Leaf mush
Saturday was gray and still, 52°F when I left the garage, with the kind of damp that doesn't count as rain but leaves you wet anyway. I took the usual river loop: out along the county road, across the old iron bridge, and back on the north bank. It's 23 miles and a little under three hours the way I ride it, and that includes a stop to look at herons.
Last week the maples along the north bank were still holding on. This week they gave up all at once. The shoulder was a solid brown-orange mat, and the crown of the road had a shiny strip down the middle where cars had pressed the leaves into something like wet paper.
The first corner tells you
I found out how slick it was on the bend past the boat ramp. Nothing dramatic. The rear wheel just stepped sideways about an inch, politely, the way a cat moves off your lap. I said something to nobody and rode the next mile very upright.
At the bridge I pulled over and let some air out. I'd pumped the 32s to 70 psi that morning out of habit, which is fine for dry pavement in July and pretty silly for leaf soup in October. I took them down to about 60 in back and 55 in front, judging by thumb, since the gauge was sitting at home on the workbench. The bike felt softer and slower, and a lot more willing to stay where I put it.
What I did differently on the way home
- Braked before the corners, upright, never in them.
- Stayed off the painted lines and the manhole covers. Wet leaves on paint are worse than either one alone.
- Rode the strip the cars had cleared whenever traffic let me.
- Stayed in an easier gear so I wasn't standing up and putting sudden torque through the rear wheel.
None of that is news. I knew all of it last autumn too. Somehow every year the first leafy ride has to remind me, and every year it's a tidy little sideways scoot that does it.
Back home the brake pads had a gritty brown paste on them and the fenders were packed with leaf bits. I wiped the rims, picked the fenders clean with a chopstick, and wrote "60 / 55, Oct–Nov" on a strip of tape on the pump. We'll see if I read it next week.