Choosing For The L.O.G.

The current state of the Gen I Fargo

 In a little less than three weeks from now I hopefully will be in Kansas for the Legends of Gravel ride. I have ridden quite a bit in Kansas, so I do have somewhat of an idea of what I am getting myself into there. But bicycle choice for an event is always something I end up tripping myself over anyway. It seems inevitable. 

The obvious choice would be to go with my Gen I Fargo. I've ridden this bike down there before and I know it would do quite well. My only concern is for the tires. 

While you do not hear about all the flat tires you used to hear about down there, the chance for tire failure is much higher than anywhere else I might be riding near me. Yes....goat heads, sharp rocks, and thorns reside waiting to assail your tires in other parts of the USA, but around here flat tires are rare. So, it doesn't take much of an increase in risk factor to raise my level of concern, and the Flint Hill demand respect. 

N.Y. Roll has offered me his pair of Vittoria Mezcals to put on this bike. I could do that. I have those Schwalbe G-One AllRoads. I also have a pair of Cannonball tires from Teravail I could use. Actually, the Cannonballs were on this Fargo at one time. Back when my Maxxis Ikons failed just before the DK20 and I had to buy the Cannonballs which were, at that time, the Official Tire of the DK200. (Now Continental is the Official Tires of Unbound) 

Anyway... I'm changing tires, because the ones on there now are not going to be up to the task. 

The Noble GX5

The other bike under consideration is my Noble GX5. The reasoning behind taking this bike would be the lighter weight of this bike. 

Generally I haven't taken this bike anywhere I would be on a remote, longer ride because it only has three bottle mounts. The original fork had no accessory mounts. So, with limited water carrying capabilities, I would end up using another bike instead. 

However; now that it has the State Bicycle Co Monster Fork on there, I have bottle mounts and this alleviates the water carrying issue. A bonus to this fork is that it will clear a 29"er X 2.1" tire. So, that would maybe be handy in the Flint Hills. 

My only concern is this bike does not have a Redshift Sports ShockStop stem on it. I could snatch one off another bike though. If I decide to go with the Noble I'd make the switch. It would be a lot nicer on the body if I did!

The third choice would be the Singular Gryphon. It's got big tires and a ShockStop stem already. It also has one of my favorite drop bars in the Ragley Luxy Bar. It's heavy though, and I'm not in the greatest shape right at the moment due to all the wonky weather we've had since the beginning of the year. 

Gotta make up my mind soon. Stay tuned....

Bikes Of 2025: Noble GX5

 It's another end-of-year period on the blog. You know what that means? Yep! Another round of my bikes I used in 2025. This round-up will not include some of the bikes I did not use this year much, or at all. I focus only on the bikes that played a big role in my riding during this year.  As always, any changes or future plans for any bike I feature will also be detailed. I hope that you enjoy this year's round-up.

The Noble Bikes GX5 is surprisingly still relevant in 2026.

The Noble GX5 is an unusual bicycle. First of all, there are not very many of these around. The company never really got off the ground, in terms of sales, and now it is gone, I think, although the website is updated to 2025. (See the GX5 page HERE)

Secondly, the bike was designed by a former Raleigh product engineer who sat in on my conversation with their team at Raleigh when the Tamland was in development. So, there is somewhat of a chance my basic geometry ideas trickled into the design of the GX5, and by their charts, I would say this is true. But this is purely speculation on my part. 

Keeping in mind the GX5 came out in 2018, I think it was, and the following details of this bike might surprise you. While the GX5 was claimed to only have clearance for 40mm tires, it easily swallows 47's, and 45's fit all day. So, this is still pretty relevant in terms of the mainstream tire fitments out there. It could become out of date in 2026, but my guess is gravel bikes will pull back somewhat from the MTB wheels and tires to more aero, lighter tires and wheels again. 

The slightly longer top tube, slack head angle, lower bottom bracket, and internal routing of cables is all right on the money from a spec viewpoint in 2026. While the cables do not route through the stem and head tube, I am VERY happy they do not. That is just stupid, (have you seen the damaged steer tubes from cable rub on the internet?), and unnecessary. 

