Sam Hillborne front wheel removal

[Masood Habib]

Hi all,

I'm having trouble removing the front wheel on my Sam because it won't fit past the v-brakes even after opening the quick release. I have to actually loosen a brake pad and move it out of the way to squeeze the wheel through. Strangely, I don't have this issue with the rear wheel it comes off easily once the noodle is disengaged.

I'm running fairly wide tires (700c x 45), which might be part of the problem. Has anyone else run into this? Is there a way to adjust the v-brakes so I don't have to go through this every time I remove the front wheel?


Thanks!
Masood

[Patrick Moore]

The old-fashioned way to get plump tires from between constrictive brake pads was to deflate the tire; sometimes losing just a bit of pressure lets you squeeze them through the blocks.

There may be other ways of maximizing V-brake clearance for plump tires, and I am sure others will speak up, but this was the official method back in the day (he said, snuffling sadly into his yellowed beard).

Patrick “28s clear Superbe Pro single pivots with QR open, 42s clear Paul Touring and Neo-Retro cantis with straddle released, and 50s and 60s clear disc brakes with no fiddling at all” in ABQ, NM.

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[Nick Payne]

If you fit shorter brake blocks that don't hit the inside of the fork blades when the noodle is released, you might be able to get the wheel in/out without deflating slightly. I've been using Koolstop threaded city brake pads on my V-brakes:

https://koolstop.com/products/city-threaded

Nick Payne

[Joe Bernard]

The distance between fork blades is road bike-ish on that frame that used to use road caliper brakes. It's narrower than the spacing at the rear and you're kinda stuck with the issue you have. As Patrick says releasing some air will get that tire through. 

Joe Bernard 

Clearlake CA 

[Mathias Steiner]

Having to mess with brake pads is not acceptable -- too painful, too futzy, and could become dangerous if you mess up.
Deflating tires is bad enough. 
At least when you add air you won't have too much trouble with alignment ;)

[Eric Marth]

Hi Masood — Dang, sorry to hear about this, sounds fussy! Can you share any pictures? Which brakes and which pads? Which year is your Hillborne? The group can likely help you solve this problem. 

I have no issues removing the front wheel with 44mm Rene Herse tires on my 2009 Hillborne. It's set up with Paul Minimoto brakes and Kool Stop Thinline pads. 

Cheers,

Eric

[dt...@pm.me]

I have the 2024 iteration of the Sam. Like others have said, deflate the tire a bit to squeeze it through. That's what I had to do when I first got the bike, but since the brake pads have worn down a bit, I can squeeze it through without doing that. Fortunately for me, I do not need to do this other than when removing it for cleaning. 

[Bill Lindsay]

Rivendell used to sell "Sanity Brake Pads" to address this issue directly.  They are out of stock at Riv now, but various stubby brake pads are available from BMX-adjacent sellers for exactly this use case.  If it were me, I would run a set of Kool Stop VANs brake shoes.  I trust Kool Stop, and I love VANs, and I think it would be a fun and ironic set up choice on a Rivendell build which would still result in excellent braking.  Lots of fun colors and a cheap $10 experiment.

https://www.danscomp.com/kool-stop-vans-brake-pads-threaded-sky-blue-pair-ks-vblu/p619844

Bill Lindsay

El Cerrito, CA

On Sunday, June 15, 2025 at 8:46:45 AM UTC-7 masood...@gmail.com wrote:

[Cormac O'Keeffe]

I haven't tried these, but they're similar to what Nick and Bill mentioned and they seem to take road pads.

https://jagwire.com/products/brake-pads/cross-rim-brake-pads

[Garth]

The brand of pads Riv sells are in the description Odyssey Ghost pads, available from them direct or many BMX retailers.

[J]

A BMX friends told me long ago that the Odyssey pads can leave marks on rims because they are soft, so he use the clear colored... uncolored pads

[Garth]

There's also the option for modifying the pads that come with the brakes, as in using a shears and/or hacksaw to shorten them. I shorten the Koll-Stop Eagle Claw smooth post pads.There's an internal metal frame around the rubber. I can't say what kind of frame if any is on any other pad, so that would require cutting one apart and seeing what's inside. Holding the pad in a bench vice makes it easier to work with. Once cut and/or sawed off, use a metal file to smooth the edges. Only the portion that hits the frame need be modified, but it doesn't hurt if shortened on both ends. This way one can still use their preferred compound without having to resort to deflating a tire just to remove it, which to me is just insane to design a brake that would require that. 

