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I recently ordered a child bike for my daughter as a Christmas present.

The hand brake caliper was not assembled with the brake spring in place. Based on my basic understanding of how this works I cannot figure out how to attach the brake spring so it works properly.

Is it possible the brake spring is incorrect? Or is there a way to assemble this. All the research I have done makes me think this spring is incorrect but then again I have limited experience.

Any help would be appreciated.

enter image description here

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    It looks reasonably normal to me. (Though "normal" for this style of brake is a bit weird.) Your best bet is to find a bike with a similar brake and copy it. This is a common design, so you do not need to find a bike of the same brand. Dec 23, 2022 at 19:36

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Unless my brain is broken, that spring is distorted. When in place it should look something like:

enter image description here

The spring needs to push the arms back open. Its uncompressed state should be more flat, as opposed to how it's curled in on itself now. You might be able to get it back that way with pliers.

Presuming there's a coaster brake back in back, it's within reason to take the front brake off completely for now, then maybe procure a new one while it's not crunch time. Many 12" and 16" bikes come with a rear coaster brake only since those age kids don't reliably have the hand strength to do much with a brake lever anyway.

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    Thanks for the quick answer - yeah that is what I thought as well. I have been banging my head trying to figure it out for hours on end. The only logical explanation (unless I am horribly mistake ) is the spring is incorrect. I'll attempt to take it off for now and reach out to the manufacturer after Christmas. Thanks Nathan!
    – Andrew
    Dec 23, 2022 at 18:57
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    I ended up using a pin from another kids bike we no longer used (it was more flat like your picture). That did the trick
    – Andrew
    Dec 23, 2022 at 20:55

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