Inventory: Deore T610 Trekking V-brakes
Two weeks ago, I had received a pair of Deore T610 brakes. They were sitting idle in my toolbox just because I did not have grease. I got a tube of Park Tool polylube for some decent price at bikeme.co.in and while I was at it, I also placed an order for a set of Allen keys. I find a multitool cumbersome. They are great as a part of mobile toolkit, owing to their compact nature, but it’s much easier to use full size ones.
I had recently installed new brake pads. These new brakes came with their own pairs. I put the current pads on the new brake arms and packed the new ones in by toolbox.
I cleaned up the brake posts on my fork and the rear stays with some de-greaser and wiped/dried it off before applying a new coating of grease. The shaft surface wasn’t that smooth. Years of rub against accumulated sand and dirt wore the surface a bit. The grease surely helped.
This is before cleaning, de-greasing and re-greasing.
The old brake arms were damaged
Old brake arms.
In an earlier post, I had mentioned that the springs were damaged. Today I found out that was not the only problem. On each of the brake arms, the index pin (roll pin) that rests inside one of the three holes beside a brake post was bent out of shape. This was one of the major reasons why the arms did not have much resistance against the cable pull.
See how the index pin is bent upwards.
A partial installation
The v-brakes came with a new noodle and a rubber guide. If I had to install them, I needed new brake cables. (If you see the image below, you’d understand why. The cable area that is press-locked by the hex nut is frayed. I would have to cut it to get it out of the noodle.) I have new cables but I do not have a cable and housing cutter. I will buy that item next.
This kind of forced me to retain the old rusty noodle and pack the new ones in my toolbox.
Speaking of rust, a portion of the rear cable and the housing had rusted. Since I couldn’t change them, I de-greased and lubed them to decrease the friction. This is far from ideal but will be good enough for a month or two.
As for the new brakes, they are snappier than the callipers on my road bike. There is also enough tension to keep the exposed, rear-brake wire running along my top tube taut.
New brakes!