Always comes into play when you think you are on top of things!

So, this is a long story but i'll try to keep it brief, back in June, before my first trip back to GOC, I ordered and received a full set of replacement pads for the brakes on my touring bike. The plan was to refurb the brakes before riding the bike back to Brizzle, in the end I decided to change the brakes and so the new pads travelled back unused. We'll come back to the pads later, lets move on 8 weeks to last week.

Now I knew that the disc rotor on the front of the bike, an upgraded oversize, laminated, floating affair was getting pretty worn but last week i spotted that the it had worn through to the core material which is obviously not good. I duly ordered, on next day delivery, a pair of new rotors which failed to arrive on Friday, so I changed my plans on Saturday to a low braking intensity ride, they continued to fail to arrive, the vendor suggested they were lost (more likely never sent) so i ordered again on Monday which meant that yesterdays ride was another minimal brake job, the last thing you want is a high speed failure of the main brake!

Well the new rotor turned up last night so this morning I've been doing lots of chores, laundry, bike washing, cutting the grass ready to fix the brakes after lunch. So i got the requisite tools out, the new rotor and went to get the new pads - may as well kill two birds with one stone, but nada, they've disappeared. Which is really annoying, I know for sure that as soon as i buy more they'll turn up, okay its not bad to have spares at hand but i thought i had, well i know i have, just not where, I was even looking at them last week - grr!

Looks like I'll have to buy some more which may be easier said than done, because most of the UK bike wholesalers work on a JIT basis, delays caused by the pandemic and container shortage (?) hit hard and with a 6 month lead time combined with high demand, they still haven't returned to good availability on a lot of basics, tyres, tubes, chains, cables and, you've got it, disc brake pads! It was going to be a quick thirty minute job, now its turned into a major production.

The weather is typical English summer so far this week, mostly dry but overcast, the odd shower and struggling to reach 20c (which is why we Brits make a fuss when it climbs to 30c!). On Monday I set off to catch up on a bit of retail therapy at The Swedish Store, just a few odds and sods, then a quick visit to Tesco next door to buy 'instant' semolina - none of the other big supermarkets stock it anymore, why is this?. Anyhow, then it was off to the blackberry forest for some fruit picking - they really are in profusion this year and bigger and sweeter than i've ever seen, clearly they've enjoyed the cooler, damper weather we've had this year. It didn't take long to collect a kilo - I'll make another crumble later with some of our homegrown rhubarb!

Yesterdays ride, as I mentioned earlier, was brake restricted, so once again I stayed fairly local and flat, a ride out to Avonmouth then up the Severn to lunch at Oldbury. I just caught the community cafe so I had a cuppa and cake with my sandwiches - in real china! Then I followed some bridleways across the 'levels' to Thornbury before making my way back - 113km in total - well I did a fair bit of twiddling about on the way around. I've done over 9000km so far this year but that's a good 1000km less than this time last year so I've got some catching up to do to reach my 16000km target for the year!

No new scribbles today but there will be a Sunday posting of Ontario and there should be some new to BC stuff next Wednesday.

More moans from me soon
Tschuss
Madeline Anafrid