Mother used to yell at us when we'd come home with our shoes al scuffed from dragging them along as we rode our bikes. Back then, bikes had coaster breaks; you pedaled backward to stop the bike. There was no real reason to drag our feet, perhaps as mother suspected - loudly and often - we did it because we were perverse little children who had no idea of the value of money and the cost of things it bought.
Bikes are way more complex these days and there are more things to fail. Things are more expensive these days and I have to pay for them!
Perhaps that is why I thought of mom this morning when the brakes on my bicycle failed on my way into work. I was coming along the high street and wanted to slow as I made the curve at the river (right between the two pubs next to the office). I applied the back brakes and nothing happened. I applied the front brakes and the mechanism slipped but did practically nothing.
Now, if I weren't a perverse little kid who has no idea of the value of money, I would have realized that I could have just kept coasting along past the office and gotten off the bike when I finally stopped. But did I? No!
I dragged my feet to slow sufficiently to make the turn into the lot by my building; the plan being that I would coast to a stop by the bike shed. The problem with this idea was the 10% grade down to the river that ends in front of the bike shed.
The rain-slicked, mossy concrete pavement near the bike shed had no traction to actually assist me in my deceleration. So I did what I thought of next. I patiently, calmly and determinedly - crashed into the fence by the pub.
There was no damage to myself, the bike or the fence. It was a creative solution to a problem taken at the last moment. I'll have to go fix those brakes at lunchtime. But for right now, I have had enough of the bike!
I hope wherever you are today you have a chance to be creative in your problem solving!
Don Bergquist - 12 February 2007 - Thames Ditton, Surrey, UK
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