brake-rotorThe actual phrase is “Them’s the breaks” but ‘brakes’ works in this case too.  According to Grammarist.com, the phrase means that “sometimes the outcome to a situation isn’t what one wanted or expected, and most especially, that there isn’t much to be done about it so one might as well accept it and move on”.

There’s another phrase that applies to this story too. Back in the 19th century, French playwright Charles-Guillaume Étienne penned the phrase “On n’est jamais servi si bien que par soi-même”. This has widely been translated as “If you want something done right, do it yourself”. The literal translation is “One is never served so well as by oneself”, but I digress.

A recent issue with my Ninja 1000, however, demonstrates that our playwright friend from France does indeed have a point, even if there are plenty of things one should best leave to others to do.

This past Spring I purchased a new Ninja 1000 (leftover 2013 model) from a local dealer. The bike has been great and has had only one issue. A pulsing from the front brakes as one reaches that last 15-20 feet of stopping. I tried changing brake pads after a few hundred miles as the OE pads really felt pretty wooden. The brakes had more bite now but the pulsing was still present.

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