Slop Season Starts!

Fargo Gen 1 ready for slop duty!

Last week on Monday it was -19°F below zero and my entire family and I were home sick. Yesterday was 51°F above zero, we opened up the windows to the house, and I rode my bicycle home from work in my long sleeved wool Twin Six jersey.

Talk about contrasts!

Of course, the big temperature swing means that snow is wilting like a flower under a heat lamp. Rivulets of water were streaming across frozen turf and ice all over town yesterday, making for large, deep pools and slush with dirty crap from Winter laying on the bits of pavement newly exposed. Mud- yes, that stuff we haven't seen for several months, has started to rear its nasty little head now. The mixture of Spring and Winter always means "slop season" is underway.

I was ready this year. Avid readers of this blog may recall my fender frenzy one weekend not long ago. The Fargo gen 1 got the full drive train, fender, re-cabling treatment this time, so it has been pressed into duty as the first line of defense against slop. I had one interesting challenge with the drive train.

The front derailleur wasn't operating as it should, and that because the cable wasn't getting pulled enough to put the chain into the big ring. But the beauty of the Retroshifters was revealed in this situation. I simply re-clocked the bar end shifter and that was that. Plenty of cable pull, and I have a fully functional triple chain ring crankset on the bike now.

So, bring on the slop! I'm ready for that and Spring as well.