Oscar mans the breach

Excitingly (and somewhat mysteriously) the recumbent front disc brake managed to eat its own pads on the way home last night.  I know, I didn’t know that could happen either.  As a result, you may have heard me limp past last night making a noise like a tin can in a washing machine.  It appears that part of the spring which keeps the two pads apart somehow got sucked between the caliper and the rotor, and punched a hole straight through the pad.  I was quite impressed at the damage…

One knackered disc

Staggeringly the rotor has survived unscathed. However, whilst I wait for Wiggle to shunt me a new set of pads, the upright was pressed into service as a commuter.

Meet Oscar.

Oscar the cycling tank

Oscar was my daily commuter until I went all recumbent-y. It’s a Kona Sutra, in what I’m sure Kona would rather call metallic chocolate but is in fact brown and glittery. It’s a spectacular bike, has no problem with the weekly shop/recycling load, was the only thing moving (ok, moving under vague control) in the Glasgow Day Of Snow And Ice last year and weighs the same as a small moon. Sadly in full winter get-up, with spikey tyres, DIY fenders, kickstands, a stupid amount of racks and me wheezing on top of it, it did get slightly left behind in the train of bikes powering into the base today.

Still, it was fun being able to see over cars for a change!

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