Had a cracking ride up the Pentlands yesterday evening, good to see so many other bikers out enjoying the dry conditions.
Did one of my favourite loops up over Maidens Cleuch (Drainage Ditches/Rocky Mountain 1) from the Ranges Road singletrack, up Back Glen, then down Beach Avenue (Exponential), then down the long woodsy singletrack to Balerno. Near the bottom of this last piece of singletrack there is a muddy patch that is impossible to avoid, and slows your speed down from about 20, to 5mph.
I spied a new line yesterday, so decided to give it a go. Towards the left there is a pile of small rocks and big branches, and I thought I could scoot straight across the top of them. I misjudged it, and having not slowed like I normally wood, I ended up being ejected over the bars to land on my feet. The front wheel was totally stuck in the mud, and the frame had swiveled round so the rear wheel was touching the ground on the non-driveside.
I was laughing, and took a picture to laugh at later. Then I went to move off…the back wheel wouldn’t go round, it was locked solid. I could move it backwards some of the way, but it would always jam at the same point. Turns out that my rear brake rotor had been smashed against one of the aforementioned rocks, and had split on the outer edge (see pic above). Not having a 4mm allen key to remove my pads, I had to bend the rotor back by hand to get it in a rideable state.
All the rubbing was creating lots of extra work for me, so thanks to Murray and Vo who I met at Bonaly, and who gave me a loan of an allen key to remove the pads and allow my wheel to run freely.
I’ve now ordered a pair of Hope floating rotors, so hopefully no more rotor troubles for a while.
