Since beginning our local church assignments as Service Missionaries for the New Mexico Albuquerque Mission, we have not been on our bikes, not even once.
I have ridden a few hundred yards on Missionary Bicycles that I have repaired during this time, but nothing coming close to breaking a sweat.
Last week, however, I hitched up the trailer to the Subaru and loaded up the Terratrike Tandem Recumbent, and brought it to the Mission Office in hopes of taking mid-day breaks for riding around for fun and exercise.
The right-hand brake, however, refused to work whatsoever. All the sitting out under the deck at home, exposed to partial outside snow, moisture, and dust, had rusted the brake cable to the point it just wouldn't release or move at all. As I struggled to remove the cable for replacement, I found a worn spot in the neoprene outer protective jacket of the cable that had been allowing such corrosive stuff to enter therein. I actually had to DESTROY the cable trying to get it removed from the trike for repair. It had a large keeper on the brake-handle end of the cable, and was rusted beyond retrieval inside the cable housing, so I could not get it out of the brake seats and guides without literally pulling it apart and cutting it finally with my Gerber multi-tool file.
I was able to purchase replacement cable kits from Performance Bikes down at the Renaissance area near Sam's Club, which is not far from the mission office.
Trouble is, that was a week ago, and I still haven't found the time to sneak out to the bike area and finish the repairs on the trike so we can take it for a spin.....
But soon, hopefully.
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