Twenty-six years ago. My G/F & future wife, parked the car and hopped onto the bikes on the Canadian side of the border and headed over to the city of Niagara Falls, on the USA side. Specifically to that dot of ground between the USA Bridal Falls and the Canadian Horseshoe Falls. Goat Island I think it's called.

Soon after clearing the US Customs, I was doing a good clip and left her far behind me. I got to the top of the island and viewed the Falls and gorge ahead of and below me, about an 1/8th. of a mile out, on a 20% to 25% doward slope. Still pumping my ride very hard, the gorge edge and the railing was coming up very fast.

I'm going flat out.

No problem. I'm a "skilled" cyclist I say to myself. I gently loaded and squeezed the rear brake, then I hit the front brake, firmly.

POP!

The front cable pulled right through the retaining nut on the brake arm. NO front brakes!!! Crap,.. 70% of my braking effort is now GONE! I'm running out of road,...FAST.... the guard rail is approaching and the gorge is widening!

I can hear the crashing falls on both sides of me by now.

Quickly, I squeezed the rear brake lever.......HARD, VERY HARD...... go to fade....instantly!... NO REAR BRAKES! I've barely slowed at all and now I have no brakes WHAT-SO-EVER!

I'm now close enough to see into the Falls and the Niagara Gorge by now and actually visualized myself hitting the guard and catapulting over the rail and into the misty abyss. It was Spring, midweek and preseason. Only a few individuals on the whole island and my future wife is nowhere to be seen.

NO-ONE-WOULD-WITNESS-MY-FANTASTIC-CATAPULT-AND-PLUMMET-OVER-THE-RAIL-AND-INTO-THE-NIAGARA-FALLS-GORGE-NOR-WHITENESS-MY-IMPENDING-YET-SPECTACULAR-FLYING-F-ING-DEATH-!

Truly a "Ripley's Believe It or Not" tacky moment I'm having. Time slows down exponentially and the brain speeds up relatively.

I slipped my runner toe-tips down and off the pedals. NO GOOD, the seat is TOO high! I can't touch the ground enough to have any drag braking effect!

I'm just a few dozen yards from the boiling Falls now. The water roar is deafening and I'm preparing to get the ride, not to mention a view of the gorge that very few people have EVER seen and even fewer have ever lived to talk about.

Just moments away.......

I then quickly slide off the saddle and land HARD, right onto my "Wedding-Package", crotch-slamming onto the cross bar and then DUG-HARD-DRAGGED-MY-RUNNERS-TOPS-RIGHT-INTO-THE-ASPHALT, sliding along what seemed like hours, the leather and rubber shoe tops quickly heated up and burned right through the Adidas Sierras I was wearing.

THUCK! My front wheel hard "kissed" the flat silver aluminium guard rail at the gorge edge ........ I had stopped,.. I think.

It was very, very quiet at that moment. I looked around and NOT a single soul had witnessed my close encounter with my "maker". I looked down at my runners and both of the tops of the big toes had heat/abrasion ground right through to the cotton socks!

My heart was still pounding in my mouth when up beside me, smoothly in rolled Janine on her cycle.

"Isn't that the most beautiful site in the world?" she innocently asked. As coolly and calmly as I could muster, I replied: "Yup, honey, ....... it sure is, it sure is".