I point all this out because I've had thoughts of passing the Noble GX5 down to someone else. Then I realize I'd pay a lot more just to get something even close to what I already have, so.....why?

Don't fix what ain't broke. Right.... 

So, this bike continues on as being my lightweight, racier option, and it is quite comfortable and capable, now that I have the State Bicycle Co. Monster Gravel Fork v2 on it. This fork can also handle a 29" x 2.1" tire, so I also now can get the benefit of a big, fat tire when desired where it would matter most. 

The Noble GX5 isn't out of date, even though I have had it for six years already. I suppose I could put an electronically shifted drive train on it, but, really? Why do this when I have a bike which does what I need it to flawlessly already? I wouldn't turn my nose up at an opportunity to do a switch to electronic shifting, but I do not need it. 

So, my plan is to just keep using the Noble GX5 when the situation calls for a light, fast bike or if  I just want to ride it. I suspect it will stick around here for quite some time.  

No, It Is Not Bottom Bracket Time!

PF-30 is NOT BB 86. (sigh!)

So, last week I mentioned I had this Enduro Bearings PF-30/Shimano compatible bottom bracket in to hopefully solve my noise problem with the older Wheels Manufacturing bottom bracket. The thing is, I ordered the wrong bottom bracket, and well...... There was actually something else going on.

I'll get to the noise issue later, but first off, I don't know why I did not realize I had a BB-86 bottom bracket in the Noble GX5. I remember I ordered the Wheels Manufacturing one in the bike now way back when I was still working for Europa Cycle and Ski, and after I received the Noble GX5, obviously. I believe the Noble came along in 2018, so this would place the Wheels Manufacturing bottom bracket in the six year old range. It wasn't out of the question that my noises were related to the bottom bracket then. I had diagnosed the bike with it in the stand, and I probably should have taken the chain off, but I did not. It just was really rough feeling when I spun the crank set, and it seemed obvious.

Then the bottom bracket came in, again, exactly what I ordered, just to be clear, and I went to work. Once I went to install the new one I realized what was going on, so I had no immediate option but to go back and re-install the old Wheels Manufacturing one. Now, in between the tear down and the re-installation, I checked the bearings in the old bottom bracket, and while there was not a glassy smoothness, it was not rough. But, where was all the noise and roughness coming from before then?

Not a peep or sense of roughness was felt on Monday\s ride.

Well, I also had removed the wheels from the Noble and replaced them with my older set of Irwin Cycling carbon Aon wheels. I did this to mount the Continental Terra Adventure tires on a slightly wider inner rim width than the WTB wheels have.

Interestingly, those WTB wheels would never run quietly in the Noble GX5 frame until I tried them again this year. They used to squeak a lot back when I had tried them a couple of other times in the past. However; now the noise of squeaking has been replaced by a noise more akin to what a bad bearing sounds like, apparently, because with the Irwin wheels the bike is dead quiet. And even more maddening, these WTB wheels are perfect in my other bikes.

I had gotten away with the WTB wheels being quiet for a while, but I am thinking this was the issue, because I hear no noises anymore. By the way, I think those WTB wheels just do not fit the Noble frame quite right. The through axle interface must not be quite right. Perhaps a different through axle would be a fix? 

Now - I had cleaned and re-greased the interfaces with this latest bottom bracket removal and installation also, so if it was the old bottom bracket which was noisy, I would have taken care of it with the cleaning and re-greasing. But I cannot say for certain now. 

The drive train is quiet now. The noises are gone, so what about this new PF-30 bottom bracket? Well, it would fit my Standard Rando v2 just fine. So, one day IF I wear out the Enduro Bearings bottom bracket in that bike I'll now have a ready-made spare. And I will have to order a BB-86 next time for the Noble. 

Maybe I'd better write this down somewhere, eh?

