…Faster now, you know I got no brakes – so said Dexter Holland, which makes you wonder what experience led him to pen the lyrics. Perhaps, just maybe, he’d tried riding with no brakes. I’ve some experience, one involved a 10 metre square plate glass window which after our encounter had a great big crack in it.
Today I was supposed to be riding great trails in North Wales. I wish I’d gone, because it’s been a stunning day today. Instead I managed a ride out locally and decided to take out the Ti Deluxe which hasn’t seen trails for about the last 12 months. Of course you forget the little things that aren’t quite right from one ride to another. In the Ti Deluxe’s case this is the problematic brakes, which need bleeding.
Hanging the bikes by the rear wheel doesn’t do hydralic brakes much good. The air in the system rises to the caliper and then either doesn’t or takes ages to escape back to the lever. So today I had a bit of front brake and absolutely no rear brake, which despite an hour of lever pulsing to try and get the air out of the system failed to materialise. The ride was at 50% commitment as a result of not being able to scrub off speed.
R O T H A R . C O M 