kaos joe

"There's easily 18 inches here in SW Nassau, I'd bet Kaos Joe has even more, I thought I saw earlier that Massapequa already had 24 inches early in the day."

Yup, 2 feet give or take. Shoveled some this evening & then drove to work. Compared to the usual traffic nightmare the driving was a pleasure and took less time than it usually does. Shovel gets deployed again in the morning when I get home.

I tried a to do a pre-storm ride Friday on my old Bridgestone rigid MTB. I was really looking forward to it as it was nice & cold and the trails were frozen solid. I lasted all of .8 miles......the pawls in that old SunTour hub stopped engaging and my freewheel was well and truly free. The return trip to the car was on foot. It looks like that's going to be it for a while.

Will try to get out Mon. night for a X/C ski.

hotbike

I ain't even tried riding yet, due to the snow. Been shoveling, but it's melting fast, might as well let nature take it's course. Have studded tire front and a new knobby rear... Bike Works of east hills closed (owner retired)...
But the bike is ready to go, except perhaps to top off tire pressure.

GlennR

61° on February 1st... must be global warming.

Took the MTB out for a quick ride. I turned back when it started to rain.

kaos joe

"61° on February 1st... must be global warming.Took the MTB out for a quick ride. I turned back when it started to rain."

Me too. Good.....if it isn't deep & cold enough for skis or snowshoes, let it melt. But we are going to have mud for some time, unless it freezes solid again.

GlennR

Ground hog say there will be a early Spring.

After yesterday and today, it might already be here.

kaos joe

I agree with the Groundhog.



38 miles, roads were a bit sandy but pretty dry. The bike is not leaning against that rail BTW.

kaos joe

As of 3 days ago still too much snow on the trails for a non-fat MTB to slog through. I went for a hike of the Tower loop with my old hound, and saw no tracks save for raccoon, rodents, and fox. My old boy had fun, still loves snow.

We might check it out tomorrow, I'll bring snowshoes. I took him out this afternoon for about 1 1/2 hrs on local trails, no tire tracks seen.

GlennR

Too cold today, it's a good day to stay inside with your loved ones and watch a good movie.

Steve B.

Freeport, NY, 9AM, it did hit 0 at some point.

My 100 year old house will maintain 66 downstairs at these temps., even though it's trying for 69. The best it can do.

EDIT: To add cycling content, I used to mt. bike as low as 5 deg. Then I got old and decided I could move the bar up to 15 or so. After Joes report yesterday, not even doing that, will go for a walk later.

Papa Tom

I've got my bike in the basement, disassembled for its winter overhaul, but it's even too cold to go down there and do THAT today!

Steve B.

Boy is that so true !. My hot water heater is in the (cold and un-heated) basement and I had to turn the shower knob a bit more to the left this morning.

kaos joe

Gorgeous morning, just tramped around local trails for a couple of hours. Am hoping for crisp weather like this in 2 weeks, want to do this again before the thaw. Harriman last Feb. We were very pleased with our kitchen.

Steve B.

Looks like an MSR doing the heavy heating and a Svea 123. That's an old stove, but about as reliable as they come. I rebuilt mine about 4 times but blew it up one year when I got the bright idea to use an MSR aluminum wind shield. Forgot that you can overheat then Svea fuel tank with spectacular results.

kaos joe

You nailed it exactly. The Seattle Blowtorch and the Swedish Hand Grenade! I got the Svea as a boy scout with paper route money so it's about 43 years old. NEVER CONFINE THE SVEA!!!!! A friend blew one up by using it inside a BBQ grill to keep it out of the wind. On the other hand, I had an O-ring go on the MSR fuel pump, and it looked like an oil well fire.

Bike content----When bike touring I leave them both home and use a pop-can alcohol burner inside a Swiss Army surplus "Volcano" stove. They used to be easily available very inexpensively, but no longer.

GlennR

Did you do "Blue Nose"? I did it with my son.... it sucked.

kaos joe

When I did it, it was called "Operation Igloo".

It was great.

GlennR

Tomorrow looks good. Just hope there's not too much sand and debris on the roads.

kaos joe

A few of us are doing a road ride at 9, probably headed to Little Neck.

Papa Tom

Dangit! It's nice out there today and my bike is all taken apart for its winter overhaul!

GlennR

Just finished a ride to Bethpage, a few loops, a stop at Brickwell (Farmingdale) and then home. 4:00PM and its 63*.... insane.

qajaq

It's a good ride (today) when you can do 25 miles, on the road, in February, in bib shorts.

GlennR

Time for upgrade, I went from Sram Red 22 mechanical to eTap. I got a pre-release mini groupset and installed it Monday. I did take a short "shakedown" ride where I tried everything to break it. Shifting both derailleurs in opposite and the same direction... it worked flawlessly.



Thanks to Mark @ Brickwell Syosset for allowing me to work with him on the install as we both learned how to do it.



Sunday looks to be its first real ride. I hope to put some miles on it.

Steve B.

Well no excuse now to go slow.

As well, no more complaining about how you don't have the money to buy a winter road bike that takes big tires and fenders !.

Seriously, we will need a full report as to functionality, as well as battery life as from what I've read, the WiFi system seems to use up battery power at a faster rate compared to the Shimano e-groups.

GlennR

speaking to the Sram rep, I expect to get over a month on the rear, 2-3 on the front and 2 years on the shifters. I plan on riding the rear until the battery LED blinks red. Then i'll swap the the front to the rear and recharge it when i get home. The shifter batteries are $1 each so i'll replace them every winter.

Sure lasts longer than my Garmin.

kaos joe

Alas, my usual partner in crime was not feeling well, so I am not presently snowshoeing out of an Adirondack forest. So yesterday I beat the thaw and took to the local trails....from B'page north, one lap around the Tower loop, then continued north on the blue dot trail to Washington Ave. At that point I flatted on a thorn, and the ground rather quickly got soft so I bailed onto the road for part of the return. The trails are covered with untold thousands of pieces blowndown wood of all sizes. Spent a good 45 minutes extra trying to make a dent in it but ride at your drivetrains peril.

Always warms the heart of an old hunter to find one of these.