Sunny and pretty but cold

I have spent much of the last week re-learning why it is so difficult to ride a lot of miles in October.

There were days when I suppose I could have ridden in that wind. There were days when I suppose, and in fact, this one I know, I could have ridden in that cold (I have the gear). But on four of the past six days a combination of extremely high winds and temperatures usually only in the 40s have combined to keep me indoors. It is difficult to ride a lot of miles if you spend most of the week indoors.

Today the wind diminished considerably from what it has been. Please note that it didn't disappear entirely. It was diminished enough to only invoke the Auckland Rule, especially when the sun was out and it was pretty. It WAS cold but a chance to catch up on the bright colors before the leaves ALL drop off the trees provided just the right amount of additional motivation and I donned the gear to head out.

A gear note, I am still not at the full use of the gear that I already have, it clearly isn't too cold yet. I added the balaclava today but only because my chin gets cold and I wanted to pull the fabric of the balaclava up to approximately my jaw line to make my face more comfortable. I had on my heavier jacket but here is a list of items which I still have in reserve: mittens (WOOL mittens), heavyweight long sleeved jersey, heavyweight long sleeved base layer, and windstopper shoe covers. I am in late season cold coping form, I CAN do this.

But, there's always a but. Shortly after I got out there the sun went away and with it went pretty. After that it was only cold.

I rode out to the north heading for the Grass Lake diversion. Here is the sign at the foot of the pedestrian/bicycle bridge over 694:

No problem there, I still have another day completely in the clear and with the skinny tires on FirstLOOK I am going to be staying on the paved trail anyway.

I actually felt pretty good, several rest days will do that. I headed over to the beaver dam. Bob has been at it again, the two channels have been deepened again.

The water level is by far the lowest that it has been this entire calendar year. That area just above the open water in the center of the picture is threatening to reassert its status as dry land. It has been under water every other time I have been out there this year.

I rode up to Vadnais hoping to find construction complete and to get a chance to ride down to the lake. This is the time of year when I have in the past seen swans in the lake. The construction is complete but they seem pretty serious about keeping me out of there.

I got a call from Chief Mechanic Scott from County Cycles yesterday. He informed me that they have some bicycle parts and that I was welcome to come on in and start having them attached to NewLOOK. He said they had some bearings and some other parts with "springs and flappy things". I suspected and now know that he meant new rear hub pawls.

There is a reason why Scott is the Chief Mechanic. He is extremely good at what he does.

For example, there had previously been a problem with describing to the shop owner and two different mechanics just exactly what the noise was. They all eventually discovered what it was by taking a short ride on NewLOOK. This time I didn't bring the whole bicycle, only the two wheels but Scott was able to produce the noise standing inside the shop by rotating the axle.

I am impressed.

He said "Thursday" and then took the wheels into the back room. I was exchanging some idle chit chat with the shop owner when Scott reappeared with a part in his hand. I don't really intend to get too heavily into the minutia of bicycle mechanics but he had a new and more comprehensive diagnosis of the problem.

In less than a minute.

He showed me the inside of the wheel hub (I got a for me first time in person look at the pawls). I like learning new things, I learned several. We had a complete discussion of short term fixes, long term fixes, what might be possible, what the ultimate outcome might be, some of those things were not good, some of them have the potential to be pretty pricey.

The upshot of it all is that Thursday is completely off the table. Scott is working on it, though. He said he would be in touch.

And finally: RIP Mongo.

Mongo only pawn in game of life.