Ready to ramble? (pt 3)
After a brief trip out on the line sans rear brake (and averaging about 13.5 mph, which is down about an mph from my last trip sans free radical,) I took a bus over to the LBS (there is a short but really steep drop on Woodstock just west of 39th, and I don’t want to go blasting down that grade without having each wheel braked thankyouverymuch) to get a longer rear brake cable and housing. I didn’t want to cut the cable housing too short, so I was extra-paranoid when I measured, as you can see by this elegant wiggly snake that’s slithering down the seat stays towards the new rear wheel.
Amazingly enough, this arrangement actually works. I spent a little bit of time futzing around with trying to get the Cane Creek SCX-5 cantilever brake braking properly, but when that continued to fail I punted, pulled the Mavic 26" to 700c cantilever adapter plate out, drilled it for my old caliper brake, and used that instead. And now the silly thing actually brakes, which makes up for the host of kludges attaching it to the rest of the bicycle.