November Rides

[Crankin]

Emily, I misspoke. The 19 is Friday morning... tomorrow will be 28. Don't think I want to dress up like a marshmellow, though, so I will still be going to spin.

[north woods gal]

Two inches of snow, again, last night, so it's definitely that transition season where the snow sits around for a couple days, then melts off. That won't last long, though. By December, those in-between melting periods are gone. Once it snows, it's usually here till spring.

Not sure how much XC skiing I'll get done, this year. The fat biking really cut into it, last year, but mostly because the snow we had was crappy for skiing - crusty, icy or slushy. Had to listen to all my XC pals sing the blues about it, all winter log. Told them to get a fat bike. A fat bike can always go.

For sure, the fat bikes are much less sensitive to snow conditions. Any kind of snow works as long as its not too deep to get though it. No waxing or guessing as to how much glide or kick I'll have on any given day. With the studded tires, I can do almost all the steep climbs and drops on the bike that I can do in the summer and most of those are too steep to do with the skis, anyway. Can even ride out on bare ice on the lake or hard pack snow out on the roads after the plows have been though. That's a no go for the skis. No such thing as too little snow, either.

Even with fat tires that don't have studs, most of the time can do all these things. The studs just add a bit of extra grip and safety when things get super slick. That's why I run a number of fat bikes in the winter, all set up with different types of tires. Can just grab a bike with the right tires and go.

Nothing like riding a bicycle out on the lake in the winter. Just ask my hubby. Star thanks so, too.