Lewis Moon
11-12-2018, 04:42 PM
Well...that really sucked.
I'm a desert stream ecologist and I have always known (in some esoteric section of my memory where I file science schite) that tamarisk exuded salt from it's leaves, but it didn't really hit home until I cleaned my Ritchey Swiss Cross after my ride yesterday.
I was doing a bit of CX railing on single track in Papago park when I caught a rill with my front tire and was forced do do an extra-trail excursion. I get the bike back in control just in time to look up and catch a salt cedar head on. I rode through just fine but immediately tasted salt where it had slapped me in the face. To my horror, the first place my brain went was that some dog had peed on the tree, and that was the wetness and salt. I talked myself down from that...hacking and spitting..when I realized it would have to be a VERY tall dog. So, I rode another couple of laps and rolled home and hung the bike up, intending to wipe it down after de-chamois-ing...but I didn't get to it until this AM.
Salt crust...everywhere on the bike. Crap that was hard to get off.
I'm a desert stream ecologist and I have always known (in some esoteric section of my memory where I file science schite) that tamarisk exuded salt from it's leaves, but it didn't really hit home until I cleaned my Ritchey Swiss Cross after my ride yesterday.
I was doing a bit of CX railing on single track in Papago park when I caught a rill with my front tire and was forced do do an extra-trail excursion. I get the bike back in control just in time to look up and catch a salt cedar head on. I rode through just fine but immediately tasted salt where it had slapped me in the face. To my horror, the first place my brain went was that some dog had peed on the tree, and that was the wetness and salt. I talked myself down from that...hacking and spitting..when I realized it would have to be a VERY tall dog. So, I rode another couple of laps and rolled home and hung the bike up, intending to wipe it down after de-chamois-ing...but I didn't get to it until this AM.
Salt crust...everywhere on the bike. Crap that was hard to get off.