Brakes only slow you down!

Back in the days when I did cycle racing I can remember a fellow cyclist telling me not to worry about my brakes as 'they only slow you down'! Now that advice may have its merits when Woody was a younger cyclist hurtling down hills but as I have got older the life preservation button has been pressed and I like to be safe! To that end I needed to replace the front brake pads on one of my bikes. As you can see the old one on the right when compared to the new one on the left shows I was right in deciding to change them.

Having done that job I noticed the bike looking somewhat dirty. I do prefer to use the time I have for cycling to actually cycle and not clean bikes but I decided it was time for the clean!

I even went as far as cleaning the block which was somewhat oily and dirty.

An old sock was cut into strips and these were used to get between the cogs and clean the gunk out.

After 15 minutes or so it looked a lot better!

In fact with the rest of the bike cleaned it all looked a lot better and I can stop as well!

Just wish I could find something to give my old legs a bit more speed these days!