OK T.O.D fans here's the lastest installment. All you Health and Safety whimps and those of a delicate disposition should look away now…
The rear brake was always going to be a problem so when nbt offered to send some 'bolt on' brake bosses I snapped his hand off. True to his word I soon recieved an interesting looking envelope. I had googled bolt on brake bosses but didn't really get much so I had no idea what to expect. This is what turned up – 2 of these:
Never look a gift horse in the mouth is my watchword but when I offered 'em up to the frame it soom became apparent that I would have to drill and tap 4 holes into some very spindly and no doubt elderly seat stays. As this wouldn't have left much metal left to do anything fancy like hold the frame together I had to reject that idea.
I was still loathe to do nowt with such lovely made pieces of ali so I came up with Plan B.
Now, I must add at this point that this is only a temporary bodge just so we could actually have 2 brakes on the damn thing.
I had already rooted out some discarded v brake arms that I'd forgotten I had, so I stuck them on.
As I didn't have a new brake cable long enough I had to re-use the manky original one. I chopped the frayed end off but then had to shorten the outer so there was enough cable exposed. This led to an interesting way of routing the cable outer…
All that was left to do was to put a couple of bells on – hey, safety is my other watchword! ;0) This one seemed apt..
and one for the Captain to ring in moments of real fear.
The dog looked on as the final touches were made
A quick squeeze of the brake levers to make sure they were doing something and it was time to get a couple of chickens to ride the thing…
at least it's kind of together. I know the position I need for the brake bosses so I will probably get the brazed on eventually as I orginally intended. Watch this space. Actually don't,it'll only end in tears.