the trick though, because my hands can't take another season of guessing.