tangents.....brakes...... Ian, i had a bike shop in Mendocino '80-'86 , just as mountain bikes were taking off as well as a few other activities. ONE OF MY FAVORITE BRAKE STORIES: All kinds of folks would come traveling down Highway 1 come spring time. This craggy smiling young man and his french girl-friend were riding a Columbia tandem. He modified it to take a double chainring as well as spread the rear stays for gears. I think it was originally a one speed bike. This could be faulty memory here, but I'm pretty sure it had only BMX 1000 brand caliper brakes, no drum or cantilever brakes. The first Araya 26" rims were bright red. He said the whole bike,panniers, and rider weight was around 425lbs. Now above Mendocino and Fort Bragg the highway goes back inland,,UP to 101. A long and exciting descent to the cool coast. Looking down at the exposed brake cable between the stops on the top tube i saw a piece of light rope looped around the cable. Right behind the front seat was a big walkman (Lear tape player?) and dual earphones...i digress. "so what's the little rope for?" "well, when we're going down a long hill and the brake lever can't go any farther, (his girlfriend) just pulls on the string untill we're done going downhill" !! I think they had a few other coping strategies for dealing with oscillations in the whole frame/bike/panniers circus. made my day. imagine the logging trucks missed them everytime. Some blessed people.