Snow bike thawing
 

Ok so riding in the snow brings home gunk. You knock off what you can and.....then what? Can't leave it outside for freezage.

Right now my method is a carpet remnant and a lot of rags for drippage on the linoleum in the laundry room.


Whatchy'alldo?

Try putting a carpet runner over the remnant. With luck, the bike tires will create low spots the water will drain to. I used those runners (6' clear was always easy to find at department stores, Home Depot, etc.) over apartment carpets for years living car-less in Boston and Ann Arbor.

Ben

The carpet runner is a good idea. I am lucky enough to have tile floor in the basement so I just use an old towel to quickly wipe up after it defrosts.

Whatever you do, don't just leave it outside. Just like your pets, you must bring them in when it's cold outside.

sounds like you're doing just fine. when I winter commuted I would squirt water from bottle to get the big stuff off. 2 bottles sometimes required. wipe with paper towels. bounce it a little to get other drips off. bring inside and let dry over cardboard to protect the floor.

http://bikeforums.net/attachment.php...hmentid=428698

I posted this to my facebook wall with: If you're cold they're cold too. Bring them inside... pets too!

I leave mine outside.

I figure it does less damage than subjecting the thing to the stresses of high temperature changes. From 30 below to 70 degrees ain't good for anything. If there's precipitation I throw a tarp over it.
There's salt on the roads and I figure it has less chance of doing damage to the bike if it's in the freezing cold. Washing it off is not an option where I live, unless I went outside with a pail of hot water and soap.....that ain't going to happen, because....

....It takes me 30 minutes to prep for a ride (getting all the winter gear on, the toe-warmers, the boots etc), then I have to load everything in the car and drive, then unload, ride, re-load, drive....
When I get home it's usually dark, my feet are frozen and my body/core wet and cold. It's not time to be messing with the fat bike. So she sits outside and if she moans I just beat her with a stick.

I used to bring it in the house. I had a tarp and sat the wheels on newspaper to catch the drain-off.

Time will tell what works best.

Whatever it costs me in depreciation is money I can offset with the gym membership that I don't have, and the medical expenses that I don't have, and the seasonal anxiety...and...and...

What part of Wisconsin are you in, Bruised ? Oh look ! A blog!

Yup, a blog! (don't go there, it's nasty :))

I'm up in Door County....since I've revealed that my bike sits out in the yard overnight, that's as specific as I'm gonna get, LOL !

Joking aside, I've lived in WI for the last 17 years or so, and every other winter I've hibernated, only to re-emerge late spring weighing about 20lbs more than I did the previous summer. This is the first year winter biking, and in many ways it has been brutal. But overall, I love it.

Like wise on the brutal but fun. I'm having the same experience in finding traction. I've heard the vee rubbers aren't the best. But I don't have them on my Moose, so.

I'm betting summer on the sand will be easier because grains of sand can only compress so much whereas each snowflake is crushing and is ever breaking apart beneath us. Sand grain will eventually lock up and provide a hard surface. (insert fellow forumista to explain how wrong I am, here)

I've has a bit better luck in lower pressures, 6 I think. But I'm not sure I've dealt with the depth you have. Until I went over the bars yesterday. I anticipated a deep spot that turned out to be a small hill beneath and I sank to a stop quickly enough to send me over in slow motion. What a hoot!

Wet sand can become weird (Google oobleck). We've as many types of sand conditions as rain. I run at ~4 psi and even in the hardest sand, friction becomes a test between being on the sand at low pressure or in the sand at higher pressure. Because I can transition from wind blown dry sand and wet (wave) deposited wet sand in a few yards, I always run low pressure. I can almost climb a dune face trail in winter because it's wet from rain but no way possible in dry summer sands. Dry sand is akin to millions of tiny ball bearings, it just keeps moving out of the way so you're always pushing a minature sand "bow wave". I weigh 190's and less weight means lower ground pressure. Fat bike or roadie...less weight is better. On sand that you can drive a 2WD car on, I can maintain a speed of 7-8 mph...but I'm working for that. Winter dry sand...4.5 mph. Summer dry sand...sub 4 and in some areas, can't ride it. Speaking of taking a header, I rolled off the edge of a beach creek straight into wind blow sand over part of the creek that looked hard but was really 2' of quicksand. I did an instant header and spent a few minutes dragging me and the bike out.