for want of a wire

Whilst (during non-icy weather) the front brake is my main stopping-brake I still use the rear plenty, not least because it enables me to slow down with my left hand whilst shifting down to a take-off-friendly gear with my right. I generally like having both brakes able to stop the bike if need be, particularly when hills and cobbled hills form a part of many routes, but generally use both most of the time, particularly when in heavy traffic and doing that keep-pace-with-the-car-ahead thing, which often requires stopping abruptly. Fortunately this didn't snap on the way down after going round the hill (which I managed to ascend in normal time despite not feeling very energetic after three days of not cycling over the weekend), nor on the round-the-corner lochward downhill on the way to Duddingston, instead finally twanging limply loose at the other end of Old Church Lane. I ought to have turned left down Willowbrae and headed directly and slowly back home but carried on with Joe, Instography and Dara for a bit further until the route passed a couple of hundred metres from home, by which time my front mech had decided to stick on the largest ring, which was fine for heading down Milton Road East and no problem heading back through Portobello but which would have required some creative routing in the morning had it not just been seized-up. Had it been a cable I've started keeping a spare in the house (along with a spare brake cable, which I'll now need to refresh) to enable things to be fixed the same evening that they break if they break after all the bicycle shops have shut. It's slightly concerning that this seemed to happen without much obvious grinding or sticking (when the rear mech cable disintegrated within the shifter housing last year it was heralded by a few days of downshift-failure); hopefully using the cleanest-cut end of the housing will dissuade it from doing anything similar soon.