I will second the recommendation to get a bike cable cutter, great investment and that's an understatement!
I have a 3rd hand, but seldom use it. Often I secure the pads against the rim with a toe strap.
The toe strap is also used when taping over aero lever brake cables, I use it to hold the lever toward the bar to keep the cable fully tensioned while I put a spiral of electrical tape over the cable housing and upper half of the bar. This can prevent mushy brake feel caused by housing not kept firmly seated in the lever.
Another trick with Weinmanns I use is to un-hook one end of the straddle cable before fooling with the hanger bolt. It sometimes takes a quick prod of the brake lever to get enough momentary slack to un-hook them, but re-hooking the straddle is always easier than un-hooking, and I've never had to hire a hooker to do it.
David Snyder
Auburn, CA usa
> Don, when I bought my first "10-speed racer" in the fall of 62, as a
> starving freshman, it quickly became clear that there were a few tools I
> needed to purchase immediately (chain breaker, FW puller). I bought those.
> There were others that could wait, but would make like much easier. For
> several years, friends, girlfriends, and bride suffered serving as third
> hand; now there are several different ones in the drawer. That and the
> proper cable cutter are all but essential, in my book. But, to be fair,
> even with the third hand and a lot of care, I don't expect to get the
> tension right the first time, and resort often to the tricks others have
> already laid out - like removing a brake pad.
>
> Similarly, I can't now imagine working on CPs w/o a pair of proper
> spanners for tightening the hanger bolt. Typically, I use a flat wrench on
> one side, and a "Y" or other socket on the other side. Makes life much
> easier than the old days with a 4" and a 6" crescent - or worse.
>
> BTW, I like the nail polish trick. I've always used solder, which is much
> easier to find in our house. :-) And, I'd check to see if you have the
> proper washer in the proper place if you're seriously mashing and cutting
> cable.
>
> harvey sachs
> mcLean VA
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
> Don Gilles raised several issues that are worth discusing:
> There is a great deal of slop in a rear centerpull on a Carlton (with
> top tube cable stops and a rear semicircular bridge.) Does anyone
> know a surefire way to get the proper cable tightness on the first
> try? I don't have a 3rd-hand brake tool, but even if I did, I'm not
> sure it would eradicate all the slop on the first attempt.
>
> I'm terrible at this. On today's bike build-up, I cut the rear cable
> run a little too short. When I replaced it for a longer housing, I
> had to reposition the triangle / hanger at least three times, and
> still the triangle is mounted a few mm too far down the cable. Both
> housing and cable are modern high-quality stuff.
>
> On a fresh bike build-up, I think you should have zero slack in the
> barrel adjuster, but after my third try I'm down to 4-5mm (out of 8mm)
> of slack taken up by the barrel adjuster *sigh*.
>
> I remember now that my greatest fear of bike maintenance .. is playing
> with these rear weinmann brakes. It's been compounded because my
> fishing pliers have gone dull, so I mangled one cable before finally
> using a dremel with cutoff wheel. What do people use for decent cable
> cutters?
>
> P.S. I noticed something new to me about weinmann hangers. They clamp
> the cable to the bolt, NOT to the triangle. The triangle actually
> hangs loose. This means the bolt holes really mangle the wire. That
> leads to excess fraying if you move the hanger. After one clamping,
> if you remove the hanger, the cable profile looks like this :
>
> ____________________---_________
>
> and the offset area is what was drawn through the hole in the bolt.
> Are all centerpull hangers like this?