This weekend may be one of the last times out on snow covered trails. Perhaps a late April snow storm will happen but I doubt it. This year’s winter has been a total blast. I recall when I was a kid, when winter hit we were stoked! Snow ball battles awaited. The local hill by the middle school was THE place to be. Building jumps, tear assing down on sleds. Making “illegal” luge runs through the adjacent “nature green” or what ever they called it. Making snow forts in my buddies back yard. Stick hockey on the frozen yard just before it melted. Those were good times.
Recent years when winter arrived it meant pretty much a full stop on riding on trails. Maybe you’d get out if the snow wasn’t so deep but pretty much I was relegated to sandy slippery roads, with huge patches of ice that I regularly took diggers on. Not saying I was complaining but there’s something about being in the woods on the trail that makes things just that much more brighter to my day. My fat bike totally changed those february fist ringing nights waiting for the snow to hurry up and melt.
I’ll be really happy when it’s gone and spring is here but I’m not too worried when that date shall arrive. Now I’m feeling a bit sad about the wet conditions actually. I’ve become more of a “Connoisseur of Snow Conditions”. Not to mention when it’s cold and snowing out, chances are you’ll be the only one out there. It’s nice to have the whole place to yourself sometimes (not that I regularly bump into anyone on my typical bike rides).
But for this winter, I’m feeling a bit more optimistic about when winter hits again. I’ve already completed my second prototype for myself and have refined a few numbers now that I’ve had a season on my own build.
What I’m also considering is selling off one of my drivetrains and a few parts of another build so I can build up a second set of wheels to make the fat bike a 29″+ bike in the “off-season” with a pair of Paul Whub/Rhub’s mated to a set of Surly Rabbit Holes. I know I’ll be out on singletrack on my fat bike on occasion, but what it really was built for was snow and those big rubbers are just way too costly to wear down on our exposed rocky trails (My Husker Du’s showed sidewall wear after 2 rides – yeah, and those are $160.00 tires a piece…).
Good times are waiting for me next winter. But this winter still is not over. So I’ll sneak out for a few more rides with the pup until it decides it’s finished…
Winter is passing… Springs in the air.
This weekend may be one of the last times out on snow covered trails. Perhaps a late April snow storm will happen but I doubt it. This year’s winter has been a total blast. I recall when I was a kid, when winter hit we were stoked! Snow ball battles awaited. The local hill by the middle school was THE place to be. Building jumps, tear assing down on sleds. Making “illegal” luge runs through the adjacent “nature green” or what ever they called it. Making snow forts in my buddies back yard. Stick hockey on the frozen yard just before it melted. Those were good times.
Recent years when winter arrived it meant pretty much a full stop on riding on trails. Maybe you’d get out if the snow wasn’t so deep but pretty much I was relegated to sandy slippery roads, with huge patches of ice that I regularly took diggers on. Not saying I was complaining but there’s something about being in the woods on the trail that makes things just that much more brighter to my day. My fat bike totally changed those february fist ringing nights waiting for the snow to hurry up and melt.
I’ll be really happy when it’s gone and spring is here but I’m not too worried when that date shall arrive. Now I’m feeling a bit sad about the wet conditions actually. I’ve become more of a “Connoisseur of Snow Conditions”. Not to mention when it’s cold and snowing out, chances are you’ll be the only one out there. It’s nice to have the whole place to yourself sometimes (not that I regularly bump into anyone on my typical bike rides).
But for this winter, I’m feeling a bit more optimistic about when winter hits again. I’ve already completed my second prototype for myself and have refined a few numbers now that I’ve had a season on my own build.
What I’m also considering is selling off one of my drivetrains and a few parts of another build so I can build up a second set of wheels to make the fat bike a 29″+ bike in the “off-season” with a pair of Paul Whub/Rhub’s mated to a set of Surly Rabbit Holes. I know I’ll be out on singletrack on my fat bike on occasion, but what it really was built for was snow and those big rubbers are just way too costly to wear down on our exposed rocky trails (My Husker Du’s showed sidewall wear after 2 rides – yeah, and those are $160.00 tires a piece…).
Good times are waiting for me next winter. But this winter still is not over. So I’ll sneak out for a few more rides with the pup until it decides it’s finished…