Click Clack
Not long after I left Namsos, the weather changed from rain to blue skies and sunshine, and it remained dry for the entirety of this ride. Not a single raindrop fell even at night. After two weeks under thick rainclouds, that was an enormous boost to my mood.
Unfortunately, the dry weather also seemed to boost my mechanical issues. The drivetrain on my Bombtrack Audax AL had been making clicking noises for the past days, but today they grew ever louder. In a quiet moment I took off the crank and checked whether the noise was caused by a loose bolt on the chainring, as is often the case. But no, all the bolts sat fixed in place as they should be.
Turning the crank with the chain removed proved that there was a grinding noise along with some small but noticable resistance at every half turn even without any load on the crank arms at all. That's bad sign. I suspect the incessant rain the bike was exposed to up north eventually caused water to enter the bottom bracket. Given the high salt content of that water at the coast, it probably flushed out the grease and cpedal aused corrosion of the bearings. It would also explain why the noise wasn't as audible during the day before as I rode through the rain mostly, so the water in the bottom bracket must have acted as a lubricant. The noise was back now after the bike completely dried out. Otherwise I can't explain it. A bottom bracket certainly shouldn't go bust after only about 4000 km!
I didn't have any options except to keep riding to the the continuous click-clack metronome of the pedals. For a while I had other problems as well, like for example a furious headwind on the road to Steinkjer, causing me to seek refuge in an angler's shelter for a while and sit out the worst gusts.
The highlight of the day was the sighting of an elk in the twilight of Falstadskogen just before midnight. I'd already seen like a dozen deer in that quiet stretch of successive forests and clearings, when I noticed that huge gray animal standing on the grass, sizing me up from afar. I even managed to take a few pictures before it bolted and vanished between the trees.
Frosta
There's lots of historical "points of interest" to explore around the Frosta region that I had just crossed into. First and foremost of them would be a rather inconspicuous hill at the hamlet of Logtun which from the seventh century on served as the meeting point of the legislative assembly of what is today Trondelag region, the Frostating. Four years back I closely passed the seat of another of these lagtinger in the Gulen municipality but was denied a visit of the site by the ferry schedule. This time I was under no such pressure and had the freedom to look around the place undisturbed in the early morning hours. About one hundred years ago the hill was adorned with a few stelae that make it resemble a stone circle from afar; a little anachronistic but at least the site is kept in good shape.
Another place I was looking forward to see is the small island of Tautra which sits not far off the coast in the Trondheimsfjord. So close to the land that it's reachable over a causeway. There's a small bridge controlling water flow around the island where the road to the island is fenced off by a door. As I understand it the reason is to protect the diverse wildlife on the island from predators. There's a traffic light next to the door and a sign indicating to wait for green light, which after waiting for five minutes never came. Another shitty induction loop situation, curse those things and every road planner that still uses them! Luckily there's a door opener button one can use to request green, but thanks for telling me to wait anyhow.
When I rolled onto the island it was immediately clear what treasure the door is supposed to protect: the diversity of sea birds is staggering. About every square meter of the islands's coastline as well as much of the land area are occupied by nesting or feeding birds, often both at the same time. One species' nesting ground is another's buffet table
At the northeastern tip of the island I stopped by the ruins of a catholic monastery that got razed during the reformation. There seems to be some reconstruction work going on at the site, and there's a neat looking cafe next to the ruins that I'd have loved to check out if it hadn't been seven thirty in the morning.
Trondheimsfjorden
From my excursion to Tautra I had to join the E6 road to Trondheim again which involved some steep gravel climbs which made my drivetrain give out noises like it was being tormented in a dungeon. During the day the road was rather busy, probably the highest traffic road I've been on in the past two weeks. That's about expected, I guess, for Norway's main traffic artery that reaches into the most remote corner of the country, but it wasn't much fun riding. A few kilometers outside Stjordal there was the opportunity to take a bike route over smaller roads instead, which I took. That alternative route proved rather winding and gratuitously hilly, and all kinds of suboptimal really, but it was the right tradeoff as I was there to enjoy myself, not to dodge campervans.
Inevitably I came across the remnants of a WWII flak post on the coast which was used in defending the German navy, including its flagship the Tirpitz, from British bombing raids. There really isn't a part of Norway's coastline where that era hasn't left scars that remain visible even today.
I reached Trondheim in the afternoon and skipped most of the sightseeing I had planned. Instead I went more or less straight to the bike shop, Trondheim Sykkelservice, that I had reached out to last week regarding the tire change on my bike. They agreed to move the still okay front tire to the rear wheel and equip the front wheel with a bran new Vittoria Terreno. Lucky for me the shop clerk also agreed to have the mechanics take a look at the trashed bottom bracket, despite their cramped schedule. They said it shouldn't be an issue to replace the T47 bottom bracket, which I took as a good sign. I'm less optimistic however about removing the idiotic bottom bracket that Bombtrack installed; last time I took it to a shop back in Munich the owner told me it needed a special proprietary tool that's not compatible with other brands. "Industry standard" my ass, T47 is a nightmare. Let's see what magic the mechanics can work.
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