Country Views: High Traffic

Those puffy skies belied a furnace of a day

 Wednesday I had the whole family home. A far cry from a week ago when they were in Texas and I was here alone. So, I spent all morning with them and ate lunch with them before I was ready to go out for a ride. Normally they all would have been away working and doing school or whatnot. This is a rare situation and one that won't happen often in the future. Gotta grab that time when I can. 

Anyway, since time was short and it was right in the hottest part of the day, I didn't plan anything big. Just a couple of hours North of town would have to do. So, I hauled the bike to Gates Park tennis court parking and hopped over to Moline Road and just pointed the bike North and pedaled. 

The gravel was about perfect and there was almost zero wind, but it was well into the 90's and even with the puffy clouds, there was not much relief from the heat. I took the speed back a notch and tried to spin more. It seemed to be going well and the miles started clicking off. I felt pretty good, actually. 

Road block! An ag sprayer leaving a field.

It turned out that there was a lot of spraying going on this particular day.

The low winds must have prompted many farmers to get out their spraying rigs and get out into the fields. I hardly could go a few miles without seeing some sort of sprayer rig in a field or traveling in between fields on gravel roads. 

I decided to turn East on Gresham Road and then head back on Sage Road for the day. Before I got up to Gresham Road I noticed several trucks also running to and fro. Hmm...... A high traffic day in the country! 

A truck heads east up Gresham Road.

The Pioneer Cemetery on Gresham Road

As I came across on Gresham Road and turned back South on Sage Road I felt a Southeast breeze in my face. Honestly, with as hot as it was, it felt great to have a bit of a headwind. I still kept things to a manageable pace. I haven't had but two hot weather rides in a row this year, and this was one of them. I then noted a noise. Hmm.....Creak.....creak....creak.... 

I had addressed the screw together Press Fit 30 bottom bracket earlier, and it sounded more 'plasticky' than a bottom bracket, if that makes sense. The other day I thought it was a loose through axle bolt, because I tightened it and the creak went away. however; once I stopped I found that wasn't it this time. So, what was it?

Another sprayer rig

Well, my experiences tracking down that creak on that Stormchaser I had around here about a year ago came in handy here. I decided that it might be loose water bottle mounts, and I had a Wolf Tooth B-Rad on the seat tube bottle mount to drop my cage lower to fit underneath my Revelate Tangle Bag, And you know what? I found three loose bolts! 

Well, that was great! Plus, I got a nice break from toiling away under the hot Sun while I was tightening bolts. Then it was a short-ish cruise to the truck and back home again. I tell ya! That heat knocked the stuffins outta me on this day. I have a LOT of acclimating to do before I'll be good to ride all day in this weather.