Ha ha ha, and don't that beat all (followup to brother/speed)

OK, since I'm a noob here probably only a handful of you read the thread about my brother "smoking" me last weekend despite his lack of riding in, oh, years. And my irritation, etc.

I took my bike in just now for a fitting because I started getting lower back pain and it wasn't going away. Uncomfortable, mostly, not bad-bad - I just didn't want it to get worse.

ANYWAY.

Last week just before we hopped on the bikes, my bike, which was propped against the side of the car waiting for me, toppled over. GR^&*^RGR. The seat was slightly sideways which he fixed for me and we took off.

The whole ride (and the next day's ride, come to think of it) I just thought, dang, I feel like lead today, I can't get any speed up, I feel like I am really working harder than usual - and still he smoked me. It just felt like it was harder to pedal - no idea why, it just was. I figured it was the rich food the night before. It

IT WAS THE DANG REAR BRAKES!!!

Something happened on that topple to make the rear brakes move and they were stuck against the side of the tire the whole bloody way. 17 miles on Sat, 15 miles on Sun including a number of hills. How on earth I didn't hear rubbing, or the light bulb didn't come on I cannot tell you. Now that I think about it when I pumped the rear tire (bike on ground), the rear tire did not want to move - it wouldn't spin freely. Still the light didn't go on.

Further, had this not happened I don't think he would have outdone me. I think we would have been even.

I still kept a 12 mph average through this, too. Which is weird.

I wonder if this is why my back started hurting last weekend and didn't ease up during the week. The previous ride to last wkd I did get some back pain near the end of the 35 mile ride, but it was gone the next day. This time it came and it stayed.

I've done the same thing a number of times. A few years ago, I had a bike built up from scratch. I never felt very fast on it. A couple of years later, I moved some of the components from that bike over to my other road bike and, again, I started feeling really slow. Finally, we realized that the rear break wasn't staying centered. It didn't even take a topple or anything to get it wonky. It would just spontaneously move. We fixed it, but not before I had a number of rides that just kind of sucked.

oh you MUST ride with your brother again. AND SMOKE HIM.

Ha, I had a ride this past Spring where I thought I must be getting sick. I had a bit of a headwind, but I was STRUGGLING to go 3mph slower than my average pace. At one point I stopped and realized that one of my brakes was a bit askew and rubbing. By this point I had already turned for home, since I was trashed.

You know what this made me think of?

Is anyone here old enough to remember when Steve Martin used to do the comedy albums - literally RECORD ALBUMS?

Anyway, one of his jokes on an album went something like this:

"I have written several books. When I wrote my book "The Apple Pie Hubbub" I started using VERBS. My novels really brightened up after that".

So, I say:

"The bike shop figured out my rear brakes were constantly on during my ride and unstuck them for me. My pace really brightened up after that".

Brake rubbing happens to all of us at some point so not to fret. The positive side is you got a really good work out.

Do go ride with your brother and just to be fair, I think you should tweak his brakes a bit so that its rubbing. Then you can really smoke him. :D