Riding the Blizzard

[William]

I know all my New England cycling brothers and sisters are with me here. I'm sure like me, they didn't let a ~Blizzard~ stop them from getting out and putting some miles in. I did 20 miles at the height of the blizzard, in 3ft of snow, up hill, both ways. I was bare foot and wrapped barbed wire around my tires for traction. And you know what...I LIKED IT!!! :banana:

So I don't want to hear any mamby-pamby ~~~"OOOoOoOooooo it's too cold so I'm going to ride my trainer in the warm basement watching Oprah on TV with a fan on me so I don't overheat and drip sweat on my top tube that might corrode the paint so I will have to go to the kitchen and grab a can of pledge so I can wax it when I'm done to give it that better than new shine that was on the bike when I finally got it from e-RICHIE after waiting three years for it to come in."~~~ :no:

William
(who definitely wasn't sitting at home in front of a picture window drinking a cup of hot chocolate and burning his lip as he watched the frigid storm pounding away outside...uh ha, no way) :rolleyes:

:D
Naw, I wasn't going nuts while the list was down..... :)

[Ti Designs]

As the snow came down I watched people take out the snow blowers, I watched the snow plows struggle to turn around in my street... Only one thing to do - give up on the car 'til spring and go biking! The first day out was kinda tough, the snow on the streets was like mashed potatos, the snow on the side was too deep and stopped me dead. The ride home from work I discovered the worlds most fun sport - sidewalk riding!!! It seems that people in the western burbs have very narrow snow blowers and from the paths they cut I think they get drunk before they clear the walkways. Riding the sidewalks is like being in the Star Wars video game, 'cept there's nobody shooting at you from the lamp posts or mail boxes. The sport gets crazy at times because you can go pretty fast, but everything in front of you is white so it's hard to make out little details like when the path ends in a 5' wall of snow. The best part is when it crosses a driveway, the driveway is ice covered and the path picks up on the other side 5 feet to one side or the other - you can see it, but you can't get there.

The only addition I would make to this sport is to add more players. The path is no wider than my mountain bike's handlebars at times, so passing would be tricky - here's my idea of how it would work: You ride up to the rear wheel of the person you want to pass. This should be easy as you can see where they ride while they need to pick their line from nothing but white. Then you wait for a section where traction is less than perfect and ram their rear wheel and watch them spin out of control and into the snow bank. You've just passed them, and in another minute they are going to do the same thing to you... For some this may be better as a spectator sport.

[yeehawfactor]

This should be easy as you can see where they ride while they need to pick their line from nothing but white. Then you wait for a section where traction is less than perfect and ram their rear wheel and watch them spin out of control and into the snow bank. You've just passed them, and in another minute they are going to do the same thing to you... For some this may be better as a spectator sport.
aside from being fun to watch, this would also give sales a boost!

[Ti Designs]

aside from being fun to watch, this would also give sales a boost!


That's my job!!!


OK, I rode solo the last few days, so I can't speak for the bump from behind method of passing as far as damaging the bike. But I can say that it's mostly white and fluffy, it's hard to get hurt and it's hard to damage the bike. Riding out in the street is a lot more dangerous, and if that was gonna damage the bike, I would have broken at least something by now...

And yet it will increase sales. You'll want to add a rear fender. Good tires for snow are a must - I'm running Nokian Gazzi Dual 2.3s but if I were in a tire buying mood their studded tires are looking good right about now. I'm running disk brakes, which hold up a LOT better than I would have guessed. I thought about running EBC's softer compound pads, but if I don't have studded tires it's not going to matter if I have more brakes.

The great thing about cycling is that the fun part is free. Yeh, good bikes cost, but once you're over the price of admission the costs are minimal. No lift tickets to purchase ('cept for the downhill crowd - sorry) no track fee ('cept for the pista crowd - sorry), no worries about gas prices... Sure, I eat more than most guys twice my size, but most people would kill to be able to eat endless pints of Ben & Jerry's and not gain an ounce...

[dirtdigger88]

I sure wish we could of had some of that storm- maybe not all of it- but some- it is so hard to plow snow here when it doesn't snow. . . :crap:

jason

[William]

Hey jason,
I could have used your services on Monday morning. We have a long driveway and I usually clear the snow around the cars in front of the house, and then again at the end of the drive where the plows pile it up. Then I just ram the car through and clean out the tracks.

This time I clean around the house, trudge through 3 & 4 foot drifts to get to the street and face a 5 ft pile of compacted snow left by the friendly town plows. :crap: I dig for 5 minutes before a guy in a pick drives by, stops and backs up...

"hey, want me to plow that for you?"
How much? (I'm waiting for the outrageous $$$ remark)

He looks down the driveway studying the situation, "hmmm, $25".
How much?? :confused:

"$25"
I say OK, but I'm thinking, this guy is nuts, $25 for this driveway!! GO FOR IT BABY, GO FOR IT.

Best $25 I've ever spent.

William

[William]

here's my idea of how it would work: You ride up to the rear wheel of the person you want to pass. This should be easy as you can see where they ride while they need to pick their line from nothing but white. Then you wait for a section where traction is less than perfect and ram their rear wheel and watch them spin out of control and into the snow bank. You've just passed them, and in another minute they are going to do the same thing to you...

