Brown Season: Harvest Coming To A Close

Escape Route: The new (not yet open) Park Avenue Bridge.

Tuesday was a great looking day. Windy, but great looking. And it was cooler. It struggled to get into the 50's here all morning, so I waited until after lunch to attempt a ride. With the stiff Northeasterly wind, I went North out of town. 

I rode the Noble GX5 with that new State Bicycle Co. Monster Fork and boy! Did it get an early test! I deadheaded a curb at slow speed and I heard a "crack!" that made me think I broke something carbon. I've heard carbon break before and it has a distinctive sound when it does. 

Was it the rim? That was my first thought, but my tire wasn't leaking and I couldn't feel any irregularities with my gloved hand. Did I break the head tube? I felt around but found nothing. The fork seemed rock solid and there was no play in anything. 

I slow rolled it a ways down some side streets, listening and hoping that nothing catastrophic would happen. Nothing seemed amiss, so I kept going and I decided it was too noisy in the city, what with the added noise of the wind, to hear anything, so I waited until I reached the gravel to do another inspection. If anything was wrong, it was pretty minor, but that sound I heard. That was something. 

Those big puffy clouds were hustling along with the wind.

A little Fall color here on Airline Highway

I got off the bike eventually and made a further inspection. Hmm.....the front brake was dragging. That seems odd! Then it hit me. I knew what I had heard and I was relieved. The Monster Fork has those aluminum inserts which you can 'flip' for a different offset and get more or less wheel clearance. One, or both of those, moved when I hit the curb. The result was that now the axle was in a very slightly different position, and brake rub was the result. A little time with a multi-tool and I had it figured out. 

The harvest of corn is finishing up now. It won't be long and every field will be gleaned and laid bare. I saw some harvesting activity and got passed by a semi-tractor trailer full of freshly harvested grain at one point during the ride. It was really dusty and the winds were blowing the dust all over. The roads were a weird mix of moon dust and chunky rock. My tires were whitish-grey the entire ride due to all the dust I was riding through. 

I had decided to make this a fairly short ride. Not just because the Northerly winds were really tough, but because I had waited to ride until it had warmed up somewhat. I am still getting acclimated to it being this chilly. I was riding in 80 and 90 degree weather just a week prior and we just dumped forty degrees with no slow roll down of temperatures.  This has been such an odd Fall and by the end of the week we are to be back into the 70's again. 

I would have loved to have been out longer, but with that wind and my time limitation, I couldn't take the risk. But despite the wind and chill the Sun felt great and the views were spectacular. At least I thought so.

There is just something about the landscape at harvest time when we get a blue-sky day, puffy white clouds, and the contrast in colors and with light. It was a magical day and even though I only rode about twenty miles, it was a great twenty miles. Well, with the possible exception of that worrisome cracking sound! At least I figured that out and it ended up being nothing that stopped me from riding.