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01-23-04, 08:59 PM
Had a real blast today. On my commute to work, I took a detour and tried to ride across the lake I've posted pics of. It was a friggin' blast!
I learned two really good lessons, one, if I choose to do this again, I need to setup my fixie with completely different gearing. I was running 46x18 with 700x35 Nokian studs. This is great for commuting and getting around town, but on ice, it is too steep a gear ratio. So I need to go to a smaller engagement 42 or 39 and go up to a 20, that ought to give me the slow spin needed to traverse the slick surface of a frozen lake.
Second lesson: Ice is slippery and hard: Yeah like that needs to be said. I was really surprized at how slippery the ice really was. The bike handled like a champ on the solid surface of a lake, at least on the road created by the sport fishermen heading out to their ice fishing houses. But the recent snow covered the trecherous ice I tried to cross, and with my steep gearing and full tires, the bike slid, and I hit the ice. I'd like to say not hard, cause there aren't any hurting parts, just some stiffness, that could be a cold settling in, as my patients are all battling colds. The ice on a lake is really slippery! To really traverse this I might consider not just lower gearing, but tires that have more studs.
End of class.
I learned two really good lessons, one, if I choose to do this again, I need to setup my fixie with completely different gearing. I was running 46x18 with 700x35 Nokian studs. This is great for commuting and getting around town, but on ice, it is too steep a gear ratio. So I need to go to a smaller engagement 42 or 39 and go up to a 20, that ought to give me the slow spin needed to traverse the slick surface of a frozen lake.
Second lesson: Ice is slippery and hard: Yeah like that needs to be said. I was really surprized at how slippery the ice really was. The bike handled like a champ on the solid surface of a lake, at least on the road created by the sport fishermen heading out to their ice fishing houses. But the recent snow covered the trecherous ice I tried to cross, and with my steep gearing and full tires, the bike slid, and I hit the ice. I'd like to say not hard, cause there aren't any hurting parts, just some stiffness, that could be a cold settling in, as my patients are all battling colds. The ice on a lake is really slippery! To really traverse this I might consider not just lower gearing, but tires that have more studs.
End of class.