That reminds my of the Death Bike game we would play at our pre-season training camps to work on bike handling skills. Everone is out in a field on their bike, the goal is to stay on the bike with out putting a foot down, while trying to knock over or un-balance everyone else. Last person still up & riding wins. Lots of fun....but best to have yourself a rain bike/beater to use. :D

William

[Too Tall]

William, we also had a road and mtn version of that. Road bike rules for grass rodeo were: your hands could not ever leave the bars and you must make contact or attempt to topple another rider nonstop...eg no running away...awesome fun. Mtn. version was similar with a twist, it is OK to smack wheels and once someone is down everyone gets to bunny hop or run over their tires...riding over spokes not allowed. We once had a kid along who got REAL serious and took a swing at me after I biffed him into the weeds. OMG we were howling. The sedate version I *TRY to get my pals to play on road bikes involves zooming around and trying to T-bone someone and do a track stand infront of them until they have to dab. Big bonus if you can hop backwards to get out of it :)

[mikemets]

Last Saturday morning I did over 2 hours, and it was 1F at the start and 6F when I got home :D

[spiderman]

the roads here in iowa are clear and dry for the moment.
even though it was colder yesterday...22 degrees
with a stiff 25 mph northwest wind,
i bundled up and rode the 16 mile loop
around big spirit lake...
2000 geese,
6 whitetail deer
3 or 4 cars
and no other riders...
i would not have ventured out
quite honestly
if it had not been for THIS encouraging thread...
...i even had second thoughts
when i couldn't find fresh batteries for the digital camera...
but thought it would be better to ride
and describe
than not ride at all...
...the 'roller-boy?' comment really
motivated me to get out!
thanks!

[TimD]

Last Saturday morning I did over 2 hours, and it was 1F at the start and 6F when I got home :D

I'm impressed (translation: I'm going to have to try to beat that. :)) What did you wear on your feet and hands?

TimD

[William]

William, we also had a road and mtn version of that. Road bike rules for grass rodeo were: your hands could not ever leave the bars and you must make contact or attempt to topple another rider nonstop...eg no running away...awesome fun. Mtn. version was similar with a twist, it is OK to smack wheels and once someone is down everyone gets to bunny hop or run over their tires...riding over spokes not allowed.


Sounds like the same game, except I didn't do the Mtn bike version. It was a blast!
Hey, maybe we can organize a game at the Serotta Open house? What do you think?

*Serotta Sheriffs Alyson & James can officiate and enforce the rules,
*Sandy can conduct from the "Dog Pound" cheering section,
*Kevan will be razzing Sandy from the other side,
*e-RICHIE, Tom K & Mr. Kirk can be in the pits, torches in hand to patch up any mishaps,
*Dave T. will be slapping Forum stickers on any and everyone he can,
* Too Tall will un-veil some crazy Death Race 2000 machine that he whipped up just for this event with all kinds of gizmos for taking people out without his hands ever leaving the handle bars,
*Bruce K will be off doing donuts by himself in his race car,
*Kevin will be making everyone sign waivers
*The Jerk will be tossing Dugast Tubulars at people from the stands,
*BBDave will be running around in a Bee suit sneaking up on people and bumping them...then running away yelling "STUNG YOU!!!"


What do you think? Any takers? :D

:rolleyes:

William :)

BTW, it's supposed to get down to zero tonight and I'm going to get up and go out early in the a.m. Yeee Haawww!

[mikemets]

I'm impressed (translation: I'm going to have to try to beat that. :)) What did you wear on your feet and hands?

TimD

OK, my cold weather riding tips:

From the top down. Balaclavas are a must, and I have one with a foam insert for the face area (ski store) for the real cold days.

"Craft" base layer, jersey, and winter cycling top (fleece lined). Total 3-4 thin layers, ALL wicking, and the gray, slightly ribbed "Craft" base layer is SO good, you can only use it for below freezing or you will roast.

Liner for under your gloves. If its real cold, I'll slip in chemical hand warmers by "Grabber Mycoal" for between the layers. They are relatively thin, and rectangular in shape. They sit right behind my knuckles, and the heat radiates right down the fingers.

Cycling shorts with a good, wind front, fleece lined, tight. If its real, real cold, you can wear a thin, wicking material, long underwear layer between your shorts and your tights.

For the feet, I wear wool socks, and fleece lined booties. If its cold, you can use the chemical toe warmers, also made by "Grabber Mycoal" these are pretty neat as the are very thin and adhesive backed. I wear them on the outside of my sock, under my toes, and in the shoe. If its super cold, you can put a hand warmer on the top part of you shoe, where its ventilated for coolness in the summer, and under the bootie. I use the bottom strap on my shoe to hold it in place.

The last thing I do if its below 10F, is use actual ski gloves. The only downside is that they don't have the "wipe strip" so I put some wide, wrist, sweat bands on the outside of the gloves, works great.

The key are the chemical warmers.

Also:
Ride straight thru with no stops.
Start with warm to even hot water/accelerade/etc. in a Polar bottle.
Learn to exhale downward to keep your glasses from fogging.

Mike