I like bikes

My Santa Cruz Bronson is all dialed-in to go Big Mountain Enduro Racing at Mammoth. A shakedown day a Snow Summit Bike Park last weekend revealed that my new setup feels freaking awesome! 

Tire change: Maxxis Minion DHF 2.5 Super Tacky (front & rear)

New chain guide: e*thirteen TRS Race Carbon

Brakes bled to absolute perfection

New brake pads: Shimano G03TI Metal pad with Titanium backplate

It’s a new bike!!

My friend, Cade, recently came to visit from Australia. Upon arriving he discovered that somehow he’d lost the barrel adjuster on his Shimano Duraace brake. Shimano make exploded parts diagrams super accessible so after finding the corresponding diagram and getting the part number I think easy, I’ll phone Shimano and order a replacement and we’ll be sorted. 

Not the case.

While Shimano do indeed make the part I needed, Shimano New Zealand don’t bring it into the country and have no intention to anytime soon leaving me stuck because I don’t want to write off a brake I have kicking around to get him up and running and I also don’t want to have to charge him out for an entire brake to replace such a small part.

I get thinking and have a bit of a dig around and discover a chainring bolt fits inside the cut out for the barrel adjuster perfectly. I break out the drill and drill it out to take a cable ferrule and before you know it his brake works perfect and looks super clean albeit minus a barrel adjuster.