So thats why I am going so slow!

[Matthew_T]

On the group ride this morning, we were about 15 miles into the ride. We come to a stop at the top of a hill to allow the group to gather together again.

Just as we are about to set off, another member realises that his brakes were rubbing all the way along the ride. He said "So that's why I was finding the hills so hard, I was riding with the brakes on!" Do'h!!


How many of you have had silly mishaps like this?

 

[CopperCyclist]

No, but I've ridden with a friend who has done the same. His brakes were rubbing so badly that you could actually see him slow at the end of each pedal stroke! It was only an old BSO he'd dragged out his shed to give commuting a try. And yes, I did fix them for him!

 

[carolonabike]

I did exactly the same a few weeks ago. I was out for the first time on my new carbon fibre Cube and was bitterly disappointed at how tough I was finding it and how slow I was. We'd gone 7 miles before I realised the front brake was rubbing on the rim. With hindsight pedalling downhill should have given me a clue that something was wrong
Looking on the bright side it gave me a bit more of a workout and it's been a valuable lesson for me, I now always check my brakes before setting out.

 

[ColinJ]

A mate of mine had the same problem on the Manchester 100, typically, the one year I was actually fit enough to do a decent time.

I dragged him round the first 55 miles to the 'halfway' stop and by then his legs were shot. We spotted the problem just before setting off again and realised that he must have knocked his rear brake when putting the bike in his car. We still managed to do the 100 miles in less than 6 hours so I reckon a sub-5 hour time would have been on if not for that.

Despite that experience, I managed to do exactly the same thing on The Red Rose Ride a few years back. That is a local hilly 200 km audax ride which felt so hard that I eventually asked my riding companion if my back brake was rubbing. He told me that it wasn't so I assumed that I was just not fit enough. When we got to the car park at the end of the event I dismounted and immediately discovered that my bike was really hard to push over to the car. I'd ridden about 128 miles with the brake rubbing! I asked my fellow rider how come he said it wasn't rubbing and he realised that he'd only looked at the right side block and it was the left that was the problem ...

On one of my forum rides I was going even slower than usual but I finally realised that something was seriously wrong when I struggled to do 15 mph downhill on a road that I could normally freewheel down at 25+ mph. That turned out to be due to dried mud packed under my rear mudguard and rubbing on the tyre.

It's amazing how much difference that amount of extra friction makes.

 

[BrazingSaddles]

It's amazing how much difference that amount of extra friction makes.

It can mean the difference between coming and going

 

[HLaB]

I've done the rubbing brakes thing a few times and the blocked mud guards Extra training!

 

[gaz]

I check the bike before each ride

 

[HLaB]

What usually catches me out is when I take of the full mudguards and remount the brake hangers everything is fine (no rubbing, even clearance) but I have a habit of regreasing the bolt when I do it and it takes a while to settle down so on its first ride or two the brake hanger moves slightly and gradually the pads star rubbing.

 

[Gary E]

Part of my pre-ride checks (but only because I've been daft enough to miss it in the past)

 

[potsy]

I've sometimes gone that slowly I thought the brakes were rubbing, unfortunately they weren't

 

[biggs682]

It can mean the difference between coming and going

must remember that excuse

 

[Hip Priest]

I've done that. Did a 50 miler, found it hard, then got home to find the rear brake rubbing. The only downside is that whenever I'm struggling now, I look to see if it's the brakes again, and it never is.

 

[Deleted member 1258]

Years ago I had an old bike with sidepull brakes that would not stay centred no matter what I did, it became part of my regular maintenance to reset them at regular intervals, I've fallen over the blocked mudguards thing as well, its surprising how much muck they can collect. I've also brought old second hand bikes in the past and needed an afternoon to clean the hardened crud off the transmission before anything would work, a bike thats never been looked after.

 

[mr_hippo]

I th!nk we nave all been there at one time or another!
On Monday, I had an intermiitant clicking type noise, checked the usual suspects but nothing amiss. Same thing yesterday - nothing found. Pumping up the tyres today, I noticed that the back wheel was wobbling a bit from side to side - loose cones so no big deal. Just touched the QR lever and it fell down so not loose cones but loose QR lever