You might remember a few weeks ago when I announced that I am officially a bicyclist. This is very exciting to me. I’ve unlocked a new hobby, and I bike all over the MCT trails in Madison County, and I’m slowly becoming a true member of the biking community.
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Except, if you recall, the brakes on my bicycle don’t work.
The bike is a few years old and has been in storage for a while. If you know me, it’ll come as no surprise that I neglected to test-ride it or perform any basic maintenance before I hopped on and took off.
And I quickly discovered that the brakes are no longer in tip-top shape. In fact, they don’t really work at all.
So, I became determined to fix them. Rather than taking the bike to a mechanic, I wanted to save a few bucks and also prove my own self-sufficiency. Armed with a wrench, a screwdriver and unlimited access to YouTube videos, I decided to conquer zen and the art of bicycle maintenance myself.
I figured out the problem pretty quickly; the brake pad on my back wheel was no longer aligned with the rim, so when I squeezed the brakes, nothing happened.
Immediately, I was ecstatic. I had figured it out! It was a relatively simple fix! I could do it!
I unscrewed and adjusted and rescrewed the brake pad into place, then repeated the process when I realized I had put it on upside down. Oops. But wasn’t that simple? I was basically an expert. I patted myself on the back right away.
Never congratulate yourself too early. I spun the wheel to test the brakes and discovered a new problem: The brakes were now too tight, and the wheel didn’t spin at all.
No worries! I had figured out the original problem and, yes, had technically made it worse. But if it was easy enough to fix it before, I could fix it again. I set to Googling and YouTube-ing, watching video after video.
I unscrewed random screws and adjusted the tension in the brakes. I squeezed the handlebars and tested the levers. I stared at the brake mechanism for many minutes, trying to make sense of what I was seeing, regretting once again that I am not a visual person. Basically, I got nowhere.
This was disappointing. My celebrations quickly gave way to frustration. Why wouldn’t it work? Why couldn’t I figure it out? I messed with this again and again over a series of days, and then eventually admitted defeat and called in the big guns: my father.
Big shoutout to my dad for taking over this project, because I was losing patience. I’m happy to report the bike works, and I have once again taken to the trails just in time for the cooler weather.
I’ll admit the title of this blog post is a little misleading. I broke, but ultimately did not fix, my bike. I did not prove my self-sufficiency. Actually, if anything, I proved my own ability to create problems rather than solve them, so that’s still interesting, but definitely not the goal.
But no matter! The point is, I’m back on the bike and ready to go farther and faster than ever with working brakes on my side.
I’m still looking for recommendations — what trails should I take to? Where are the best spots for biking in our area? Let me know. In the meantime, I’ll be enjoying my ability to stop without dragging my feet on the road. Total win.
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