I mean, I've had plenty of chances to get it done. Plenty of days I could have spent the 20 minutes that it will take to get the front calipers off my bike and give the pistons a quick clean.
But no!
I've been putting this toad off since we had those floods months ago!
Riding around on a bike with binding brake calipers.
In my defence, every time a chance has come up, the fkrs have freed themselves, and the bike has free-wheeled just fine, but for at least the last month I have been really struggling to push the bike backwards.
I've even had to resort many times to bouncing the bike backwards by compressing the suspension and then heaving it backwards a few inches at a time.
Pure -ing laziness. I want to RIDE my bikes - not spend time cleaning them and doing maintenance! Although it's a bit like going down the gym - it's the THOUGHT of having to do it that makes me put it off. Once I'm actually doing the work, I quite enjoy it.
So this morning, the calipers were sticking a fair bit as I rode away from my house.
They're usually fine once they heat up a bit, so I was doing my usual trick of trailing the front brakes a bit going up the road.
Maybe I was squeezing them on a bit harder than usual, or maybe the tyre was just that much colder and didn't like it.
I heard the sound of the tyre breaking traction and sliding along the road first, and instinct must have kicked in and made me release the brake!
The front slid and tipped, and somehow my right foot slammed into the road and I was still upright and heading straight!!!
What the f*** happened there?!?!
Actually, best not to question it. It was pure luck that I wasn't sliding down the road.
What's worse is that it was a dead straight road in a 30mph zone - so explaining how I'd come a cropper there would have been rather difficult!
Ironically, last night I finally arranged to strip the calipers down tonight!
Dammit!
The top joint of my leg is just starting to feel like it's been torn off my a minotaur who was determined to beat me to death with it. Groin-strain, pulled muscles, whatever! It -ing hurts and I'm sure it'll get worse!
Well, as they say, 'don't put off until tomorrow what you can do today'.
They're right!
And, no M'am - I did't like it!