[Eric Daume]

I once used a power tool (angle grinder or dremel) to shorten a brake pad, and my garage smelled like burnt rubber for the rest of the day.

Eric

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[Garth]

For the heck of it I cut and pried the rubber off one the pads on an Eagle Claw. It appears the pad holders may be dipped in a mold and rubber poured in and that fills all the cavities of the holder. You can see where I cut off the end portion of the pad and filed it down using a heavy metal file, by hand. To cut the pad I've used both Fiskars utility shears and a Snap-On Linesman pliers. Modified just enough so it clears the frame. I don't have any other kind of pad so I can't speak to anything else, but I assume any threaded KS pad would also have some sort of internal frame for strength and stability. There's no loss of braking in using a shorter pad either.

With the Odyssey pads I suppose for one's own reference you could buy all three compounds and see what does what as descriptions can't depict actual usage for given riders setup.

 https://shop.odysseybmx.com/products/odyssey-ghost-pads

[Bernard Duhon]

I have four bikes and eight sets of wheels. It's like having eight bikes.  so removing the wheels is important.

 I purchased the Koolstop city Tread brake shoe. It was still too long so  I got out  my hack saw and sawed off a centimeter.    The internal metal frame is visible. I intend on riding the bike as the sawed-off portion is forward facing

 After having to sawed the city thread. I dug out a Koolstop V brake and took a hack saw to it.  The same internal metal frame.

I am no longer required to deflate the tires to removal wheel.  Which is great. 

I will however I will keep an eye on these brakes to see if they deconstruct on me.

 

 

 

 

 

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From: rbw-owne...@googlegroups.com <rbw-owne...@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Garth <gart...@gmail.com>
Sent: Friday, June 20, 2025 1:13 PM
To: RBW Owners Bunch <rbw-owne...@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: [RBW] Re: Sam Hillborne front wheel removal

 

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[Cormac O'Keeffe]

I looked around online before asking here, but I couldn't really find out why v-brake pads are longer than sidepull or cantilever brakes in the first place. Would running shorter pads create a problem ?

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[Bernard Duhon]

As I indicated, I am going to keep an eye on the pad to see if that cut pad delaminates from the interior metal frame.

On the same note. All of the standard road shoes have a set screw in them. Removing the set screw gives me an extra 4 mm of clearance for removing a wheel. I can't figure out what damage removing the set screw could do.

 The pad is not going to slide off the front of the break shoe holder as the front of the holder is closed. The pad will not back out of the holder because friction from the wheel pushes the pad forward.

 

 

 

 

 

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[Bill Lindsay]

"I can't figure out what damage removing the set screw could do.

 The pad is not going to slide off the front of the break shoe holder as the front of the holder is closed. The pad will not back out of the holder because friction from the wheel pushes the pad forward."

There are some cases where one applies the brakes -AND- pulls the bike in the backwards direction.  As long as you don't ever do that, and you're sure nobody else will do that to your bike, then you'll probably be fine with no set-screws.  I sometimes grab the front brake and pull the bike front to back to check the headset pre-load.  I sometimes use my Aardvark Ankle Biter velcro leg band as a parking brake for the bike on BART or locked up.  Sometimes the force on the bike is backwards.  I've had some steep trail walking situations where I'll lunge the bike forward, grab the brakes and pull myself up.  If I did any of those and pulled my brake pads out, that would be a little annoying.  You'd have to give it a try to see if there's any actual risk to doing that.  Some combos slide in (and out) more easily than others.  I would put the risk as "small". 

Bill Lindsay

El Cerrito, CA

[JohnS]

+1 on what Bill said. Way back in '82, my Stumpjumper had Mafac brake pads holders which did not have a stop for the reverse direction. I was rather surprised when I had the brakes on and rolled the bike backwards that a pad came out. It happened a couple of times before I learned not to do that.

JohnS

[Masood Habib]

Not sure why I didn't think about taking air out of tire to help squeeze it through! Seems like a straightforward enough method though still a bit of a pain.

 Indeed it seems like the fork blades are much more narrow than the spacing in the back so even when the quick release is opened the width of the fork doesn't allow them to spread out fully.

I'll also look into those smaller brake pad blocks to see if they would clear the fork when quick release is opened. 

Thanks all for the thoughts and tips. 

Masood

On Monday, June 16, 2025 at 9:00:00 AM UTC-4 mathiass...@gmail.com wrote: