Today I discovered why my drivetrail was cracking all the time. I woke up to freezing, negative temps and decided that I would drop my son at school, ride and then drop by the shop to let the team there adjust things so that I could get rid of the annoying cracking noise coming from the rear end.
As I attempted to blow through the last bit of ungroomed trail at the top of Green Canyon I discovered the noise had nothing to do with the chain or bad adjustments. My rear hub had been dying a slow death and the torque from trying to get through the last bits of snow was too much. With a final crack it gave out and my pedals were left useless.
Lucky for me most of the return to the return was generally in a downward direction. With a few moments of pumping and a lot of moments of Flintstoneing it I glided back to the truck and off to the shop we went. Sadly, but expectedly all the things I need are out of stock or hard to get. I suspect I will be spending plenty of hours riding the Tour de Zwift in the coming weeks.
After 7 years of pounding the snow the free hub is dead. Long live the free hub.
The ride – Green Canyon