Bander

No mountains or snow where I live, but...
https://www.fatcyclist.com/2008/11/19...-bike-on-snow/

legalize

"9. What do I eat?

My favorite foods that don’t freeze: Nuts, chocolate, Pop Tarts, dried cherries, sunflower seeds, and the most perfect food ever invented: Peanut butter cups."
w.t.f.

rankin116

never, are you using studs in those pics, especially the cornering one? Where I am, we don't get much snow that lasts. Temps fluctuate so the ground is, like Scrub said, mostly crusted, iced-over snow. I found last year stud worked really well on trails that were packed down. Soft snow, not so much.

scrublover

When out pedaling, snowshoing/camping in the snow, it's all calories man. Your body doesn't really care. Food, food, food. I eat whatever the hell I want normally anyhow, but on a snowshoe trip, it's even moreso. Your body will use up tremendous amounts of energy to stay warm.

legalize

I'll get calories the healthy way. Pop Tarts? Chocolate? Peanut butter cups? One word: Trash.

scrublover

Yes. And my point is: when your body is using all available resources to help keep itself warm, it doesn't give a flying f where the calories come from. Snow camping trips, I bring along whatever the hell I'm feeling like eating, trash or no. When trying to stay warm, your body really likes calories from fat, but it'll suck in whatever you feed it.

mcoine

My wife swears by lots of butter or heavy cream when winter camping.

scrublover

ice cream would rock, if only i could find a way to keep it from melting.

oh, wait...

when stopped for the night out in the snow, i like to cook up something with lots of carbs, and lots of cheesy/salty/fatty stuff melted in.

ca7erham

I just posted this, but I like posting my bike.

Chris_F

If you use a camelback make sure to drain the tube out every time you drink. Blow it out, then raise it above your head and squeeze the valve open and visually check for water. If you don't get any flow it may be an ice clog in your valve. Suck on it for a few minutes or tuck it away in your jacket.

Back in "the day" the Tour de France riders used to snack on sticks of butter...

Shadiyah

Oh sorry about that. Hubby and I spent the night in a snow cave last year. I didn't sleep too well. I think hiking to a yurt is more up my alley.

Zan

i've gone out with my kenda 2.35" nevs at about 10 or 12psi. on the snow the grip is okay... not so great on the steeps.

i can get studded tires from my LBS, 26x2.1 studs for 60$ each. so... 120$ gets me rubber for the winter.

my current rubber does fine on the frozen dirt and is okay on the snow... just not on fast corners or steep slopes. do studs make that much of a difference? how about on sheets of ice? do they still suck on ice?

legalize

Doesn't a jacket work just as well?

Chris_F

They don't make much or any difference on snow. They make a whole load of difference on ice. You could easily ride across a frozen lake on studs, it would be a non-issue, a piece of cake. It wouldn't even take concentration or balance. You could do it drunk. On regular rubber that isn't the case...

With regular tires when you come up to a frozen puddle or slick of ice on the trail you have to be careful. On studs when you see such a thing you think "more grip" and aim for it so the studs can dig right in. Often you get more grip on ice than you do on the snow itself.

legalize

Even cornering on ice with studs you have to be careful about, though. No matter how you cut it, riding on ice sucks, you can't be nearly as intense as you'd be without the ice

Chris_F

And the tires have more rolling resistance and weight... Sure, I'd prefer to ride in summer year round but putting the studs on and riding sure beats sitting at home and staring out the window. Besides, the winter forest is just an amazing place. There's more adventure to riding in winter. I like to hit the snow mobile trails and just go and go. You get this "middle of nowhere" feeling that just isn't as intense without snow on the ground. In winter (for me at least) it's more about the outdoors than it is about the riding.

rbrsddn

Ice riding is a blast! A buddy and I rode up to a couple guys ice fishing in the middle of a lake a couple of years ago. The looks on their faces was priceless.

scrublover

You've never slept/camped in the snow, have you?

legalize

I'm talking about biking, not overnight camping.

scrublover

And some of us were talking about overnighting. Either way, the same point is true: in the cold, jacket or no, your body is spending more energy to stay warm and it really doesn't care what you eat.

I don't care what you eat either. I'll happily continue to eat my favorite foods when out playing in the snow or riding.

never

I live in the land of major tempurature fluctuations...over the winter could be cold and snowy one day, then wearing shorts the next day.

Anyway, I rarely run studded tires. I don't think I had them on for any rides last winter and we were out in the mountains a lot. None of those pics I posted are with studded tires.

scrublover

That was my experience out west in the snow - never really needed studs. Out here in the east, things soften up a bit, then glaze over really badly sometimes. At times you're riding on big slabs of icy sections with rocks in between. The studs help then.

I've got some 2.1" studded meats that will go on the SS once things get ugly enough, and I'll just ride the other bikes when it's not an icy ride. No need to swap the studded setup around bike to bike then; less pain in the ass that way. Then it's also setup for when the streets inevitably get glazed over with a crapload of snow and ice and I still want to ride to work.

rankin116

I was thinking of doing the same. I have some Nokian Mount and Grounds I'll be using.

cryptid01

Consider other options

never

Actually, with the temperature changes here, things can get very icy. We can get a bunch of snow then temps are warm during the day and freeze over night. That makes the trails incredibly slick. It's been like that for the past week or so with the trails out my back door.

Studs would be beneficial but I just don't bother running them. I figure the ice makes you better on sketchy terrain and helps your drifting skills, and I just ride knowing I'll go down more often.