Bottom Bracket Time

 The last time I rode the Noble Bikes GX5 out in the country I started hearing something. Maybe "feel" something was more correct. It was a bit windy at the time, so hearing a noise was tough. Plus it only happened on hard efforts. However; as the ride went on the noise became audible and by the end of the ride it was happening upon every crank revolution.

I hung the bike up after the ride and checked on it the next day. Spinning the crank set I could hear and feel the roughness and bearing crackle which any bicycle mechanic with a decent amount of time under their belt has heard thousands of times.  There was no denying it, the bearings were failing. 

This was not the typical PF-30 shell noise. I get those from time to time. A simple removal of the bottom bracket, a good cleaning, re-greasing, and re installation is all that is necessary in those cases. However; a new PF-30/Shimano compatible bottom bracket is a completely different deal. This was going to cost me!

The bottom bracket that was in there wasn't "bad" from a standpoint of service life. I believe I got that one in 2019. So, it has been at least five years going and almost all the miles have been dusty gravel ones. This was a Wheels Manufacturing model, for the record, and I would not hesitate to recommend one to anyone. However; I've had experience with another PF-30, thread-together bottom bracket which I ended up ordering. 

Enduro Bearings Torq-Tite (Image courtesy of Enduro Bearings)

The Standard Rando v2 was set up for a component review last year with a suite of Enduro Bearings products. The Torq-Tite bottom bracket was sent as the Twin Six bike uses that standard. 

And the Torq-Tite isn't bad, it just is not as awesome as the Max-Hit, one of which I have in my Gryphon. So, I'm not sad about it. It'll be good, and I hope it will be an improvement over the Wheels Manufacturing one I was using. I think it will, again, judging from the Standard Rando.

 I received the part early on Wednesday. So here is a look at the thing and an interesting note about how it works which I will point out in my images following...  

The Enduro Torq-Tite bottom bracket. Nice presentation.

 

Unlike other thread-together PF-30 options, the Torq-Tite is threaded on two ends instead of just one.

 By the end of the weekend the ol' Noble GX5 will be gravel-ready again. I'll be curious to see how long things go before I get creaks and have to clean it up, and of course, how long the bearings hold up. If this one is as good as the Wheels one was, I think this bike will be retired before I wear out the bottom bracket. We'll see!

Country Views: Dry and Rough

Escape Route: Church Row Historic Neighborhood

'Picture perfect' is a term which has become something of a cliche', but I don't know how else to describe this recent stretch of weather we've had. Low humidity, light breezes, and copious amounts of Sunshine. Temperatures scratching the 80's with lows at night into the 40's. Glorious!

And who could let this stretch of weather get away without a ride in the country? I know I couldn't! So, on Friday, I saddled up the Noble GX5, headed North, and let grand ideas of a big loop dance in my head. Nevermind the fact I haven't had any sort of consistency in riding longer distances yet.

Leaving North I ended up on Burton Avenue. This is, more or less, a long climb out of the Cedar River Valley. Sure, you get rollers but always with the downhill side shorter than the climbing side as you head away North out of town. Sometimes this is no big deal. Then when the wind is out of a Northerly direction, it can be a pain. The wind was light, but it was out of the Northwest.

The leaves have fully emerged from the tress now. This is the Cedar River near the John Deere Foundry.

The corn is mostly in now. Next up will be the finishing up on the bean planting.

The first mile and a half out of Waterloo is chip seal on Burton Avenue so at this point I am feeling confident. I was climbing and the legs were feeling okay, I guess. I take forever to 'warm up" to riding at times so I never know how exactly things will be on a ride, sometimes for the first half an hour or more. 

That creamy colored gravel is fresh, deep, and very loose. I rode in the margin next to the ditch!

This is a view from.... Well, you can read the sign for yourself!

I rolled off the chip seal and suddenly the bike was dancing underneath me and wanting to swap ends. Fresh gravel! Really fresh gravel! It must have been laid down that very morning. There were no car tire tracks on it yet. This wasn't what I was expecting at all! 

Fortunately there was about a foot to two feet wide space next to the ditch's edge which had not been covered with the fresh, cream-colored gravel. I stuck to this tiny ribbon which sometimes would disappear under fresh gravel to come out again several yards later. And remember, this is a mostly uphill stretch.

