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What the screed below boils down to is that I just want to ride my bike more.
In this instance, "more" does not refer to days per week nor even necessarily hours per day. Although both of those would also be nice.
What I'm after is the ability to ride more feet per mile. On snow.
Allow me to explain...
Our backyard mountain receives copious quantities of snow every winter -- averaging over 300" and piling up close to 500" with some regularity. Today is December 12th and already over 100" has fallen this season. I was out this afternoon as another 5" came in, driven on a wind. Most well-adjusted funhogs would immediately jump in here and point me toward some phat powder skis and skins and suggest that I would enjoy myself more with those tools. And they'd have a point.
But I'm not really interested in skiing anymore. I ski bummed in Crested Butte from '92 to '98, banging out 130+ days each of my first two seasons, and then 100+ days each season thereafter. Skiing is neat but I've nearly had my fill and moved on for many reasons.
Anyhoo, our backyard mountain gets lots of snow. And while people flock here in droves to ride our trails in spring, summer, and fall, those same hordes are nowhere in evidence when winter arrives. So these snowbound trails don't get much traffic -- nowhere near enough to keep them packed in and consistently rideable.
When you have a low-moisture content alpine/continental snowpack that is constantly being refreshed and not enough traffic to adequately compress it between storms, you get trails that are soft, punchy, difficult to ride. At best. More often they're drifted over with wind affected ball bearings, or completely buried under cold smoke.
To the end of being able to ride more, I experiment with new ideas every chance I get. Usually that means ever wider rims and tires, such that I've had a series of custom snowbikes made over the past 20+ years. Sometimes it means riding whichever rims and tires you have, but experimenting with pressures. Sometimes it means ignoring the rolling bits and focusing on/learning about how geometry can make poor conditions more rideable. Other times it means ignoring all but the minutia, and seeing where you can get with that.
And, quite honestly, sometimes it just doesn't matter, because the snow is too deep, soft, fresh, to do anything other than push your bike through it. When riding locally I have the luxury of checking weather reports daily and thusly keeping tabs on what conditions are doing. If I know a foot of fresh is en route then I know better than to try to ride the next day or two.
But when I head to Alaska -- as I've done every year for more than 20 years now -- both the route and schedule are set, so I just have to embrace whatever weather and trail conditions happen. Having the floatiest bike and the wherewithal to make proper use of it are critical.
For the past four seasons I've been on the same chassis -- built by Whit @ Meriwether and dubbed "Brrrrrly."
Click that last link and you'll understand a bit more about what makes sense for riding the kind and quantity of snow we have in our backyard. Click this one if you want the builders perspective. Keep in mind that this bike represents literal decades of trial, error, and evolution.
And then realize that *both* Jeny and I have these bikes.
That last bit is important because for the first time in a few years there are contenders to consider when it comes to uber-floaty fat tires. For the past four years I've ridden the venerable Vee 2XL in the PSC (white) compound. I run them tubeless on Kuroshiro 105mm carbon rims, usually at pressures so low that they fail to register on even the best modern gauges. Nothing else commercially made comes close to the float this combo provides.
But now Terrene is offering their Johnny 5 meats, and after installing and riding a set I'm finding lots to like about them. And Terrene is also offering a writ-large B Fat tire that, when installed on the new ENVE hoops, might just be worth more than a passing glance.
So, over the past few weeks and the next little while we'll be riding all of the above on our Meriwethers, on our backyard fluff as well as further afield, swapping bikes often mid-ride so that we can get a sense for which combo's work best when, at what pressures, and why. We've even invited a few snow-savvy friends to come join us on these test missions, partially because they're our friends and it's fun to ride with friends! But also because it's nice to get second, third, and fourth opinions to ensure that the conclusions you've drawn are both scientific and accurate.
Bringing this whole thing back to where it started, what I'm after here is the ability to ride more. Faster isn't of particular interest, although since riding is faster than walking, then anything that keeps us pedaling will ultimately prove faster than the alternative.
