Why are my brakes rubbish?

Basically, it looks like the cable housing goes into the, er... holster thing on the brake arm... at an angle.

And if it's at an angle, then the housing is likely to flex to sit flat when you brake.

So if the housing is flexing to sit flush... then part of your braking power is gone into flexing the housing.

Does that make sense? It's a lot easier to show this stuff than explain it here.

A ferrule is what's needed.