New Trike Break-In
February 7, 2025
So you bought a new trike recently, great! You’ve ridden it a handful of times and love it, even better! Fortunately with trikes there is no break in period/process where you have to baby it; go rip around to your hearts content. But, you will most likely need to tweak cables as the trike “settles” in. This does not apply to hydraulic brakes or electronic shifting!
On many bikes, and including your trike, braking and shifting are achieved via a steel braided cable. This cable runs through a housing (black tube) from the brake lever or shifter to guide the cable around bends to its ultimate destination. On your trike there are two front brakes (one on each front wheel) and a corresponding lever and cable for each. For shifting you will have a shifter and then cable that runs to the back wheel where it operates a derailleur (the dangly thingy) and possibly one that goes to a front derailleur if equipped.
If you want to learn about why cables stretch you can nerd out on your own. For this article let’s just get down to business. So how do you know something has stretched (creating slack in the cable length)? The brake levers will pull further back before they start braking and the shifting might be not be as crisp or you’ll here some clicking as the chain tries to move to another gear.
“That’s all good, but what the heck can I do about it? I’m not a mechanic!” Well, no mechanic skills required for these minor adjustments (which is all that should be needed). Just follow along below:
Brakes:
- Find where the cable housing (the black tube) comes out of your brake lever. Between the lever and the housing is a barrel adjuster (See photo).
- Unscrew (lefty-loosie) the barrel adjuster in small increments from the brake lever assembly and test the braking.
- If you turn the barrel adjuster too far out you will hear the brake slightly rubbing as the wheel spins around or you will no longer be able to lock the lever (for locking brake levers). If that’s the case, screw the barrel adjuster back in until the brakes stop rubbing or you can lock the lever.
- When you are happy with your adjustments hold the barrel adjuster in place and tighten the lock ring (on the barrel adjuster threads) back up tight to the brake lever assembly. This holds the adjustment in place.
If this adjustment doesn’t work, take it the pro’s at your local bike shop.
Shifting: Similar scenario to the brakes, but with even less adjustment allowed or needed.
- The shifter also has a barrel adjuster (See image below). But it is inline in the cable housing that comes out of the shifter. Most of the time look for a barrel shaped item on the housing a few inches below the grip, but it could be in the housing a bit before it enters the rear derailleur. You will want to rotate the barrel as if loosening it so it expands.
- Prop up the rear of the trike (allowing the wheel to spin) so you can pedal the trike by hand and shift.
- Do very small turns of the barrel adjuster (usually there is a detent you can feel as it turns) only a quarter of a turn at a time. Shift the trike and see if it’s better.
- Keep going bit by bit until it makes good, clean shifts. You can always turn the barrel adjuster back the other way if you went too far.
And just like the brakes, if you can’t get it, take it into your local bike shop for some help.
Hopefully the ramblings here weren’t too much to bear. There are lots of good resources online if you still want to learn more (Google “bike cable adjustments”). In rare cases of needing more adjustment, the cable anchor on your brake caliper or derailleur may need to be repositioned. Or in some cases, a derailleur was hit by something and is slightly bent causing poor adjustment. All of this is beyond the scope of this article and if we were to write about it, you’d fall asleep!
There! Hopefully you were able to make the minor tweaks and get back to riding. Plus, now you can dazzle your friends with your new found mechanic skills!