Bicycle Brakes

Some would call it laziness, but I think I have been a victim of "Acclimatization by Slow Change", to use the phrase of R.V. Jones. The brakes of my bicycle have been getting less and less effective over the last few weeks. I took lots of measures to counter this: first pulling harder at the back brake, then pulling harder at the front brake, then dragging a foot on the floor.

By yesterday the procedure to stop my bike was quite complex. Pulling as hard as possible on both brakes achieved only a negative third derivative of distance with respect to time. I was getting faster, but not as quickly as I would have done without applying the brakes*. To stop accelerating, I had to go into a slalom with both brakes on. By bobbing up and down in the saddle and thrusting the bike out at each turn it is possible to slalom quite sharply. This still left me going at a constant speed. To actually stop I had to stop slaloming, put the left foot to the floor and then turn the bike ninety degrees at the last second.

Today I decided to mend the brakes. I just had to loosen and tighten two screws, and took about five minutes. Now I can safely propel myself over the handlebars whenever I feel like it. I will try to tighten the brakes sooner the next time.

* If you understand this, you will also understand the Bild Zeitung headline on the German economy this week "Growth shrinks" (originally "Wachstum schrumpft")