April Showers bring... riding

[north woods gal]

Two miles of trail riding in heavy 5" of snow makes for a GREAT workout. Absolutely no glide in this stuff. You stop pedaling, the bike stops moving, as in right now. All my riding was in the lowest two gears to get it done. Yeah, totally different kind of bicycling, but welcome to snow biking at its best.


This is fat bike work, exclusively, and not just any fat bike, either. For this work, I use the fat bike that gives me the widest footprint and tires with the most aggressive tread. It's my Salsa Blackboro with 4.8" tires on 100mm rims (wider rims flatten out tires more than narrower rims). The tires are the Surly Nates. My other fat bikes would certainly work, but at the risk of some fishtailing and loss of control. Not issues with the big bruiser of a Blackboro.


You really need to know the trail when doing this. Trust me, the trail through this section is quite narrow and if you miss it, you are going down for a nasty spill. A little snow can hide a multitude of hazards.



Star is no dummy. She let's me break the trail and do all the work. She just trots along in back, going off trail, now and then, when she finds an interesting stick.

[emily_in_nc]

Gorgeous photos, NWG. You continue to amaze me with your courage to ride in just about any conditions -- and all your bikes for different conditions too! How many in your stable?

Today was gorgeous, and we rode west into the hillier Lake County. My rear shifting has been giving me fits for awhile, and I was hoping after my DH changed out lots of my parts (new chain, new middle crank, and new 12-30 Ultegra cogset in back for lower gearing), things would get better. But if anything, they kept getting worse. Just about ready to head to the LBS, but DH took a close look at it today after our ride, and while he was running through the gears, the shifter cable broke! It was totally frayed at the end that attaches in front. So, now I have my answer. Fortunately, he has a spare so will replace that tomorrow (our day off the bikes for laundry and other chores/errands anyway).

I hope this fixes things! I think I'll have him replace the pulleys too, since he already replaced so much other stuff.

Oh, and as I was rolling along today after my rest stop, I saw a flash of silver in my rotating front tire. Stopped and looked, and what did I find but a thumbtack embedded in my tire! Thank the gods we'd changed out my tires for Schwalbe Marathon Plus and some thornproof tubes not too long ago, in anticipation of riding out west this summer (goatheads!) I kept my eye on it for the rest of the ride, and so far, so good. We'll know in the morning if there's a slow leak. These tires and tubes make my bike a little heavier and slower to accelerate, but to me they are worth it. I haven't had a flat yet this year, and we haaaate changing flats!

[Helene2013]

Beautiful pics but I think I'm done with the snow for now.

We had mega rain downpours over the past week, cold, snow, name it..and on Monday it was full sun and 22c. I wrote to my boss on Sunday morning to tell him I'd finish for lunch so I can go ride our bikes while it was decent weather. It did not last long as Monday night was storm night and we're into the rain even as of now. And it is 4-5c... what a change!

So we took our Crux and did a 42k ride...in the winds...light at first but strong enough to kick my bike on the side. Hate that. grrr

Anyway, it was truly an enjoyable ride, although too hot for me (I'm not a summer person) but it was fun to be out in shorts and short-sleeve jersey. That was cool after a winter of being bundled up.

I am so happy as I had no problem pushing in the wind, false flat up for 17km... All that winter training paid up.

I don't know when our next outing will be because weather is not so fun yet but it will come. In the meantime, still on bike trainer and still doing my muscle training in the basement.

Signed up for a 100km ride on May 28 and another 117km on June 10. So I have to be ready. May 28 is mostly flat but the 117km has more hills...and big ones. so got to work on those thighs.

[azfiddle]

I am in awe of those of you (like NWG) who get out in the cold weather. That's why I live in Arizona. But still, I complain when it's hot and the hot weather is around the corner. It was around 90 (F) on my ride home yesterday.

Helene, I may have asked before, but where are you located? I'm not really happy about that kind of wind either.

Still mainly doing commutes- I finished #50 for 2017 yesterday.

