matchless fun in the snow
 

It's hard to believe that I don't owe anybody any money for my ride in the snow. It was crazy fun. I rode about 10 miles all over dc, stopped for a couple of beers with friends (who didn't recognize me when I walked in caked with snow), then 2 more miles home. This is with skinny slicks. I rode on the sidewalks because dc drivers have never learned how to drive in snow (despite having to do it year after year). I only fell twice: once at 0.5 mph on a steep hill, and then again when I decided to use both hands to zip up my jacket.

I was most amazed at the amount of feedback from the bike. It was a cinch to judge the available traction. I've ridden motorcycles in the snow (off-road and sportbikes) and it's hairy. This was just a blast.

speaking of snow...

i just returned from 40 days in India. It's a crazy place.

anyway, my first fixie is in pieces, out at the bike shop (where i work) in vienna, and i've actually had dreams about building it. it needs to be built. it's calling me.

i need to get out there. i start work again on thursday, but i can go out tommorow or wednesday and work on my bike. i can either ride my old cannondale or use the ridiculous washington area metro system with it's ******** unpredictable busses, for which i have waited (wasted) several hours, damn them. as you can see, i'd rather bike.

SO, the thing is, i've never biked in the snow. this would be on my old cannondale, lacking the responsiveness and rear-wheel control of a fixie.

anything to say to a snow-biking virgin?

Get out there and try it, that's the only way to figure it out!

(you might start out in a parking lot or side street to get a sense of things first)

I wouldn't want to go out on a road bike. The brakes would stress me out. let's see if anything's left tomorrow. I live and work near dupont and farragut north, but if you wanted to ride, I could meet you anywhere downtown.

bostontrevor, why aren't *you* out there? Surely you poor souls have snow by now?

Dude, I was out there for two hours. I had to come home because I was about to pass out. :D

lol... I didn't consider the possibility that you were out while I was

Man, I know exactly what you mean. I have three sets of tires--28c Bontrager Selects with a tiny bit of tread that came on my IRO, 30c Kenda Kwick CX tires that I got for the snow, and some brand new 23c Michelin Carbons. I mounted the Michelins, went on a road ride, and the next day it began pouring snow. I had somewhere to be, and I had time to swap tires but I thought to myself, "Narrower tires cut through the snow and reach pavement better, right?" mostly as an excuse to be lazy. So I rode 3 miles each way on the most summer-ish tires I have ever owned in snow so deep that I was kicking it as I pedaled. If I stopped, it was a hell of an effort to get going again, and trackstanding was impossibly sketchy, but I had a surprisingly good time. Needless to say, everybody thought I was insane. I love that feeling that you get riding on snow when you know that you're moving straight ahead, but your front wheel is constantly pointing some other direction trying to correct for the traction you're losing. Also the insanely long skids that do absolutely no damage to the tires. Snow is awesome.

So since this is a snow thread I guess it's ok to talk about my snow fixie. I built it at the beginning of this winter. It's a trek cyclocross frame converted to fixie with low ass gearing. The thing that makes it bad-ass in the snow is I took the front cross tires and mounted 150 or so sheetmetal screws into it. I planned on doing the back tire as well but after about 30 minutes riding around i realised that I had made the perfect skidding snow sliding machine. The front tire holds traction in just about anything and you can skid and whip around the back tire as much as you want. It's a blast to ride. I recommend anyone who gets a good amount of snow stud up a front tire. I can post some pictures if anyone is interested.

haha. that's funny that this post came up today. i ate it today riding home from the library on my fixie in the snow. i was riding really slow too since i had my laptop in my bag. lucky my bike just slid out from under me and slid on the snow. i was able to hop off in time and just got some weird stares from the cars. mind you, i'm riding on armadillo's which don't really provide much traction at all.

I can't tell if you're joking or not. I think a picture is in order.

No not joking, I'll take a picture tommorrow when it's light out and post it up.

with all the snow talk I'm curious if anybody has seen this yet? http://www.fixedgeargallery.com/articles/skibike.htm

Ok so here is a picture of the studded tire. It took a little while to make but was definetly worth it. Provides awesome traction. I'll put up some pictures of it on the fixie later.

The pic is attached.

That's wild. I guess the key would be to keep your hands off of the ground in front of the tire.