See, once you're out on your mountain bike in a blizzard and pointed in the direction of the woods, it's perfectly normal to go for a trail ride. You're certainly not going to turn around into traffic on unrideably slick slushiness, and if you stay still you're gonna get cold. The obvious decision is to forge ahead, throwing all caution to the wind, of course.When I heard severe weather warning for this afternoon my first impulse was actually to try to beat the storm, but one thing led to another until my choices were sit-on-butt or go ride by myself in a blizzard at dusk. The choice was clear. Not long after I had resolved to go kick some snow tooshie, my mom called me to make sure I was inside. (she does this every time there is any sort of bad weather) I told her truthfully that I was, but made the convenient omission of what the future held as I proceeded to "rock" my awesome neoprene booties and winter gloves (Dad, let's keep this on the DL, k?). It was time to go see what all this "severe weather" fuss was about.
To be honest, the most harrowing part of the ride was the road on the way to/from the woods. Fat tires float something wicked in slush, and with no pavement contact the level of grip was akin to riding on warm Crisco (do people even know what that is anymore?). Fortunately for me there was a lot of unplowed snow in the shoulder that was perfectly passable to ride on, and I'm a pretty good snowboarder.
Once in the woods all was good. I managed a whole loop while only tossing myself once, and it was a totally avoidable toss. I did whack my knee pretty hard, but it was walking into my bike, not riding it. Not surprisingly, my Maxxis CrossMarks' performance was beyond awful, as they're practically a hardpack tire, but it's all that will fit in my frame with 29" rims. If the snow isn't too deep tomorrow maybe I'll break out little wheels and the baby killers:
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1 comment:
mmm spikies
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