Ridin' home. (Self portrait)"Snow riding is a little crazy and, thus, good for the spirit. Your tires produce a musical crunch and artistic tread patterns. Anyone who says that mountain bikers are always occupied with speed and precision doesn't have a clue."
—Tim Blumenthal
2 comments:
Good stuff.
Did someone take that picture or was the camera on self-timer and you practiced staying *very* still?
What's the deepest snow you ride in? I've found that anything over 3 or 4 inches is pretty tough unless it's a fine powder.
That shot was done with a self timer and the camera was mounted on one of those tiny, plastic "backpacking" tripods that I've started carrying on the bike. It took a few tries before I could mount up and manage to be riding slowly in the right spot when the shot was taken! I could do a "bloopers" post with the outtakes.
I prefer riding packed snow after the roads are plowed and the trails are groomed for skate skiers. An inch of new snow is really nice for smoothing out the bumps and making things quiet. Two or three inches isn't bad, either, but I don't like much more than that. I know people who will ride in six or eight inches of fresh snow, but that's tough to do unless you use extra-wide rims like SnowCats, and I've never splurged on a pair.
You have to have a pretty wide footprint to maintain steering control in deep snow, especially if it has been roughed up by other people. Then there's the additional rolling resistance -- it can be a lot of work.
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