KenM
Member
This story began yesterday riding home from work. On the very steepest part of a big hill I was working away in the lowest gear when suddenly riding got really hard and after a few turns of the pedals I cam to a complete stop. Initially I felt really pathetic as I've often passed people walking their bikes up this part of the hill, and stopping here is something I haven't done since my early riding days (only about a year ago). However as I got off I quickly realised that the front breaks were gripping fairly tightly; while I could still turn the wheel, it was an effort. I was now really confused! :? I checked the brakes and everything looked OK, I released them and did them up again but it was still scraping. I released them and walked to the top of the hill, put them back together and everything was fine. :? I then rode the rest of the way home with no problems.
Today I was riding home and in exactly the same spot, exactly the same thing happened! :shock: :shock: What could be happening :?: Magic spells :?:
Anyway as I was investigating today something about the whole balance of the front of the bike felt a little off. In the end I checked the hub's quick release and found that it was only just holding. I suspect that it may have been gradually working loose for a while and when the pressure on the pedals reached a certain critical level (remember this was the steepest part of the hill) the wheel got pushed out of alignment and caused the brakes to scrape. It was a simple matter to put things right. I still don't know how it managed to sort itself out yesterday merely by being walked 30 metres but I can live with that.
The moral of the story is to check the quick releases regularly!
(I've actually had the rear wheel end up totally loose and was amazed at the modest impact it had on the handling of the bike - the path I was on at the time was a little rough and uneven so I may have ridden like that for a while, assuming the path was worse than it actually was.)
Cheers,
-Ken
Today I was riding home and in exactly the same spot, exactly the same thing happened! :shock: :shock: What could be happening :?: Magic spells :?:
Anyway as I was investigating today something about the whole balance of the front of the bike felt a little off. In the end I checked the hub's quick release and found that it was only just holding. I suspect that it may have been gradually working loose for a while and when the pressure on the pedals reached a certain critical level (remember this was the steepest part of the hill) the wheel got pushed out of alignment and caused the brakes to scrape. It was a simple matter to put things right. I still don't know how it managed to sort itself out yesterday merely by being walked 30 metres but I can live with that.
The moral of the story is to check the quick releases regularly!
(I've actually had the rear wheel end up totally loose and was amazed at the modest impact it had on the handling of the bike - the path I was on at the time was a little rough and uneven so I may have ridden like that for a while, assuming the path was worse than it actually was.)
Cheers,
-Ken
