Pics from Our Rides

From todays ride.
A short loop near the house, but i doubled back to do the hill twice.

No hill pics.

From my just shy of 40 miles loop today….

Beautiful snowy ride today.
A 'white tunnel' on this day. Soon, it will be green.

Local reservoir's boat launch area. Pretty day for a boat ride, for the properly dressed.








Later in the ride, things started freezing up.

From today’s hill training:

Dos_Ruedas said:

newleaf,
I’d like riding there & with the snow, but….. I’m leery about riding on wet roads/paved trails in freezing temps.
I’ve had a way of giving cyclists beatings.
What’s the trick to knowing?

Click to expand...

It's actually easier in Spring. If warm temps lead into snow, the latter is much less likely to stick on pavement, or to be a problem when it does. In the case of yesterday's climb, there were some shaded sections near the top which sported random yards of semi-frozen pavement. Without studded tires I worried about those, but had the chance to eyeball them on the way up. As a result, I took lines I otherwise wouldn't on the way down, but only for maybe a couple hundred yards total.

Most of the way down was dry, and seeing the worst parts in advance helped. I have ridden enough frozen stuff by now to have a fair idea of how various looking frozen surfaces will ride. I slowed significantly for a couple of spots, but felt confident blowing through others at speed.

If there's a trick, it's mounting studded bike tires and riding through a few winters. Not to be flippant, but that's how I did it. I've since expanded into riding selected icy bits without studded tires, but in the beginning I was quite unhappy at the prospect of two wheels on ice. I've driven too many icy roads on four wheels. It can be done on bikes without studded tires, but riding with studs at first helped me a lot. You still feel the the slick with studded tires, but the studs help keep you upright. Makes judging conditions easier, even without studs.

FWIW, the group I rode with were mostly on roadies, including a $17k Specialized S-Works sweetie that I should have grabbed some pics of, but didn't. My 700x45 monsters were by far the fattest tires present. The others made it all the way to the top, which I didn't. They did the full descent on roadie-width tires, save the one guy who rode a gravel bike with 700x35 rubber. You can totally do this. No sh!t.

Good times on the trail.

After a night of solid rain, I expected the tunnel beneath a local express way to be flooded. Going by the width of the flooded section, I judged crossing it would involve wet feet. With temps in the low 40's, that seemed contra-indicated. I turned back. My footgear was waterproof, but I hesitate to risk full immersion in these temps.



I'm looking forward to the end of this closure, as it should mean a favorite loop will no longer involve crossing a very busy 4-lane highway Frogger-style. They are putting in an underpass.