Ride to Work

Showing posts with label brakes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label brakes. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 14, 2015

Blogger Fatigue

After the wash

I've been doing this for a little over a year and I think fatigue has set in.  I don't think I will continue posting every ride but instead will only post rides or events out of the ordinary.  The daily upkeep has become too much and, frankly, it is not as much fun as it once might have been.

Since I last posted, I took the MG to Gene's and it had to have the rear brakes replaced.  Some spring had broken off on the rear left drum and destroyed the pads.  No wonder the brakes were starting to feel mushy.  We took a handful of rides in the MG since I got it back last Wednesday and everything has been working great.  The repair cost for the brake job and oil change came to a little over $400.

On Friday afternoon I took a ride on the dragon with the Bullet.  Everything went well except that I took a curve to the left a little fast, fixated on the apex, and ran off the road.  Didn't dump or stall the bike but it sure gave me one hell of a scare.  The lesson, keep my eyes on the turn and avoid target fixation.  Simple but easy to forget when fear sets in.  After I got back, I washed off the dirt and everything ended up fine, no damage, and no worries.

Over the weekend we took some rides on the MG and went to the HCCP annual picnic.  We met a lot of nice folks and had a great time.

I refueled the Bullet yesterday, I put 2.36 gallons of Ultra in the tank at the Sunoco on the West Chester Pike and Strasburg.  The odo read 4470.2.  Next refuel should be at around 4620.



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Friday, May 29, 2015

Parking Brake Issues

Random shot of Montse on Coldstream Rd earlier on Sunday
Early Sunday evening we went out for another spin on the MG to capitalize on the great weather.  We headed out Bishop Hollow Road to Chapel Hill Rd and took that for a spin through that neighborhood and back to Ridley Creek Rd on Feathering Ln.

Once on Ridley Creek we continued all the way out to Rose Tree Rd where we made a left.  The Chrysler is gone from the corner, good thing I got the shot of it when I did.

We followed Rose Tree out to 352.  The hills on Rose Tree were a little strenuous on the MG.  She had to struggle to get up but she handled the twists like a champ.  We stayed on 352 out to 926 where we made the right turn.  At the West Chester Pike we took a right instead of cutting across to Garret Mill because we wanted to go to the Acme on the Pike and 252.

We stopped at the Acme and I set the emergency brake.  When we came out, the brake would not disengage.  I fiddled with it and eventually it let loose but not all the way.  I drove the car the short distance home but I wasn't happy about it.  Once in the garage, I started to look in the manuals to see what I need to do and decided to wait for the morning.  The brake was still engaged, if not all the way, and the brakes were so hot they were smoking.  

On Monday morning the brakes had disengaged for themselves.  I am not going to fool around with them, I just won't set the parking brake again.  When I bring the car in for inspection in September I will have Harold take a look at them and figure out the fix.

Part of the road in Bishop Hollow has been fixed and they were getting ready to continue the work.  The sections that were fixed were in really good condition.  When the road gets completely done it will be a great ride.
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