Breaking the brakes

We got up this morning intending to make our bikes roadworthy and go for a ride...

I just had to dust off the cobwebs and pump the tyres up, but Martin's bike was tougher. Martin's hydraulic brakes had seized up completely and he spent about an hour and a half trying to fix them... and made them worse.

Eventually, we had to give up and went to the recycling centre instead, with all the cardboard boxes from yesterday.  It wasn't quite the day we'd planned.

When we got back from the recycling centre I realised that one of my bike tyres was completely flat so, even if Martin had not had a problem with his brakes, I would have had a problem with my tyre.  It was clearly not to be.

We got plenty done in the house and garage instead and fixing the puncture and bike brakes are on the to-do list for *before* next time we want to go for a bike ride...

PS.  Tall sunflower isn't it?