Nothing is easy

My goal for the day was to find a bike shop to inspect my bike for damage. The process turned out much more complex and time consuming than expected.

First, I called/stopped by several local bike shops to see if they could inspect my bike
- City Cycle did not have the time to do a thorough inspection (e.g. remove the fork).
- ABO was not open
- Bike RX has either moved or gone out of business

Striking out, I resorted to Plan B: Have my friend in Marin inspect the bike. This involved driving to Marin at breakneck speed. My friend could not see any visible cracks, however, given that carbon can weaken to the point of breaking without showing any signs of fatigue, he suggested that I replace the fork and the seat post on my bike to be safe.

Remember how George Hincapie's Paris-Roubaix ended 45km from the finish when the fork on his bike snapped. The team said it believed an earlier crash damaged the fork and the subsequent repeated pounding eventually caused it to break. The memory of that crash made me decide to err on the side of caution and replace the fork.

So I searched the Internet for the stock fork rake on my bike. After about 15 minutes, I gave up on the Internet search and called Scott directly for the rake information (it's a 45) and to discuss the various fork options. I then jumped back online to compare forks (rake size, weight, blading) from Scott, Easton and Reynolds.

I then called a couple of local bike shops to see what forks they had in stock. I think I made the process more complicated than it needed to be.