I'd have paid the Trek Store (or whatever store I'd been in) to replace my brake pads. Gladly. But as of Monday they were signing in bikes for Thursday repairs and I can't go that long sans bike. I couldn't have left it with them anyway because it would have meant walking from Shawnee to Waldo just to get in my fiance's car (my stolen car still hasn't been recovered) to drive home.
So I bought the pads and after scouring the internet for instructional videos I couldn't find one that really showed how to do my brakes. I found videos on cantilever brakes, sure, but they all came on/off with one Allen wrench to the back of the skewer the pad sits on.
Mine, the Allen goes perpendicular to the male part of the brake pad, and meets up with a nut that turns out to be pretty easy to strip. After cussing, blacking my fingers and cutting myself inexplicably, I managed to get one of these nuts so stripped I wondered if I could ever get it off again.
At which point I realized that the back brakes were at least lined up with the rim, more or less, didn't rub when released and did clamp down when I grabbed the lever. So I called it good even though I'm sure it's the most half-ass brake pad job in bicycle repairman history.
[The 'Bicycle Repairman' video, by the way, is pretty much reality for me. I'm lucky I can change a flat, but I have friends who can replace spokes, one can do it without even taking the tire/tube off. Wow.]
I was going to do the front as well, but besides the fact that it took me an hour to fuck up the back brakes, my worn front brakes were at least installed by a professional. So if the back just quits working, the front will keep me out from under dump trucks. If and when I get the rear figured out, I'll do the fronts.
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