Riding in the Holiday Season: December Rides!

[ny biker]

I also might be done for the year. I only have one more weekend here before I leave town for the holidays. The weather might cooperate on Sunday, but that's still too far off to trust any forecasts. In the meantime the roads are covered with salt and more salt is being put down as they expect minor snow to fall later this week. All that salt is an asthma trigger for me. And just to top things off, I have some sort of cold/cough. Not the usual cold with the progression from sore throat to head congestion and sneezing then maybe a cough -- this one started with a cough along with some minor head congestion.

I also expect my total mileage for the year to be low. I would like to think next year will be better but then again maybe I will need surgery on my ankle, since the torn tendon doesn't hurt a lot but it's not pain-free either.

[emily_in_nc]

We braved some pretty brutal winds to ride today. Temps weren't bad at all -- about 62 at the start and 73 at the end, but the wind was sustained at 20+ and higher gusts. So the way out, we had a tailwind, and that was funnnnn, but that only made the way home that much harder. I was in the drops and easy gears and still lost 1.1 mph in my average speed from the turnaround point. Glad we rode (34 miles), but I could do with a bit less wind! Even at the end it felt a little chilly because of the wind, so the leg warmers and wind vest stayed on the entire ride.

[north woods gal]

Still keeping my "ride everyday" record intact, even though we've had 4 inches of snow this week and are expecting another 4" tomorrow. Temps have not been anything cozy with temps in the single digits or teens when I ride.

Sounds gruesome, I know, but it's really not. It's actually breathtaking beautiful to be riding in the snow covered winter woods and that clean cold air. I also find riding in the snow to be fascinating, too. By riding, every day, I've managed to get a good firm base built up, so, as long as I keep riding after each snow, it compacts down enough to make for an easier ride as I go. The ice and snow takes some of my most dangerous drops and turns out of my choice of trails to ride, but that's oaky. I still have trails that offer some steep, but still safe, climbs/drops.

It's fat bikes, only, now, though I've pushed the 29x3 bikes to their limit in the snow, just to see what they could do. Now too deep even for them. Yup, if it's not fat, it's now tucked away in the shed for the winter and will re-emerge in the spring like our bears.

[ny biker]

Still keeping my "ride everyday" record intact, even though we've had 4 inches of snow this week and are expecting another 4" tomorrow. Temps have not been anything cozy with temps in the single digits or teens when I ride.

Sounds gruesome, I know, but it's really not. It's actually breathtaking beautiful to be riding in the snow covered winter woods and that clean cold air. I also find riding in the snow to be fascinating, too. By riding, every day, I've managed to get a good firm base built up, so, as long as I keep riding after each snow, it compacts down enough to make for an easier ride as I go. The ice and snow takes some of my most dangerous drops and turns out of my choice of trails to ride, but that's oaky. I still have trails that offer some steep, but still safe, climbs/drops.

It's fat bikes, only, now. The other bikes are tucked away in the shed for the winter and will re-emerge in the spring like our bears.

Brrrr. I will say that it helps me get through the winter weather that I dislike by thinking about people like you who actually do enjoy it.

I assume that shed is not climate controlled -- do you find that the cold temps have any negative effects on the bikes that are stored there? I sometimes keep my mountain bike in a "storage shed" on my balcony (it's really a large plastic patio storage box, but Rubbermaid calls it a shed) but I always take the wheels off and keep them inside because I figure the extreme temperatures are not good for the rubber tires. But that's just an assumption on my part.

[north woods gal]

Brrrr. I will say that it helps me get through the winter weather that I dislike by thinking about people like you who actually do enjoy it.

I assume that shed is not climate controlled -- do you find that the cold temps have any negative effects on the bikes that are stored there? I sometimes keep my mountain bike in a "storage shed" on my balcony (it's really a large plastic patio storage box, but Rubbermaid calls it a shed) but I always take the wheels off and keep them inside because I figure the extreme temperatures are not good for the rubber tires. But that's just an assumption on my part.

