Maybe this belongs in the commute forum, but it's about winter cycling too. Some cycling and running groups here in Burlington (VT) are getting a private contractor to plow 3 miles of the MUP on which I ride to work. It's a "demonstration", whatever that means. Hopefully it means they do it all winter and not just once. And maybe it will lead to 100% plowing in the future. That would be uber-sweet.

It still leaves about 2.5 miles of unplowed MUP between my house and workplace, but maybe I can get around it on side streets.

The unplowed part will look like this, for locals:
https://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=523743

They do not plow already? Egads! My sincerest condolences.

Our cities do a fair job plowing their MUPs. Heck, Denver Park and Recreations dept has the MUPs plowed before many of the streets are even done.

The problem here was that about a year after they started plowing, they started salting the local MUP here as well. Lots and lots of rock salt. Big piles.

Never mind the fact that the MUP was in a park next to a creek, but they were salting over iron bridges... some pretty big corrosion issues in the spring.

Generally pedestrain traffic flattens the snow here enough to ride on within a few days anyways. Places like VT and CO I imagine MUPs would get snowed in pretty deep and become pretty useless without a plow.

here i think almost all main MUPs (theres tons) are plowed and "stoned" they put tons of sand and little pebbles that help with grip.

2.5 miles of unplowed MUP would be impossible to cross... for me at least... maybe i need some Cyclocross training...

Calgary's MUP's are partially plowed in winter (some are some aren't). It's definitely a bonus on the ones that do get plowed. Now if only they would plow the city streets . Good luck.

Yeah it's pretty crazy. The MUP gets a lot of use in the winter, mostly pedestrian but some cyclists as well. Skiers are by far in the minority but they can use the unplowed snow to either side of the MUP if they want to. Lots of width there.

The problem with pedestrian-packed snow is that it's VERY rough. I got a full suspension MTB in September. Hoping it helps.

If the MUP wasn't the most direct way to work, I wouldn't be so interested in it.

It is rough going. If your bikes rebound is adjustable back it *way* off front and rear, especially on cold days when the oil thickens. It smoothes things out nicely provided the rebound is quick.

I consider suspension more important for my winter riding than in summer for this reason.

Not a problem if it's frozen ice foot prints 3"-4" deep... Nokian 296 studded tires. 25 psi. Just ride down the path. I do it for 20 miles once in a while. It's very slow. No plowing here, just ride it. 2.5 miles is nothing with the right bike and tires.

I've ridden on that sort of surface before. No problems especially with studs, but really bumpy. When the snow gets deeper and more "holey", things degrade fast.

Yes, it's tough when you can't see the holes because they are covered by fresh snow. A full suspension should be an improvement over my hardtail with a USE XCR seat post.

I'll let you in on a dirty little secret...Denver isn't as bad as people believe. If we have snow on the ground for more then a couple of days after a storm, it's a bad storm! In March of 2003, we had 29" of snow at my house that fell over 2 days (Monday and Tuesday). By Friday, you couldn't have told it had snowed at all.

The mountains are different but all up and down the Front Range, snow just doesn't linger.

Word. My *knowledge* of the weather in Denver comes mostly from programs like "monday night football".

I do know they get loads of snow in Vermont through.

I just installed a rear tire (with studs, now i got front and back) and it was too big, same W106 model but its bigger, and the studs look less like graphite, and more like steel.

WELL anyway, i was using the MUP, on my "rigid/semi road" bike and the foot imprints were painful to drive over. i had to go so slow. and the bouncing made me loose traction. it was horrible and my blinky fell apart some were along the MUP so i lost the batts and outer cover!

Also, do you find that your spokes loose there tension in the winter? cause as i was changing my tire (what a pain it was... its never round! always a lump) i saw that some of my spokes were BENT and that they were pretty loose.