Originally Posted by
ricohman
Minus 34 and windy. I think the wind chill was mid minus 40's.
I rode 17.5 km and it took 2.5 hours. Snow was hard pack that kept busting through. Studded 26 inch tires are useless. A fat bike would have floated right over this Siberian landscape.
Part of your problem is that you took the suspension fork off the bike. I would bet that you were constantly washing out the front wheel which made going harder. A rigid fork makes the tire bounce off of everything it encounters which throws you off line. That's not good. A suspension fork will let the front wheel find its own path and not deflect so much. Add in a rear suspension and you'll gain traction. A fat bike would handle the job well because the tires float more than dig in but suspension would help in lieu of fat tires. It wouldn't hurt.