Lots of nice cycling things today.
Some good maintenance/upgrades progress and a nice ride with Jane on her new bike.
The ride first.
We drove over to Rutland to kill lots of birds with one stone. This included a nice ride with lunch.
Or view on Strava.
As proof here is Jane on her new bike (with new helmet from Rutland Cycling as well):
For anyone interested that is a Ortlieb Front Roller Plus pannier which is a great size for carrying just a few things on a day out. Sorry for the lack of colour coordinated water bottle 
We had both lunch and a after ride coffee at the Harbour View Cafe
Anyway, we had a nice ride with only one idiot driver who decided to beep us as he zoomed past on a very minor road.
Maintenance stuff
There were a couple of other reasons for going to Rutland.
First, I had dropped off my Shand Stoater, Bike for Life at Rutland Cycling yesterday. I have had trouble properly bleeding the rear brake. Turns out the hose had got damaged and so was leaking slightly. They are going to replace that and bleed it for me.
Second, I have also been having trouble with the brakes on my Bullitt Cargobike, they have been getting less powerful, more squeaky and hard to bleed. So we took the Bullitt with us, for the first time finding it is possible to fit it in the car:
That is handy to know
Anyway the main problem is with the rear calliper which is leaking badly (the front going the same way). I decided to tackle the problem with an upgrade. I don’t particularly like the Shimano disk brakes. They use a very expensive mineral oil and I would appreciate more power when hurtling downhill fully loaded.
So Rutland Cycling are fitting Hope Tech M4 brakes to match my Bike for Life, only on the Bullitt they are going to use Braided Hose which should provide a further improvement.
This means both bikes will need the same replacement seals and use the same brake fluid which is DOT 5.1, available from any garage.
So it looks like my problems with bleeding the brakes are due to hose or calliper problems, future maintenance easier for me to do myself.
Anyway for perspective. We have 3 bikes with hydraulic disk brakes that have done 1,000’s of miles in all kinds of weather. These are the first replacement parts and the 1st professional service ever needed. Still absolutely my favourite type of brake (for power, controllability, reliability and maintenance), especially as it is possible to buy excellent British made hydraulic brakes from Hope Tech.
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