 

The chunk persisted all the way up past Mt Vernon Road and I was feeling not so great. I stopped to reconsider my grandiose idea for a big ride and swallowed my pride. Remounting, I decided to head one more mile North and then head East on Bennington Road.

The roads were really dry heading East. I was back on older gravel, so it did not have the moisture in it like the fresh rock had. The few vehicles I saw were really kicking up some big clouds of dust. Farm implements were as well. Not a good sign with a stretch of little to no rain in the forecast here.

Wait....What?! I haven't noticed this before!

It looks as though they've done some grass seeding at the old one-room school house.

I decided to ride as far as Sage Road. The intersection with Sage Road and Bennington Road is where Bennington Township Schoolhouse Number 2 is at. This relic of Iowa's past was almost lost when it fell out of service and was being used by a local farmer to store hay in. Finally some locals decided to restore it and now it stands as one of the two remaining country school houses in Black Hawk County and the only one on its original site.

Freshly planted fields were everywhere.

Sage Road was not laid over with fresh rock yet so it was quite nice coming back South. The dust was awful though, and the Noble got a good coating of it!

I stopped at the Big Rock and took a quick break, then I headed back to Waterloo, glad to have not put myself through the wringer. It was a 'just right" ride on a "just right" day. These do not come around all that often, so I was glad I was able to take advantage of this chance. 

Brown Season: The Freshies

Escape Route: Sergeant Road bike path.

The Continental Terra Adventure tires I have in for review needed to be ridden, and with Friday being a nearly windless day, (what?!), I decided to ask myself, "What better time to go than now?" The answer: There is no better time than now.

So, out came the 3/4's Twin Six bibs, my longsleeved Bontrager wool jersey I've had for years, and my Twin Six wind vest. I put half a plastic shopping bag around each foot and wore my old Giant MTB shoes.

It was around 50°F, so it wasn't 'warm', and with a mostly cloudy sky, I had little help from the Sun. As it turned out, I was dressed perfectly. The Conti tires were aired up to 30psi, the water bottles were filled, and I was off to find Petrie Road's Level B section to test these knobby little tires.

Spring-time gravel road maintenance has begun. Great!

The farmers are readying their toys for Spring play-time.

Well, I found out I hit the "gravel jack-pot" on the first stretch of gravel of the day. The County has hit Aker Road hard with the freshies. Deep, loose, fresh ground and crushed rock. Mmmmm.... The Noble GX5 was darting and slipping around on the white rock. Dust was being kicked up by passing cars and made the dust look like thunderheads, but I was fortunate in that every car and truck slowed to make sure I wasn't too blinded.

Taking a break at "The Usual Spot".

Once I passed by Hudson, Iowa, to my right, Aker Road cleared up. A little bit!

That fresh gravel was jarring. I expected sooner or later we would be seeing this happen. It is about the time when farmer's are getting ready to plant and the County likes to get its 530 miles of gravel squared away before their heavy equipment hits the gravels. 

Where the dirt begins on the East side of Petrie Road's Level B section.

There is usually water here all year long, but with the drought it has been hit or miss.

Level B roads, the good ones, change periodically. Petrie Road's Level B section is no different. Right now it is rough and rutted out. We haven't had a ton of moisture around here, and you would think things couldn't get too tore up, but they are right now.

I was remarking to myself how it was back when we ran Trans Iowa v12 through this road and it was super-smooth. I think it was in the best condition I'd ever seen this section of road be in. Now, it should be said that a certain landowner adjacent to this section of dirt road would like nothing more than to have the County declassify it to a C Level road and have it gated off. So, this landowner has let their end of this road "go to hell" and they even took down the street sign on their corner along with the Levl B warning sign so it looks more like a farmer's lane. Maybe someday this farmer will get their wish, but it is still open to traffic in 2025.....

The first hill on the East end.NOTE: This shot is from a similar vantage point as the header (as of 4/14/25)

Headed down to the last bit which is flat, riddled with ruts, and in Summer, overgrown with weeds.

