Front Brakes.

After having spent most of the last two weeks getting the racing trike ready for its first (and most important) outing of the year, I was tightening what was virtually the last screw when disaster struck - the mating thread stripped; it wasn't a trivial screw, it was the one that held the rear derailleur hanger on. I spent a couple of hours trying to find a "work-a-round" but the easiest solution is to braze the hanger to the frame. While it is a job I could do, I don't have the equipment or the time, and there are other people who could do a much better job very cheaply. It's a great disappointment but there's nothing else for it but to take all the touring kit off the Wednesday trike and fit some light tyres to it - and do it very quickly.

The blip is of the new front brake arrangement on the new forks on the racing machine. That was where I was expecting problems but that side of things works fine even though it presented problems outside my experience: carbon fibre forks, threadless steerer and brakes with side entry cables - the last not being used in the recommended manner.

The double front brake arrangement is legal, and comes about because of the practical problems of fitting rim brakes to a cycle wheel that doesn't pass through the cycle frame. It carries both advantages and disadvantages. While the wheel rim can overheat under sustained braking and it's not very clever being without a back brake in icy conditions (when the third wheel is a positive advantage); on the other hand having one brake to wipe water off the rim so that the second can actually stop you solves the worst problem with cycle brakes - they aren't too good in the rain.