Originally Posted by
turbo1889
If its soft and you sink in the full 12" then I would agree that very few sane people rides a bicycle in that stuff, can't rule out the possibility of some nut somewhere doing it though although I bet he/she has a heck of a time doing so !!!
Hey ho. i did it .....ok not in 12" ...... but in 20".
I wouldn't call it riding as it was more like..... walking than riding.
Must be the reason why it took me so long.
This mile long (walk) took me maybe 1hr of a 12 hour ride.
I have done some hard workout in my life but pushing a bike that dig in snow all the way to the ground and don't want to move at all for 1hr long while trying to move your feet that dig too, was probably the hardest work out i have done in my life. (Number 2: MMA military style work out ex equo with climbing a stiff hill on a loaded heavy bike at a big gear ratio)
A few things that make it harder in this situation:
-when you push too much on the handlebar when everything is stuck the rear wheel rise up so when you push the bike you can only push with one hand on the handlebar while the other hand stays on the saddle to prevent the rear wheel from leaving the ground
-from time to time you can't even push the bike because the snow is too deep or too hard to cut through so you have to lift the front wheel to move again
-if after a while you want to give up and go back, you can't because you have as much work to do the other way
-you have no idea where you put your feet (mind work out)
-you have to do it knowing that if something happen.... it's not like a busy highway
Originally Posted by
Rimmer
and failed. The snow was so high that my feet and pedals were digging into the snow. Is it possible to cycle in these conditions? While pedaling it felt like the crank arms were slipping? I'm not sure how to describe it. What's causing this and how to get over it? I had fenders on and I'm wondering if snow just accumulated between the tires and fenders causing me to stall? I was using a road bike. I've been on ice and snow a few times before but not with this much snow.
What i believe happened is that your rotating wheels add parallel to the ground linear motion to your crank arm and that your crank arm doesn't rotate at the same speed as your wheel. So your crank arm slide on snow.
When your crank arm is at a horizontal position your pedal at the back until your crank arm is horizontal again and your pedal is at the front, your bike and crank arm go in the same direction (at least a part of it does) so speed add up. Relatively to the ground your pedal go faster than your bike. As you keep pedaling you crank arm and your bike don't go in the same direction so speed don't add up. And relatively to the ground your pedal is slower than your bike.
Knowing that your crank arm is probably shorter than your wheel radius, while riding your pedals probably move a little bit like the prolate curtate and curtate cycloid depending on your gear ratio and wheels and assuming that your wheels don't skid i believe. Perhaps someone can confirm it or not.