I was picking my way through trying to avoid the ruts, the decomposed clay, which sucks yoiur wheel in, and the mud where it was prevalent. On the West end, near where "that farmer lives", it gets real gnarly with really deep ruts, mud, and water. I was 50 yards from the West entrance when I finally made a wrong move and dumped myself unceremoniously on my left side.

I was laughing. I almost made it and, well.....darn it!  I got back up still chuckling to myself, remounted, and got to the end with no further issues. A quick look at the Terra Adventure, to see how much mud stuck to it, and I was off on my way back North on Holmes Road.

I don't notice this erratic too often, but it appears this farmer is stacking more rock on it.

Freshies on Aker Road. The right side by the ditch was way smoother!

I was out almost two and a half hours. It was a good ride and I learned a lot about the new tires. (I'll post again on those soon.) I was happy it wasn't windy and at least I felt pretty good once I got back home. Now I just need to get out more consistently and keep stacking those pennies.

Bikes Of 2024: Nobel GX-5

 It's another December here on the blog. You know what that means? Yep! Another round of my bikes I used in 2024. This round-up will not include some of the bikes I did not use this year much, or at all. I focus only on the bikes that played a big role in my riding during this year.  As always, any changes or future plans for any bike I feature will also be detailed. I hope that you enjoy this year's round-up.

 The Noble GX-5 is another oddball bike in my stable. It is fairly rare, but it has a connection to another bike I own, the Raleigh Tamland Two. Ironically, the design for the Noble was informed by the design for the Tamland Two because one of the engineers on the Tamland designed the Noble GX-5 as well. 

This bike was ahead of the game in a couple of ways. It has semi-internal cabling. It also has a 1X specific design. While Nobel listed the GX-5 as having clearances for only 40mm tires in its marketing, it will easily swallow a 700 X 47mm tire and 45's are no big deal. It also wasn't heavily influenced by the "adventure wart" trend which was a big deal when this bicycle was developed in 2018. 

The bike now sports a State Bicycle Co. Monster Fork v2.

Now I have changed just about everything on this bicycle but the head set. Every other component attached to this frame is pretty much new, or is brand new. Now going forward I also see more stability with the stuff bolted to this bike. Changes will be more intentional, I think.

I had thought about swapping back to the original fork, but I have finally decided to give this State Bicycle Co. fork some more time in the new year. I guess I could see going 12 speed on this bike at some point also. It would be the perfect bike to do that with. But I am in no hurry to go there.

I am looking forward to riding the Noble again. I have a great time riding this bike, and why wouldn't I? The geometry is almost dead-on what I would specify had this been a custom rig.

State Bicycle Co. Monster Fork v2 - Update

Note: State Bicycle Co sent over their Monster Fork v2 for test and review at Guitar Ted Productions at no cost. Guitar Ted is not being bribed, nor paid,for this review and all opinions are his own. 

The State Bicycle Co. Monster Fork v2 has been ridden, had its offset changed, been measured, and had a bit of a rough spell there for a bit. In this post I will explain all of that. The introductions and first impressions of this fork can be found by clicking HERE. 

The Ride Quality:

So, first up we have the ride performance of this fork. Some of my regular blog readers already have read about a bit of my first gravel ride on this fork HERE, but for those coming from elsewhere on the innergoogles, I will give a brief recap. 

On the way out of town I misread a curb, thinking it was at street level when in reality it was several inches high. I ran straight into it at somewhere between 5mph and 10mph. When I hit the curb, I felt the tire bottom out on the rim and heard a big "crack" sound. Thinking I damaged the rim, I tried to find where the rim may have failed but I could find nothing. I checked again after several miles and then noted the brake was rubbing the rotor. Odd, but - The Monster Fork has those aluminum inserts to switch the offset, right? So what if one or both made a position change when I hit that curb and moved the axle just enough to cause brake rub? A bit of brake massaging caused the rub to go away, so I am pretty sure the loud cracking noise was just the aluminum chip/plates moving slightly in their pockets due to my gaff on the curb read. 

