My Bicycle brakes are stuck on the front wheel.?

Question

I crashed my bike twice (I know...duh?) and the front wheel turned backwards. After the second time, the brake pads were stuck on the wheel and it wouldn't even roll. How can I fix this? If I take it to a shop, how much will it cost? (i ride a bike because I'm poor and can't afford gas.)

Answer 1

I would take it to a shop just to see what the damage is. It might be something very minor and it could be done for free (which isn't bad) or it could be something major that should be taken care of, seeing that you only ride your bike (and that too is worth the money).

The way look at it is do you want to try and fix it, but s***w it up more or let a pro fix it right the first time?

and good job at not driving a car! save gas

Answer 2

I do all my own bike repairs and have never owned a car, so I can't tell you about bike shop costs.  In the 90s, they did charge me $50 (Can) to overhaul a hub.

Stewie, the biggest problem with using bike shops all the time is, if you are riding on the highway, you may not have access to a bike shop, and you never know when you might apply for a job requiring mechanical skills.

A number of things might be wrong:

1) The brake posts are bent.  This is serious because I had this problem, and no bike shop would work straighten them because that would weaken them (just like bending a paperclip back and forth); they said they are afraid of getting sued.  They did say they would replace the fork  -- not cheap.  So I was forced to do it myself by using a rod that fit into the brake post to bend it straight.  I didn't use a hammer much because the brake posts were hollow and threaded, and I didn't want to misshape them into an oval too much.  A rubber mallet should be used to lessen the chance of that.  Then I filed the brake posts until the brakes would turn smoothly (This weakened them too, which could lead to a lawsuit for a bike shop).

2)  The rim is bent.  If it is not too bad, you can use a spoke wrench to straighten it by tightening spokes on 1 side and loosening spokes on the other side.  I just finished building a whole wheel from scratch, so only do 1/4 turns with a spoke wrench at a time because I went too fast and the wheel went saddle shaped.  It was so bad I was afraid I bent my new rim, but I loosened all the spokes, started over, and it seemed OK.

If the rim is bent so bad you start stripping the nipples when you tighten the spokes, you will have to or take all the old spokes off and buy a whole new wheel, or either buy a new rim or you can bend the old rim on a wooden work bench  with your 2 hands until it appears straight when placed on the floor; however it will be weaker (just like bending the paperclip back and forth).  I salvaged  an expensive rim like this, but I haven't tried it yet, so I'm not absolutely sure it works, but front rims don't have to be as strong as back rims.

I wouldn't be surprised if you have a overlooked broken spoke, which by itself could unstraighten your rim.

From experience, building a wheel from scratch is a big job, and if it is your 1st time, it will easily take 3x as long as normally.  I even made the mistake of using a presta valve (the skinny kind) in a shraider valve (the fat kind) rim, which let the tube bulge out and go flat, I stripped many nipples, and my wheel went saddle shaped twice on me.  It's hard because you can't just make it straight to allow for small brake clearance; you have to get all the up and down humps out too, which is harder, and must be done for the brakes to work well and not touch the tire.  Also spoke nipples strip easily, so to make sure you have a tight fit between the spoke wrench and nipples, have 2 sizes of spoke wrenches, and use whichever one fits the tightest.  The last step would be to file down any spoke sticking out on the inside of the rim.  I did this by tightening the spoke 1 1/2 turns, filing the spoke down, and then loosening the spoke back 1 1/2 turns.  The result looked bang on.

3)  The fork could be bent.  This should be obvious, and again, bending it back would weaken it.  I'm not sure with the lawsuits, a bike shop would do that for you.  I'm a cheapskate, so I know I would bend my fork back, but I can't sue myself if it breaks.  To replace a fork, you would have to unbolt the stem and handlebars to unscrew the expander bolt holding the stem inside the fork.  You then would take the headset (steering bearings) apart and replace the fork.  I would clean the headset and replace the grease unless it is very clean, which is unlikely.