Thanks for checkin' in. Don't hesitate with questions.
In this instance, "more" does not refer to days per week nor even necessarily hours per day. Although both of those would also be nice.
What I'm after is the ability to ride more feet per mile. On snow.
Allow me to explain...
Our backyard mountain receives copious quantities of snow every winter -- averaging over 300" and piling up close to 500" with some regularity. Today is December 12th and already over 100" has fallen this season. I was out this afternoon as another 5" came in, driven on a wind. Most well-adjusted funhogs would immediately jump in here and point me toward some phat powder skis and skins and suggest that I would enjoy myself more with those tools. And they'd have a point.
But I'm not really interested in skiing anymore. I ski bummed in Crested Butte from '92 to '98, banging out 130+ days each of my first two seasons, and then 100+ days each season thereafter. Skiing is neat but I've nearly had my fill and moved on for many reasons.
Anyhoo, our backyard mountain gets lots of snow. And while people flock here in droves to ride our trails in spring, summer, and fall, those same hordes are nowhere in evidence when winter arrives. So these snowbound trails don't get much traffic -- nowhere near enough to keep them packed in and consistently rideable.
When you have a low-moisture content alpine/continental snowpack that is constantly being refreshed and not enough traffic to adequately compress it between storms, you get trails that are soft, punchy, difficult to ride. At best. More often they're drifted over with wind affected ball bearings, or completely buried under cold smoke.
To the end of being able to ride more, I experiment with new ideas every chance I get. Usually that means ever wider rims and tires, such that I've had a series of custom snowbikes made over the past 20+ years. Sometimes it means riding whichever rims and tires you have, but experimenting with pressures. Sometimes it means ignoring the rolling bits and focusing on/learning about how geometry can make poor conditions more rideable. Other times it means ignoring all but the minutia, and seeing where you can get with that.
And, quite honestly, sometimes it just doesn't matter, because the snow is too deep, soft, fresh, to do anything other than push your bike through it. When riding locally I have the luxury of checking weather reports daily and thusly keeping tabs on what conditions are doing. If I know a foot of fresh is en route then I know better than to try to ride the next day or two.
But when I head to Alaska -- as I've done every year for more than 20 years now -- both the route and schedule are set, so I just have to embrace whatever weather and trail conditions happen. Having the floatiest bike and the wherewithal to make proper use of it are critical.
For the past four seasons I've been on the same chassis -- built by Whit @ Meriwether and dubbed "Brrrrrly."
Click that last link and you'll understand a bit more about what makes sense for riding the kind and quantity of snow we have in our backyard. Click this one if you want the builders perspective. Keep in mind that this bike represents literal decades of trial, error, and evolution.
And then realize that *both* Jeny and I have these bikes.
That last bit is important because for the first time in a few years there are contenders to consider when it comes to uber-floaty fat tires. For the past four years I've ridden the venerable Vee 2XL in the PSC (white) compound. I run them tubeless on Kuroshiro 105mm carbon rims, usually at pressures so low that they fail to register on even the best modern gauges. Nothing else commercially made comes close to the float this combo provides.
But now Terrene is offering their Johnny 5 meats, and after installing and riding a set I'm finding lots to like about them. And Terrene is also offering a writ-large B Fat tire that, when installed on the new ENVE hoops, might just be worth more than a passing glance.
So, over the past few weeks and the next little while we'll be riding all of the above on our Meriwethers, on our backyard fluff as well as further afield, swapping bikes often mid-ride so that we can get a sense for which combo's work best when, at what pressures, and why. We've even invited a few snow-savvy friends to come join us on these test missions, partially because they're our friends and it's fun to ride with friends! But also because it's nice to get second, third, and fourth opinions to ensure that the conclusions you've drawn are both scientific and accurate.
Bringing this whole thing back to where it started, what I'm after here is the ability to ride more. Faster isn't of particular interest, although since riding is faster than walking, then anything that keeps us pedaling will ultimately prove faster than the alternative.
Thanks for checkin' in. Don't hesitate with questions.
