Mattias Hellöre Ax Lightness Brake Powercordz bolts
Posted: Thu Oct 11, 2012 12:39 am
I have been trying out some bolts that I bought from Mattias Hellöre. Mattias Hellöre is a regular here and has made some interesting and special parts for people.
The original Ax Lightness bolts that are included with each brakeset do a good job at securing a steel brake cable but they need some special work to hold a Powercorz cable. You have to drill out the hole that the cable fits through and do a little dremel work so that the cylindrical part has a better bite. Then you tie a knot at the bottom of the cylindrical part so that the Powercordz does not get sucked into the little cylindrical part. It is not a very elegant solution so people look for aftermarket bolts. BTP made a few of them and still has them listed on their web site, in fact they are still listed as “New”. Good luck buying them, I am not sure what kind of things they are making, but $20 bolts is not one of them.
Mattias Hellöre came up with his solution. It does not have the grub screw like the BTP part but it has a raised edge so that the bolt does not slip out of the brake. I have never had a bolt slip out while riding but very rarely it can happen when traveling. I think this is a nice feature.
I spent some time thinking about the best way to tie the knot that would secure the cable and what I came up with is called an Arbor Knot. What I did first was smooth out the openings on the bolt. Mattias has already machined them a little but I wanted to make sure that the cable would not be cut by the corner where the Powercordz cable comes out of the bolt at a sharp angle.
I was out in California riding the Levi Gran Fondo and it really put everyone’s brakes to the test. The descent down Kings Ridge is a real pad burner and at times hits 20% for a while with something like 1,600 ft of descent.
The Arbor Knot tightened up just like it is supposed to and I have included a picture.
The original Ax Lightness bolts that are included with each brakeset do a good job at securing a steel brake cable but they need some special work to hold a Powercorz cable. You have to drill out the hole that the cable fits through and do a little dremel work so that the cylindrical part has a better bite. Then you tie a knot at the bottom of the cylindrical part so that the Powercordz does not get sucked into the little cylindrical part. It is not a very elegant solution so people look for aftermarket bolts. BTP made a few of them and still has them listed on their web site, in fact they are still listed as “New”. Good luck buying them, I am not sure what kind of things they are making, but $20 bolts is not one of them.
Mattias Hellöre came up with his solution. It does not have the grub screw like the BTP part but it has a raised edge so that the bolt does not slip out of the brake. I have never had a bolt slip out while riding but very rarely it can happen when traveling. I think this is a nice feature.
I spent some time thinking about the best way to tie the knot that would secure the cable and what I came up with is called an Arbor Knot. What I did first was smooth out the openings on the bolt. Mattias has already machined them a little but I wanted to make sure that the cable would not be cut by the corner where the Powercordz cable comes out of the bolt at a sharp angle.
I was out in California riding the Levi Gran Fondo and it really put everyone’s brakes to the test. The descent down Kings Ridge is a real pad burner and at times hits 20% for a while with something like 1,600 ft of descent.
The Arbor Knot tightened up just like it is supposed to and I have included a picture.