I got my best bike out of hibernation yesterday, ready for tomorrow's (hopefully) sunny metric century. I went for a little tour of the local hills and was enjoying riding a lightweight machine again - it is 4+ kgs lighter than my winter bike.
All went well until a steep descent back towards Todmorden. Up until that point in the ride I hadn't done any serious braking. This was 15% down to a tight bend and I could see gravel patches ahead of me. I pulled hard on the RH brake lever and instantly remembered that I had pretty much worn the front brake blocks out last autumn and had intended to replace them over the winter ...
The levers pulled almost to the bars before I managed to slow down enough.
So, today I set about fettling the front brakes.
A load of old blocks!
I remembered that I had several sets of spares so this should be a quick job.
A load of NEW blocks!
Hang on ... those are the wrong type. I have 2 different types of Campagnolo brakes and those blocks are for the OTHER type - damn!
Ah, but then I remembered that I had taken the brakes off an old bike when I turned it into a dedicated turbo machine. (Who needs brakes on a turbo trainer?) I must have put them somewhere safe. And I had - in an old biscuit tin in the corner of my work area, along with numerous other little bike bits.
All I had to do was to transplant the brake shoes and put the new blocks in. Scrub that - the blocks in the other brake shoes were fine, so my spares can remain spare for now.
Old vs New
NB
- Note the different lengths, shapes, and slot patterns
- Yes, I can see that the old block had been a little low on the rim!
- And yes, the photo is out of focus - I couldn't operate the touch-screen focus properly because I had a camera in one hand and the brake bits in the other. (I did try setting the focus with the tip of my nose, but that clearly was not very successful!
)
Even more witchcraft.
Turns out it's knackered so it's going back to the seller who has been very reasonable about it. I found a brand new one for not much more money at chain reaction so have ordered it for delivery tomorrow. I've also swapped the first of the levers for an older R785 unit which works electrically but I have run out of olives so can't connect the brake hose until tomorrow 
I'll pop the other R785 lever on tomorrow hopefully when my olive stocks have been replenished 
I'm more than a little concerned I'm going to want to keep it...
It's all working beautifully, I shouldn't have any trouble selling it when the time comes 