The ride quality is what I would call "normal". What I mean to say is that the new Monster Fork rode pretty much like my old Noble fork which came with the bike. Makes sense since all the geometry is pretty similar in the Monster Fork's shorter offset setting. 

No weird steering issues either. In fact, the fork felt great on the gravel considering the stability and steering inputs were again, very similar to what I expect out of this bike. 

This is all very good and with the Monster Fork v2, I have options to carry luggage or extra bottles, something I could not do with the original fork. 

The Challenges:
 

After the successful test rides it was time to take out the offset chips and flip them for the change in offset. The first check came when the front wheel would not come out easily. I ended up tapping the tire with a dead blow hammer to get the wheel out. Hmm.... A tolerance issue with Industry 9 hubs, perchance, or....? I would have to investigate this further, but I was eager to do some measuring, so I moved on to flipping the chips and then the next check showed up.

Flipping the chips is only one part of changing the offset on this fork. You must also flip the brake mount 180° as well. I did not catch this detail. It isn't an obvious step in the process. There is no guidance on State's website, and I did not receive any paperwork when the fork was shipped to me. Perhaps customers get an instructional sheet? 

After a bit of downtime and communication with my contact for State, this was cleared up for me. I had also mentioned the tolerance issue with the Industry 9 hub, and the response was "We haven't heard about any issues like this before". I ended up trying a HED Eroica wheel and it went in and back out just fine. The Industry 9 hub also was going in easier after the flip of everything, but still wasn't perfect. I think this can be attributed to a slightly imperfect fit between the chip and the carbon fork pocket it is supposed to fit into. There also may be a slight tolerance issue with some other hub brands, but I think this may be an isolated issue. At any rate, it is something to note. 

Crunching The Numbers:

Remembering what I wrote to you in the first impressions post, you might recall that the overall wheel diameter, fork offset/rake, and the head tube angle can be put into a formula to give you fork trail. That measure helps to determine how stable, or unstable, a bike might be. 

The marketing from State gets this wrong, but what is true is that more offset equals less fork trail. This, in practice, makes a bicycle less stable. So, in the case of this Monster Fork v2, we have a choice for a shorter offset and one for a longer offset. The choices are 49mm and 55.5mm. The fork came in the 49mm offset setting. 

Following are the numbers I measured with a tape measure and an angle gauge on my iPhone. These numbers were plugged into an online fork trail calculator. The head angle, wheel diameter, and fork offset affect other geometry numbers as well, which are also accounted for in the following results. Note: The wheel diameter remains constant throughout. Changing wheel diameter (different tire) would add another variable. The head angle, you will note, is slacker in the longer offset setting. That is because the axle to crown, (length of the fork, basically) is longer in the longer offset setting.

 49mm Offset/Rake: Head tube angle: 71°, Wheel Diameter 712mm - Fork Trail = 58.42mm Other numbers: Seat tube angle: 72°, Bottom Bracket Height: 11 3/8ths"/289mm

55.5mm Offset/Rake: Head tube angle: 69.5°, Wheel Diameter 712mm - Fork Trail = 73.66mm. Other Numbers: Seat Tube Angle 71.5°, Bottom Bracket Height: 11 7/16ths"/291mm. Saddle Angle tipped up by 1°

What Does It Mean? The difference in fork trail is 15.24mm. (.6 inch) That's nearly indistinguishable in real terms. Where you would see a definitive difference in handling traits is by increasing or decreasing the wheel diameter. Of course, you can do this by using 650B wheels or 700c wheels, but you also can do this with the Monster Fork v2 by using smaller or larger volume tires. That's really the feature worth focusing on with the Monster Fork V2. Moving to the longer offset would allow me to use a true 29" wheel/tire combination, albeit on the smaller side of the scale for 29"ers. Only then would you increase the trail figure by enough that it would be noticeable. 

