Viewing 8 posts - 1 through 8 (of 8 total)
  • No front brake made me a better rider!
  • big_scot_nanny
    Full Member

    Hey ho,

    Yesterday had a rather enjoyable day blasting down the trails at Lac Blanc bike park in the Vosges hills in the Alasace. Great fun! Weather at the top was akin to the Cairngorm car park in feb: very windy, very wet, and about 3degrees C. Not Fun whilst trying to get changed. 😥

    Thank god sun came out at 2pm!

    Anyhoo – main point – my front brake badly needs a bleed, will randomly pull right to the bars. Result = it wasn’t much use and I rode far better. 😀

    Had no offs/OTBs (very guilt of grabbing handfulls of front brake), rolled stuff that I normally poo myself at, generally had a blast!

    Anyone else have any other mechanicals that have resulted in better riding? (e.g. last week my mates Joplin seat clamp gave up, resulting in good thigh muscle work out!) 😀

    Other learns:
    Nukeproof Mega + fox 180s = sooooooooo good. Really, fabulous. Perfect machine, can’t wait to get it up some bigger mountains. No snapped chainstays 😀 (so far 🙄 )

    Dropper seatpost = **** all use on pure gravity days. Will remove in future if not actually riding anywhere

    Full strom trooper wear and full face = rather important. relentless nature of lift days, + high speeds and moments of concentration wandering + opportunities to push oneself beyond normal limits = high potential for serious offage!

    So, in summary? no front brake = good, bike parks = great, standing in wet undershorts looking for that **** towel that you are sure was packed = dangerous!

    Kev

    big_scot_nanny
    Full Member

    Should add that clearly it didn’t allieviate my death grip on the bars. Hands are a bit sore today…

    jedi
    Full Member

    front b rake is the main brake!

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    paulrockliffe
    Free Member

    That reminds me, I *really* need to bleed my front brake!

    big_scot_nanny
    Full Member

    Glad to be of service Paul (or do you mena Jedi?!?).

    Jedi, I was riding with one of your pupils from last year, Richard Nicholl, and he was the only one that bought it big time. And his front brakes worked fine.

    Ergo: front braking = bad! 😕 😉

    Form an orderly queue for more pearls of wisdom from Nanny. ahem.

    😀

    Kev

    stevomcd
    Free Member

    Curiously, my back brake failed yesterday while riding in very similar conditions (in the Alps!). Got to the top of an uplift to find fluid dripping from a loose banjo bolt.

    Steep + wet + slippy + front brake only = bad.

    GW
    Free Member

    no front brake on a mini DH bike?

    er.. no thanks 😕

    thisisnotaspoon
    Free Member

    I ended up with no rear brake the other day, similar experience, no brake to grab = riding faster = steep learning curve.*

    Wouldn’t be without a front brake though! I found it stopped me comfort brakeing through corners as you can’t do that with a front brake at anywhere near the speed/grip limit, and having less brake meant I was often a lot closer to it!

    Ended the day getting a ‘pinch flat’ on the last corner, a nice open left hander with a few rocks on it. After further inspection at home, I’d not pinch flatted, I’d ripped the tyre clean off the rim casuing the tube to blow out 😀 Propper Job 😀

    *There was at least one point where I closed my eyes and waited for the sound of my left leg snapping on a big/low rock that marked the apex of a very tight corner, somehow I missed it!

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