Within the Nice Purge Of 2024, I cut up up a stunning pair of Ultegra brakes, as one in every of them was on my Midlife Disaster Fixie and I used to be too lazy to change it for one thing else:
Since, like most bike dorks, I get hung up on meaningless issues, it began praying upon my thoughts that I had one unhappy Ultegra brake simply sitting within the components bin all by itself. So just lately I visited a preferred Web public sale website and bought a brand new associate for it–a reasonable proposition as no person desires rim brakes anymore. (Other than sure boutique fashions that individuals use to adorn their Crusts and Rivendae, after all.)
The brake appeared pristine, and what can actually be flawed with a rim brake, proper? So upon receipt I left the vendor some constructive suggestions and tucked it away. Then over the weekend I made a decision to pop them each on the Fagginator, which already has a superbly good pair of no-name brakes on it (to not point out an explosive wheelset):
Even for an fool like me, putting in a pair of rim brakes is a quite simple process. Nevertheless, regardless of the new-to-me brake’s pristine look, I found throughout set up that it had an uncommon quantity of play in it. So I set it apart, and this morning I made a decision to take it aside and see what was occurring. Till now I’ve by no means disassembled a dual-pivot rim brake, for the easy purpose that I’ve by no means needed to; in my expertise you simply use them without end with no points, and perhaps as soon as in awhile you’ve obtained to squirt some lube into them or one thing. Anyway, right here’s the way you disassemble and reassemble a Shimano dual-pivot brake:
Significantly, don’t do it.
Look, I’m certain it’s pretty simple if you perform a little analysis and take your time. I did neither, and the state of affairs shortly went from this:
To this:
To this, which I in the end consigned to a plastic bag for when I’ve extra time to take care of it, which needs to be someday after my seventeen (17) kids have moved out of the home:
On prime of all that, including one more bag of crap to a components bin already full of baggage of crap has triggered me much more stress than the one Ultegra brake did, and I worry the one method to regain my psychological well being will probably be to undertake a Nice Purge of 2025 during which I admit to myself I in all probability don’t want stuff like a drawer stuffed with 25 year-old bike laptop components and consign all of it to the trash.
Talking of traumatic topics, this previous Wednesday a supply rider has been killed by an FDNY truck driver:
The driving force was responding to an emergency name of a child choking:
Additionally, over the weekend, a driver fleeing the NYPD killed a bike owner:
The police had tried to drag the motive force over, and as a substitute the motive force sped away:
Each of those come after one other driver fleeing the police killed a bike owner in Astoria, Queens:
Police have been pursuing the motive force, who had allegedly dedicated a housebreaking:
Within the case of the FDNY incident, commenters blame the scale of our emergency autos:
And the pace at which they’re pushed:
Within the case of the NYPD incidents, advocates cite the rise in “sizzling pursuits:”
The additional implication is that the NYPD is flawed to have interaction in these pursuits within the first place. It’s undeniably true that none of those individuals deserved to die, and looking back it’s utterly apparent that apprehending a burglar was not value an harmless particular person’s life. In fact we should take into account that they could be flawed. But it surely’s additionally not that easy. Advocates lament the rise in pursuits, however is that enhance the reason for this mayhem, or is that this mayhem the inevitable results of elevated lawlessness? This identical lawlessness ends in all of the “ghost vehicles” the advocates rightly hate a lot, and which themselves are the reason for a lot mayhem. So can you actually reign in lawlessness with out police intervention? Do you not cease the motive force of a ghost automobile as a result of he would possibly pace off and kill someone? Is it cheap to suppose the Reckless Driver Abatement program would cease a prison from driving? Do these individuals actually care if their licenses are suspended or if their vehicles are towed? If their licenses are suspended they preserve driving anyway, and if their vehicles are towed they simply steal one other one. It’s ironic that most of the identical individuals who have a zero-tolerance method to bike lane blockers additionally appear extra inclined in charge the police than the criminals. This isn’t to say the police needs to be driving round just like the Dukes of Hazzard, however it’s to say that when somebody commits against the law, speeds away, and kills someone, we shouldn’t lose sight of the truth that it’s the prison’s fault.
As for the readers’ response to the FDNY incident, and the critique of the autos, as I’ve talked about earlier than, this appears to be a pattern within the advocacy world:
Not like the opposite incidents, this one was not attributable to a prison; it was emergency responders coming to save lots of a choking child. The supply rider’s demise is a tragedy and we must always after all enable for the chance that the motive force was at fault and examine accordingly–while additionally making an allowance for the enormity of the circumstances. Contemplate this story, written by the then-executive director of Transportation Alternate options:
Humorous how when it’s your child that shit goes proper out the window, isn’t it?
I’m not saying advocates are flawed right here, however I’m saying they are often like me with the brake, and that issues aren’t at all times as simple as they appear.
