i just got a 555 frame in very good condition for a great price. fixed her up today and went for the de-virginising ride. its really day and night with my previous khs alu frame. smooth as butter yet plenty stiff. seriously, my cruise speed increased 5kmh right off, and i've been ill all week. ahhh...but there's one small problem.

the rear brake cable goes through the toptube and comes out the back. after applying the rear brake, there's some slop in the brake lever. the LBS used the black cable sleeves all the way through from the lever till out the back of the toptube. the slop is as such: whenever i need to apply brakes, there's an amount of initial slop before the brake pulls. i've looked through it and traced it to the sleeve itself. because its so long the amount of friction it has to overcome is too much for the spring on the brake itself to pull back to neutral. as such, the lever goes back to neutral but the spring only releases the cable halfway. what can i do to get rid of this? its not critical but it is really getting on my nerves.

There is no reason to have such a problem. For a great many years, all bikes had full length brake housings, with the best routed through the top tube, rather than on top of it. I've had two LOOK frames with this cable routing and never had a problem.

Check to see if the cable housing has a plastic liner. If not, then they put on some cheap crap housing. Replace is with plastic lined housing. You could remove the cable, lube it and reinstall (if the cable housing is lined). Also be sure that the housing is not too long and kinked somewhere.

There's also a possibility that your brakes are malfunctioning or lack lubrication and won't return to the open position easily. I'd say your LBS sucks if they returned your bike with this malfunction. Take it back and let them fix it. I assume you're not up to this repair, if you let an LBS work on your bike.

If you want to learn something, go to www.parktool.com to get full instructions.

hi c40...i checked the cable again and pulled it out to lube as per the parktool site. looks like the housings are all pretty short. the slop has largely dissapeared after the lube but it comes back once in awhile. thanks for the headsup.

Branzzz, I rode a 555 for 2 years, never had a hint of this problem. The cable/liner is very easily run through the top tube, with no "fishing" for the exit hole required, so I assume there's a track inside the top tube to guide the cable. Thus, not much chance for the thing to kink internally. I was running Campy cables with Campy housing. Agree with C-40, assuming your rear brake is mechanically sound, and the cable itself is in good shape, seems like a problem with the housing liner.

may i know if the housing should wrap around the cable without any slop? looks like my lining is a tad too big for the cable. i would estimate the inner diameter of my lining is about 0.5-1mm bigger than the outer diameter of the cable.

on another note, how does the carbon in the frame handle in the rain? its the monsoon season here in singapore and its raining pretty much every afternoon

The other thing to check for is a burr on either end of the housing. If they cut the housing and left a small piece of metal hanging down, this may be snagging your cable on the return.
Also check your brakes. My brothers 8 year old ultegra calipers final died last year. The return springs and pivots where just all beat to heck on them.

i took out the whole cable and lubed the entire length. it works 95% of the time, unless i'm going downhill and pull the brakes hard for long periods of time. another tap on the levers usually brings it back in line.

Check your brake pads. Are they aligned correctly? Are they sticking on rim because they are too low or too high?
Take the brake off the frame or just try to wiggle the arms. Is there noticeable play?

the brakes seem to be in good working condition. i suspect the problem is due to poor fitting sleeves and cables. i haven't had the time to re do it as it'll be a pain in the ass. i've seen jagwire kits around. are these worth getting? with regards to play, the only ones i've noticed are in the rear wheel itself. with the quick released nicely tightened down, there is noticable slop in the sense that i can use my fingers to tilt it either way 2mm or so.

on another note, i've always setup my front brake pads with a toe in angle and the back pads without any. is this a good way to go? should i do the toe in for the rear as well?