Nothing Linear About Leaves

This time of year the trails are obviously covered in a nice layer of leaves. I’d say the last couple of weeks we’ve had no less than five inches of a nice fluffy leaf layer.

Tuesday it rained.

Wednesday the leaves remained, but there was something different about the whole situation.

With the rains came wind. The wind stirred up and dried what was on the surface. What remained underneath was now very wet and slick.

You could ride your bike down a hill and around a turn, but you couldn’t do it with both wheels tracking in the same direction. Momentum carried you down or around, but the loss of friction between your tires and the ground carried them quite often in opposite directions.

It was the kind of night where riding relaxed was imperative. You can’t tense up when your bike is sliding all over the place. Tension and stress is counter-productive to the free-flowing motion of momentum.

Relax. Let the bike slide. Traction will return.

– b