Those who know me will know that I commute to work by bicycle three times a week (less if it's raining). Cycling in Winnipeg is not a risk-free endeavour, and there have been a number of close calls. I like to catalogue the things I've found in the bike that shouldn't be there and count the number of damaged "protective" posts along the bike lane on Pembina. My pet peaves include people who pick up their kids in the bike lane outside Kelvin high-school and people who don't signal that they are making a right turn through a bike lane. I think overall things are getting better for bicycle commuters out there (and lots of people are working hard to make that happen), but there is still a long way to go. I am curious to find out what they teach in driver's ed. about driving around cyclists.
The story I want to write for you today is about none of the above. Yesterday, I biked part way to work, then loaded my bike onto the rack on the front of a bus. It was windy, and I had been sick, but I wanted to ride at least a little. The commute to work was fairly uneventful, though the bus driver didn't know his bus had a rack and gave me a weird look when I stepped in front of the bus with my bike.
When I unlocked my bike at the end of the day, I noticed that the brake cable for the rear brake was loose, and, upon further investigation, it was so loose that the rear brake did not work at all. My first instinct was panic "how will I get home"?, then paranoia "was this done on purpose? to kill me?", then suspicion "was someone trying to steal my bike?", followed (finally) by common sense "maybe it came loose while I was unloading from the bike or rack or possibly another cyclist had parked beside me earlier, and it got caught".
Whatever the cause, I was proud that I was able to fix it by comparing it to other bicycles around me, and after about 5 minutes I was on my way. It may be time to take a course on bicycle maintenance. Maybe there's something the kids and I can do together.
