It shouldn't happen, but it does. While I still maintain that it only makes sense to have one open end on the shoe holder to allow easy replacement of the rubber, I have to admit that I once installed a set of brakeshoes backwards on one of my own bikes. There was no excuse either. I had been riding for over ten years. I had been working in bike shops for about five years, on and off, and was at the time the service manager at a shop. The brakes were the silly-but-loveable Campy Deltas, brakes that required my full concentration for even the smallest adjustment. Somehow, in all that concentration I overlooked the fact the the openings of the rear shoes face the front of the bike. DOOOH! I was very embarassed when my fellow mechanic and fellow Delta-sporting pal pointed this out. It was just after I had completed the work, so no harm was done.
Sheldon Brown <CaptBike@sheldonbrown.com> wrote:
Quoth Jerry Moos:
> I've been amazed at the number of high end bikes on eBay pictured
>with the shoes backwards. Of course, it's a little harder to do
>this with Campy, or other shoes with integrated wheel guides, since
>it is pretty obvious if you have installed the shoe upside down.
>But if you switch a shoe right to left or front to back, you can
>still get the open end to the front.
When I was maybe 13 or so, my main bike was a J.C.Higgins 3 speed, first bike I ever owned with a hand brake. I put it together from parts I found in the town dump.
It only had one brake, a cheap rear caliper, and one day I "overhauled" it and accidentally put the shoes on back-asswards.
Shortly thereafter I was riding down Abbott Hall Hill, the steepest hill in Marblehead, Mass., and needed to slow down for a family of pedestrians crossing the street halfway down. Thffffffpt! went one of my brake shoes, and I had no brakes. There's a very busy intersection at the bottom of Abbott Hall Hill, and I coulda been croaked if I had not had the good fortune to crash into the 4 year old girl who didn't get out of my way fast enough.
Since that time, I've developed a sixth sense for backward brake shoes. Any time I find myself within a quarter of a mile of a bike with backwards brake shoes an alarm bell goes off in my head...
Sheldon "http://sheldonbrown.org/bicycle.html#jchiggins" Brown +--------------------------------+ | Happy Reynolds Day! (5/31) | +--------------------------------+ -- Harris Cyclery, West Newton, Massachusetts Phone 617-244-9772 FAX 617-244-1041 http://harriscyclery.com Hard-to-find parts shipped Worldwide http://captainbike.com Useful articles about bicycles and cycling http://sheldonbrown.com
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