[Helene2013]

I am in Montreal (QC) area. It's in my profile location.

[Crankin]

I ditched the group ride today, as there was a chance of rain (it hasn't rained yet) near the end of the ride and it was being led by a woman I cannot stand.
So, I rode to Ferns' Country Store in Carlisle, which is about 21 miles round trip, sat on the porch and had coffee, and then was glad I went the way where the second half of the ride is pretty flat. I saw several cyclists on my ride, it was a pleasant 68 degrees, and no blazing sun. I also was dressed correctly, with short sleeved jersey and shorts, and a sleeveless base layer.
I am trying to increase my ability to maintain a faster speed on flats. I am happy with my climbing (for me) and my descending, well, has actually gotten a teeny bit faster in the past 2 years, but it's never going to be fast. But, I can improve my endurance on the flats. It seems my ability to ride at 15-20 on a flat is pretty good, but I often give up and rest, instead of maintaining that speed. Part of it, is that there's not a lot of places I can practice this around here. It's either rolling, hilly, or false flats, which I also dislike. I did pretty well today for being alone. Most of this loop was a go to ride when I lived in my house, and I know every bump in the road, as well as how fast I usually go in each spot. I was very sick of this loop after 11 years of doing it a lot, but now it is more miles and I am not sick of it anymore!

[north woods gal]

The cold thing is mostly a matter of acclimation with a little psychology to get me motivated. Would have a hard time to going into this kind of cold, directly from hot weather, but after months of riding in the cold, the cold really ceases to be a factor.

As to how many bikes, I have two drop bar road bikes, one strictly for pavement and one a gravel bike. The pavement road bike is a Domane WSD with 105, but I don't ride it much, because I can't resist the temptation to go off pavement and explore. Great bike, though. The gravel road bike, as in mostly hard surface gravel road, is the Salsa Warbird with 700x40 tires. Very versatile bike. Ride it a lot. Not a bike for any softer surface riding, though I often push the limit just for kicks.

The other five bikes are 4 fat bikes and one 29+MTB. These are all setup with various types of trail riding in mind, though I actually use them on pavement, quite a bit, since I sometimes have to ride pavement to get to some of the trails and sandy roads I like.

For me and my riding, if I had to pick just one type of bike that could be used all year long, up here, even for commuting or utility work, it would be a fat bike. A lot of folks in the area are now doing all their trail work on fat bikes. Just the nature of our trails.

Right now, my Surly Pugsley is set up for utility work with low rolling resistance tires and a Jones Loop bar handlebar for more comfort over long rides. Can ride it anywhere, anytime. Not super fast, of course, but fast enough and plenty comfy even for long distance rides. Would have no hesitation to load up the Pugs and go bike packing across the country. A lot of folks have done just such a thing on a Pugs or other fat bike. Setup right, they're actually not as slow and cumbersome as they look.

[emily_in_nc]

I am in Montreal (QC) area. It's in my profile location.

Also, everyone's location is in the upper right hand of every post they make, if they've entered a home location.

[ny biker]

Catching up... I rode on Sunday (3 days ago). The Garmin battery died mid-ride but I think it was about 30 miles. Totally flat. There was a longer club ride on the schedule that included this long flat section in the middle, around various communities on the western shore of the Chesapeake. I drove to a school that was about 10 miles into their ride and met the group there, then after the long flat part was done I peeled off and went back to my car while they all continued back to their starting point.

This was my first real bike ride since I hurt my ankle in January. Overall it went well. My sit bones hurt and my neck and shoulders were tight but my ankle was okay -- in fact it felt better than it has on most other days in the last week. Next I will try a short ride with hills to see if the added stress of pedaling uphill causes any problems.

(Off the bike, the ankle is sometimes okay but sometimes not. Overall it's worse than it was before spending a month wearing an ankle boot. I will see the doctor next week and am afraid he will put me back in the boot even though I really think it made things worse. But that is a story for another thread.)