Last week, I rode the Peugeot to Bike Happy Hour. On the way there, I discovered that the clamp for the right side (rear) thumb shifter had snapped. I rode there, enjoyed myself, and rode home. The next day I replaced that shifter with one from my spares box.
I couldn’t figure out how it had broken. I didn’t remember the bike falling over catastrophically.
Today, I rode the Peugeot to Coffee Outside on a lovely morning. After I’d enjoyed coffee and chats with friends, I discovered that my Carradice saddlebag was hanging oddly on one side. While in the midst of a conversation about older bike technology still works perfectly fine and is cheap and easy to replace, I opened up the flap and discovered that the wooden dowel inside had broken. I had no memory of where or how, unless it had happened at the same time that the thumb shifter had snapped.
Perhaps my bike was knocked down and set upright again while I was at the grocery store or something. The bag dates from the late 1970s and anything could have happened.
I shrugged, rode home and replaced the dowel with a cut-down marching drum stick. I reused the original screws, taking care to start the new holes with finishing nails first.
Works fine and should last a long while.
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