brakes on….

whenever i have a weekend like this one just past (so quite often really…) I always think of this quote (seen around the place in similar flavours, author unknown):

“Life is not a journey to the grave, with the intention of arriving safely, in one pretty and well-preserved piece, but to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up, worn out and defiantly shouting ‘yeehaa!!!’”

It began with racing home from work on Friday evening on the bicycle, in pouring rain… slinging my kayak on top of the car and heading down to Penzance to meet the others where we launched into a brisk wind and heavy ground swell under scudding clouds. The sun came out around sunset so we paddled ’till dusk and retired to the bar for a drink. Saturday morning I was up early, raced down to the surf shop in Hayle to get some new reef boots then out it was out into decidely lumpy water for the afternoon in my new Greenland boat.. an 18ft sliver of carbon, yum, (stay tuned for that but definitely a better use of the ‘carpet money’ than new carpets…). Sunday began with a hard 3hrs on my fixed gear out around the Lizard and ended at sunset with a drink on the beach after a fun surf-kayak session. Today then I’m feeling a little sore & jaded (hooray for caffeine, ibuprofen and beer) so I’ve put the brakes on the pace of life.. to, errm, show you some brakes…

I finally found some brakes I’m happy with for the Salsa without having to spend a wedge on importing a set of Grand Cru. It began when the shibongo deep drop dual pivot calipers I ordered turned out to be far uglier than the catalogue image and my NOS vintage Shimano 600 cals weren’t deep enough. I tracked down a set of deep versions of the single pivot Shimano 600 recently for £16… They’re used but in pretty good nick and really look the part. I don’t know what bike they were fitted to previously – the pivot bolts were enormous, like 4 inches long, so a little work with a hacksaw and 8mm die was needed before I could attach them to the Salsa’s skinny pipes. For sure the braking ain’t going to be as good as a modern dual pivot but I’m travelling light and with some decent pads I’m sure they’ll be good enough…. perhaps that quote above should be modified to..

“Life is not a journey to the grave, with the intention of arriving safely, in one pretty and well-preserved piece, but to barrel in at full speed yelling ‘shit, I can’t stop…’”

The bike, somewhat embarassingly, isn’t quite ready for the road. It’s been delayed by an important bar tape decision, lol, and the lack of a front mech. You could say I’ve been building it installments… like my DiY projects.. each installment lasts about 10 minutes depending on how sunny the weather is :-)