In keeping with my long held desire to learn how to do my own bike maintenance, today I attempted, and from what I can tell succeeded, at changing my brake pads.

1600¥ for a front and rear set of pads, 2000¥ for a colorful set of hex wrenches, and my friends at the park tools blog for advice, and I believe I have reattained the ability to stop my bicycle.

Things I didn’t know going in:

  1. How hard it would be, or how long it would take.
  2. If I had all of the right tools.
  3. How to align the new pads properly.
  4. Whether or not the pads would even fit.
Shimano brake pads, set of hex wrenches, old pads and locking screws.
The bits I used and the bits leftover

Now that they are installed I know that:

  1. It really doesn’t take any time and you don’t have to take the brakes apart to do it.
  2. You only need like 3 hex wrenches.
  3. Depending on how low your old pads were, you might need to let the brake cable out a bit to accommodate new, unworn pads.
  4. If you’re lucky, letting out the cable is enough and you won’t have to mess with the angle or other alignment stuff.

Things I’m still not sure of:

  1. If I aligned my pads right.
  2. If my bolts are tight enough.

For the last points, I could very well go to a shop and have them take a look, but given how much I’ve been treated like an annoyance at my favorite Giant Store lately, I’ll probably just ride cautiously until I trust my own work.

So now, I can say confidently that I can:

  1. Clean and lube a chain.
  2. Install and adjust brake pads.
  3. Align a rear derailleur.
  4. Change pedals.

It’s not a huge list, but it’s a start. I want to know how to maintain and care for my bikes. It just feels good to be able to do.

日本語

Continue reading “Brake Pads パッド交換完成” →