Sculptor7

Where all this snow is going to go I don't know but I hope it is not into my basement.
Yesterday when the main roads were bare I spied a whole new herd of ravenous potholes waiting for me.

Biker395 

No worries. Just practice your bike hopping skills and you'll be golden!

OldsCOOL

We'll all be fatbiking.

qcpmsame 

Never realized that potholes are brand specific, either. Hopefully the Cannondale eating potholes will fail to breed this winter around the NW Florida area. However, past history says that their nests are full and the little eggs are hatching as we type, saw the county road prison patching crews just this past Monday, nearby. I think they actually feed and care for them.

Bill

bruce19

I'm good. Potholes have no idea what a Guru is. (The bike not the person)

tarwheel 

Looks like I'll be commuting with 32mm tires for a while.

2manybikes

Sounded like I broke a wheel off of the car yesterday, in a pot hole . No apparent damage. And how do they get the pot to grow in the hole?

GlennR

They eat cars also.

2manybikes

A pot hole swallows a car, so what do they do? Get 50 people close together and put a big load on the ground next to the hole.

ScottC543

Snow? What the heck is that?

gabedad

I know - I am in MA and was thinking the same thing. It's also going to be a dirty spring riding season. I just am not relishing the look of fenders on a madone

OldsCOOL

Lock in the hubs! Oh wait....

tarwheel 

If I lived in New England, I would be worried more about flooding than potholes. When all of that snow melts, the runoff will be tremendous -- particularly if it is a fast melt from warm temperatures and rain.

Jim from Boston

You're bumming me out...my alternative to the beater is a 700x23 carbon fiber bike that is never exposed to wet, much less salty roads. Thoughts of riding it are keeping my spirits bouyed (though I am admittedly in denial about the snowmelt).

tarwheel 

I spent a winter in northern New Hampshire during my college years. Being from the South, I was baffled at first about all of the streams and rivers, which all had very wide, rocky beds with very little vegetation along the banks. In the South, streams and rivers are lined with trees and shrubs right up the edge. (I studied ecology in college, which is why I noticed these sorts of things.) I quickly understood the first time we had a brief thaw in late January and I saw my first ice jam. The flooding and destruction caused by the melting snow and ice was incredible.

gabedad

I'm in a ranch on a slab so no flooding for me

Sculptor7

I don't even want to think about the flooding. Our basement is normally pretty dry but if we get warm temps and rain...well I have two pumps ready. Pic is before it got really bad:

rumrunn6

I don't even want to drive my car on some of the roads near my home, never mind a bike. the sooner this stuff melts the sooner the rd crews can get a crack at those potholes

MinnMan

Here in Minnesota, we haven't had much snow at all this winter. But still, winter leaves all kinds of potholes, sand, salt and debris on the roads. Spring came early we had 70 °F yesterday and everybody was out riding over the weekend. what amazes me is that people were out riding their carbon fiber high end road bikes. My good bike won't be outdoors until mid-April, when the debris has been swept up and most of the potholes patched. For now I ride my low-end steel bike and when things get a little nicer, I'll move to the alloy trek.

Not only does this make sense for bike maintenance, it also is right for my training and spirits - mostly I'm just building my base, so I don't need a sporty bike, and, each time I change bikes (subtracting about 5 lbs in each step, and also moving to progressively more aggressive geometry), I get a little thrill. OK, a big thrill.

FrankHudson

Yup, fatter tires and sturdier rims until the winter debris gets washed off the roads by a good rain and the bomb craters get at least temporary patches. Like MinnMan, smaller crop of potholes in Minnesota this season, but the shoulders are still full of a winter's worth of gravel, sand, and misc. flotsam and jetsum.

Cougrrcj

Ah, Meteor Crater in AZ. Nice place to visit!.

My buddy just took out his brand-new motorcycle for it's first ride, and got a nail in his rear tire. Too much roadside debris around here since we've had continuous snowcover since some time before Christmas. I'll have to wait a couple of weeks. As for the potholes, they haven't even started filling them yet since the asphalt plants are not open for the year yet. Cold patch is temporary at best, mostly just turns to more debris (tar-covered rocks) on the side of the road in a week or so...

fietsbob

Yea that Puddle could be just an ordinary Puddle or a Pothole , or a Sinkhole.. Or a Black Hole into an alternate Universe..