4)  The brakes need adjusting, and there could be many things wrong:

Adjusting the spring settings to move the untensioned brakes away from the rim will make the brake spring harder from the rim when you let go of your brake handle, which has the benefit of allowing for less brake clearance.  The spring could even be misplaced or broken inside the brake, so you have to take the brakes apart to be sure.

The brake cable may be sticking in the housing enough to counteract the brake springs, so that the brakes can't spring back away from the rim.  Maybe some oil and/or WD 40 will work for that, but often you need a new cable and/or housing.  Likewise, the brakes themselves may be sticking as they turn on the brake posts.  Some lubrication, cleaning, and filing may fix this if they are not bent.

Adjusting the cables and/or cross cables can help too, but usually cables must be tightened to apply the brakes with not too much brake clearance, which is not your problem.

5)  The front hub bearings might be loose.  If you can wiggle your front wheel from side to side inside the forks, your bearings are too loose.  Usually, using cone wrenches, you can tighten the bearings till they turn smooth while allowing no play.  If they don't turn smooth after the play is gone, I guarantee, you have to overhaul the hub and replace the axle if broken (Some people make the mistake of riding with broken axles, but the guy in my bike shop said that can break your dropouts); the bearings, if crushed; the bearing cones, if gouged; or the bearing cups, if gouged.  I would err on the side of tightness over play, since mechanical parts can break in a little bit.  

If your bike is expensive, it might have cartridge style bearings like mine.  Cartridge bearings are much more reliable than standard cone and cup bearing, because the  bearings are sealed much better to allow no dirt inside, and they allow bearings to loosen rarely.  I had them on a touring bike, and I never did any bearing overhauls or adjustments for 15 years, but upgrading to them is difficult because they need special hubs.  On another of my bikes, after 16 years, I had to take apart the cartridge bearing, clean it, and pack new grease into it because it got some dirt inside.

Obviously, there is a lot to know, and you need specialized tools, so, go to a community bike workshop if you have one.  I'm in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, where we are lucky to have the Edmonton Bicycle Commuters  http://www.edmontonbikes.ca/ , which operate a community non-profit workshop, with mechanics, boxes of spare parts, industrial degreasing cleaners like Varsol,  and my peers to help me.

Also, videos can help a lot, so check out http://www.expertvillage.com, which has a lot of free bike fixing videos.

Answer 3

Take it to the shop, it shouldn't cost more than $20

You can call and ask them

Answer 4

what i would do first is to remove the pads on the front wheel. you can do that. if the wheels rolls you can still ride it with just the back brakes. if not, then the problem is on the wheel or even the fork, in which case you will need the shop

bikingthings

Answer 5

The first thing to do is check to see if the front wheel was knocked crooked in the forks by the crash impact.  If it is, just loosen the two nuts at the wheel axle that holds the wheel in the forks and re-center the wheel.  If the wheel is not off center then the wheel was damaged and made  "üntrue".  This means the rim is no longer prefectly round any more.  The spokes control this somewhat.  A mechanic can maybe re-adjust the spokes (tune or true the wheel) until the wheel rotates freely between the brake pads again.  Sometimes the rim was impacted so hard that it was sprung and cannot be trued again.  You can check the spoke tension and see if some of them got loose.  If you do not know how to check this, just lighty try to squeeze the rear spokes together to get an idea about how tight they supposed to feel.  Wheel trueing is an art that a trained mechanic should do for you.  You can find instructions on how to adjust spokes.  It is kinda tricky and you will need the correct sized "spoke wrench".  If you are lucky the wheel can be made straight again, otherwise ask if you can find a used wheel that matches your old one.  Sometimes a mechanic will use your old spokes and hub and install a new rim for you.  This is not too hard to do and cheaper than a new complete wheel.  You can even try it yourself, after all you can use great observation skills and follow the spoke pattern on the rear wheel if they are the same pattern.  A nice mechanic will even give you free advice if you try it yourself to save money.  I do not know how much a new rim may cost if that's what you have to do.  Shop around for prices if you have bike shop options.  If you are real poor then get the references and very patiently do it your self.  That's how I learned and I have repaired over a 100 wheels and build twenty or so.  If I can do it so can you!