Resolution

For all of you that spent the last 24 hours worried sick about whether I made it home with only a back brake and whether I would manage to bring my great mechanical skill to bear and fix the problem I have good news.

I replaced the brake pads, reset the brakes and, in a moment of inspiration, also replaced the year-old, sticky and jamming chain. I now have a bike with different but, in many ways, better problems.

The brakes work fine, so I can now stop.

The chain presented some challenges. Firstly I stupidly failed to count correctly (I’m blaming the fumes from the degreaser) and broke the chain too short, meaning I had to add links back in and can’t find any way around a stiff link. As ever I am hoping that it will just work its way out. Also I have to say the fancy joining device that the chain comes with is not my favourite thing ever. It makes a link that’s slightly a different width from the others, and which seems to jump over the chain tensioner. I only realised after I had fitted the chain that the last time I used a similar one I broke the chain on a ride home.

Still, the bike is better off than it was before and I can relax into a period of care-free cycling.

A