Wayne Weekly “V-Brakes…Spiritual Balance”

I guess you could say I’m on a bicycle “roll”.

This past weekend I spent a considerable amount of time not riding a bicycle, but tuning one up…or at least attempting to.

I began by reading a book that came with one of our bicycles. It was very helpful in setting up the kind of brakes on all but one of our bikes. The brakes are called v-brakes, I’m guessing because of the configuration of the system. Looks like a “V”. Doesn’t take a rocket scientist…!

The brakes have a few adjustments, the brake shoes, the “balance” mechanism, the cable to the calipers, and the calipers themselves. Each piece must be adjusted to have good stopping power and control.

I messed around with all the above mentioned components, following the printed instructions, checking the diagrams, and also viewing a number of v-brake videos on you tube. All seemed to be going well until I got to the task of “balancing” the brake arms that move the shoes against the bike rim. Those arms contain springs that give tension to the arms. One wants to be sure that the shoes meet the rim equally. If one side reaches the rim ahead of the other, the brake shoe can actually put unwanted pressure on the rim, and eventually can cause the wheel rim to become warped. Also, unbalanced brakes effect efficient braking.

I adjusted the screws that give tension to the shoe arms, but saw the arms were not centered. After several tries, and several minutes of re-adjusting the cable at the cable locking bolt, and several minutes of frustration…I had an epiphany! Well, not exactly. I realized that the bike wheel itself was not centered correctly in the bike frame. The arms would never be “even” or “balanced”, no matter how I adjusted the tension of the arms or fiddled with the cable.

It all came down what should have been the obvious, and the first thing I should have checked on the bike. All that unnecessary blood, sweat, and tears!

In the Christian walk, sometimes the obvious, and even most basic things that can affect our Christian balance are to blame. It may be that we need to fine tune our Bible study, it may be that we need to improve our assembling with others believers, it may be that our past time activities are detrimental to our growth, or the big problem may be our prayer wheel is not centered in the framework of our Christianity.

Generally, the obvious is obvious. We’re just too busy tinkering about with other things, maybe intentionally with good reason, but we fail to see the main problem.

V brake balance is important on bike, balance make things work smoothly and correctly. Balancing the Christian life…helps us in the journey.

 ^“Look carefully then how you walk, not as unwise but as wise…”     Ephesians 5:15