Updated: Note that the slacker head angle due to a longer axle to crown affects the trail figure here the most. Again, larger diameter tires will do a similar thing. Basically, the larger the differential between rear wheel diameter and front wheel diameter, with the front always larger, will increase trail figures as the wheel gets larger up front. On my bike I cannot install a larger rear tire than a 45mm, so in my case, if I wanted more snappy handling, I would keep the tire sizes the same in the longer offset setting.

Note the changes to head tube, seat tube, and saddle angles. These things, along with bottom bracket height, might actually be more noticeable to a rider. Especially regarding fit. Keep this in mind if you switch offsets on this fork, or if you change forks that have different axle to crown heights, which can have similar affects on geometry. 

In the end, maybe none of the above matters! Look around and you can easily find people riding bicycles with incorrectly installed forks from department stores. These backward forks result in negative trail and people still ride them with "no big deal" involved. How can this be? Well, Humans are very adaptable creatures, that's why. These minute changes resulting from swapping a flip chip on the Monster Fork v2 are likely going to be easily adapted to by most anyone and probably wouldn't be noticed by most riders. So the tire clearance is really the big deal here. 

So Far... That's enough for this update! Next I plan on riding the Monster Fork v2 in the longer offset setting, putting a load on the fork using the accessory mounting bolts along each fork leg, and I will also be trying out a fatter front tire to see what that looks like. 

Up to this point I can say that my only real concern is how those chips set into the fork and how that has affected getting my I-9 wheel in and out of this fork. As it stands right now the I-9 wheel does install much easier than before, so that's good to see, but if this fork is representative of what to expect from this product there might be some hubs that are not really good matches for the Monster Fork v2 and some that are and nobody really knows for certain right now.

Otherwise the ride quality is right on par with most carbon gravel forks. The handling in the short offset setting was spot-on and I don't anticipate that the longer offset setting will be an issue, or maybe even noticeable. Stay tuned for the final word on this fork soon.

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.

Fall Views: Test Riding

The trees are just starting to pop with color here.

Friday I decided to take a multi-surface test ride to get going on my review of the State Bicycle Co. Monster Fork v2. So, I came up with a plan and headed out on Friday morning. It was cool-ish when I started but we were headed for near record temperatures which was to be around 85°F. The ironic thing about this is the way 85 degrees feels so much different in October than it does in August. It is a completely different experience. 

That is due to how much drier the air is, which is why it can go from being in the low 50's to 70's in an hour's time! It makes dressing for a ride challenging. I wore my new Twin Six Thermal Cargo Bib Knickers, a Pirate Cycling League jersey over a Twin Six base layer, and my Twin Six floral patterned vest. I used a buff rag on my head and wore my Lazer helmet. I had on some cycling socks and Shimano RX801 shoes. I was comfortable the entire ride, but by the end I could tell it was a lot warmer than when I started out!

Trolley Car Trail

I hit up Trolley Car Trail, which isn't paved.....yet, and I hope it never will be. How it is not paved at this time is amazing to me, what with the current thought being that every recreational trail needs paving. I don't get that train of thought, by the way, because pavement causes run-off, needs maintenance, which is not cheap, and encourages motorized traffic, despite that being illegal. Anyway....

Trolley Car Trail never needs maintaining, with the exception of tree and branch clearing after a windstorm. But what trail is immune to that? 

Shirey Way: The inter-city Level B Road.

I took the bike through Shirey Way. People call this "Lower Hartman" but they don't know their history. Most folks now probably don't recall when this was a public road, surfaced with gravel, and open to traffic. Nor do they likely remember that there were homes on this road. There were whispers in the 80's that this road was where the "devil worshipers" sacrificed animals. Crazy times....

I did a little single track in a couple of spots. Riding a drop bar gravel bike on single track is kind of a hoot. As long as things don't get too rowdy or technical, it is an experience you should give a try. Things have been so bone-dry here that there were no worries over mud or moist dirt that would give my tires a challenge. The dry dirt was perfect for the Vulpine S tires. 

I found out what I needed to know and high-tailed it back home. I had other chores to attend to and Winter is coming, so I could not put some things off any longer!