Stop in the name of love! More unexpected tales from the tag along

Well, that was the idea. Having fettled the brakes, upgraded the front pads to notable improvement, I decided it high time to perform rear pad transplant surgery. A simple enough job-fifteen minutes tops…. Only I hadn’t bargained on a new cable and the otherwise much loved Sachs branded Modolo levers failing internally at the (nylon) pulley feed. Therefore, the Univega got upgraded levers and cables to boot. The tart's handbag flamingo pink bar tape is beginning to look a little sorry for itself now, having been wound and unwound on several occasions over the past six months but thanks to emergency electrical tape surgery is serviceable and looks just presentable enough for the time being.

My six year old, delighted (or should that be bribed) with some Euro bike freebies wasn’t totally despondent about not going for a blast on the trailer bike having encountered an inexperienced horse and rider on our last venture through the lanes. Bless him, he’s grown accustomed to me emerging from the garage, complete with wild hair, jabbering excitedly about having tuned the Univega and or tag along However, project builds aside, there’s something extremely irksome about complete bikes that aren’t ready to roll with a few easy strokes of the track pump.

Influenced by a few load luggers on show at Euro bike, I toyed with the idea of fitting big flared drops while performing stopper surgery, especially since  a lovely WTB pair  were languishing at the bottom of the wardrobe. However, this would demand changing the stem and is basically change for change sake- the Nitto are only a year old and just the job so I’ll be strong and resist. However, in the quest for improved aerodynamics and protection from wind chill, I think I’ll pop some 40cm SR drops aboard the tag-along complete with old school track sleeves.

Time also to replace the OEM knobbly with something more prosaic. Funny thing is, our parental/child roles are often reversed, such changes met with his disapproving cries of“ No, daddy, no!” On a recent outing culminating in the untimely demise of our Basta dynamo lamp, he noticed the slow steady smouldering and alerted me…upon stopping, it was patently obvious the unit was dead…the big and unresolved question on our lips was how? We'd only managed 23mph at full pelt that afternoon!