Fun with Headshocks

Thank god it was raining at my house this morning. AK has set up a Poto ride and when my alarm went off this morning I wanted to throw it across the room. Riding 5 laps at PLRA in the last 2 days had left me sore and wanting sleep. Instead I headed over to DC's to do some bike maintainence (sp)? Last night I heard something snap inside of my fork (never a good thing) and when I loaded my bike into the back of my truck my fork had about 1/2" of forward/backward play in it. After a quick inspection DC said "It's no big deal I think that you have a broken headset bearing...I've got an extra one...it's a five minute fix". So with the rain failing and my body sore I figured some bike work would be the best way to spend the morning. Well after taking apart the whole headshock we found that all of the needle bearings had essentially exploded inside the fork and the new dampening cartridge that I put in 2 weeks ago had literally broken into 2 pieces. The contents of the fork looked like the bottom of s swamp. Lots of black goey stuff mixed in with some remnant bearings. Good thing DC had all the parts to fix her up...After putting in all new bearings and reassembling the dampening cartridge the fork is as good as new...Smooth like butter. By the time we were done it had stopped raining. We drove out to the trailhead at Highland and attempted to ride in backwards to see if we could find Billy, Cathy and the Bird (they had called us mid fix asking what our plans were, if we got done in time we were to head out and meet them). The trail was wet from the morning rain and the wet overhanging branches made for a shitty ride. We only lasted a few minutes before we decided to scrap it and ride the back dirt roads. We never did find Cathy...although she called later and said the trail was "Awesome" Yeah right.....She's getting to be a bad liar in her old age. AK did text that he and AB did the double Poto...It would have been nice to try it today but with the rain this morning and an hour and a half ride to Poto I didn't want to risk it. The best part is my bike is fixed, the fork is working smoothly and I did get somewhat of a ride in...TC