Have found no ill effects at all with storage over the winter as long as the bike is totally protected from the snow. I also make sure to lube the chain before storage to prevent any rusting, but that's standard maintenance thing, anyway. About the only thing that needs attention when I pull them out of the shed in the spring, is the tire pressure. Only rarely has a tire gone flat, but that's one way to find out if a tire has a long term leak.

Sheila, conditioning is very much a part of it. Absolutely right. Takes a long time, too. If I went from even the 50s to the teens, overnight, I'd be hurting. It's also activity based. If I'm biking or XC skiing, I don't mind it at all. But if I'm just walking across a parking lot while shopping, I really, really notice the cold. No way could I just sit around in this cold for long. Love my bicycling for keeping me slim and trim, but that doesn't leave me with enough body fat to stay comfy in the cold unless I'm active.

As for today's ride ... looking at about 6" of snow, by the time it ends, this afternoon. Will certainly do some peddling, but, first, it's time to do my first XC ski outing for the season. Yippee!

[Crankin]

So true, North Woods. I chose to go to the gym this morning for a half hour spin/half hour conditioning class, instead of hiking with a group before my bike club's Chanukah party. Why? It's 18 degrees out, with a wind chill of 8. The hike is 4 miles, I've done it 3 times, and they are slow! I have x country skied down to -10 with no issues, but yes, just being out in this type of weather, without vigorous activity is not my favorite.
Now I get to go eat lots of delicious food in about 30 minutes.

[north woods gal]

Well, yesterday's 6 inches of snow nearly doomed my ride every day record. Kept it going by pushing the bike out to our neighborhood road that had just been plowed and doing a couple of miles. No go on the trails until I do some grooming (as in shoveling or the snow blower). Also added in several miles of XC skiing, my first outing of the year.

So, for those of you who are curious about riding a fat bike in the snow, here's a little primer.

5 or 6 inches of snow is, in general, the cutoff point for fat bikes with their 4" plus tires as for snow depth (half of that for plus bikes with their 3" tires). Depends very much on the type of snow, however. A fresh soft, fluffy 6" is very doable with a fat bike, but a fresh, densely packed, fine-grained or mushy 6" is another story. The bike just fishtails like crazy and can't get traction. Interestingly, if I give this new snowfall a few days or a week of "weathering", it can sometimes be ridden. Given enough time and daily fluctuating of temps, it will usually compress and firm up, allowing enough traction, especially if we get a thaw and the snow develops a crust.

Can be ridden is a relative notion, though. When the snow gets this deep, you lose all your roll, as when you stop pedaling, the bike comes to an instant dead stop. You then have a serious problem of getting the bike moving, again, even on level ground. You can't stand on the pedals to mount the bike, because it takes too much weight off the rear wheel and the bike loses traction - the rear wheel just spins underneath you. Usually I try to find a slight downhill slope to get rolling, again, but that sometimes means walking the bike to a better spot. (For this depth, I highly recommend wearing XC ski gaiters. You will be doing some walking.)

Lastly, the number of calories per pedal stroke to keep the bike moving in the heavy stuff goes though the roof. I'm good for maybe a mile and then my legs feel like noodles. It's like setting your indoor trainer at its very max. As mentioned, we're at the limit, here, so when it gets like this, I just wait for our neighborhood roads to get plowed and head out to ride the fat bike on the hard packed snow roads. Those big tires do a great job on a freshly plowed road. Ideal bike for riding plowed ice-packed or snow packed roads, but that's another story.

[north woods gal]

I should also mention that plowing though 6" or more of new snow with XC skies is no picnic, either, but I do have the right skis for it. I use true expedition, relatively wide and short Alpina Discovery XC skis. These make a good ski to break the trail (gaiters are a must) and usually after two or three passes on the trail, I'm moving along pretty good. I sometimes use the snowshoes in the same way.

The reason I mention this is that grooming a trail for the fat bikes was first done with snowshoes. Takes a lot of passes with the snowshoes to get the trail fat bike ready, but it is doable. (Another way is with a snowmobile, but have no interest in those beasts.) These days, though, there are machines that do it. If you live in an area with a lot of snow, such as ours, there will likely be some public trails that are groomed for fat bike snow riding, just as there are groomed trails for skiing. As always, though, I'm on my own with my private trails, so off I go to do some work.