Honestly, I AM Smart . . .

So, remember how yesterday I commented that Mike (my bike) was heavier and harder to pedal around now that I have accessorized him? Well, I stand by my assertion that he's heavier - that I can tell when I'm carrying him up and down the stairs. However, I just realized it may be a very different reason than the accessories that's causing me more difficulty when pedalling.

It would appear that while I was messing around with the fenders and rack, I was also nudging the back brakes out of alignment. It ended up being fine at the outset of the ride, but the first time I used the brakes, one pad remained in contact with the wheel even after I released the brake, resulting in a decent amount of resistance against the back wheel. Accessories make the bike heavier, a crying baby being towed in the trailer makes the bike heavier and the ride less bearable, but it was the brake rubbing against the back tire that made pedalling WAY more work than it needed to be.

I tried adjusting it by hand before biking to an appointment this morning, but I found that once again, once I used the brakes that one pad just stayed there against the wheel. This actually caused a bit of a safety issue when I was crossing an intersection and wanted to coast to a halt on the other side, but with the stay-in-place brake I stopped quite abruptly and short of my destination, in the middle of the road, which caused me to lose my balance a bit. Luckily I wasn't going fast at all and managed to simply look clumsy in front of a long line of car traffic instead of actually falling (which is embarrassing in itself). Still, it was enough to assure me that the brake problem must be fixed before the next ride.

When I got home, I adjusted the back brake with an allan key and some guesswork about what screws attached to where and affected what. The result is that it appears that I've fixed the problem - huzzah! Ego thoroughly satisfied.

Now, back to the question of my dissertation . . . now that my data is collected and I've begun the analysis process, should I use narrative analysis or discourse analysis, or some combination thereof? Hmm, maybe I should check on those brakes again . . .