Friday, December 05, 2003
SNOW BOUND
The phone call this morning informed me that I could work from home today since the snows were making themselves known. Great. After a few hours though, lunch time, and I had to get out and try my bike in the winter weather. As I was riding along I tried to think back to childhood, could this be the first time I rode my bike in the snow? I can't remember doing it as a kid, the bikes were usually put away during the bad weather and we were inside except for sledding and football if I remember.
This was a great chance to test my skills and my bikes chutzpah without having to be on time, or get on the main roads. And I report a positive all around. No problems driving through snow on the ground, no slipping and sliding, fenders working great in the slush. In fact I came across a great puddle, about 10 or 12 feet across in each direction, at least as deep as my wheel to the rim, and I plowed through it. I looked down and the water was being directed perfectly out to the sides away from me and my shoes, I couldn't ask for anything more really. My shoes still were getting wet from the wet snow (which turned into hail while I was out, I could hear it boinking off my safety glasses) and setting my feet down a few times, so I still need to find good overboots. Will try the newspaper bags someone suggested if I can find any (we don't get the newspaper).
I even started pushing my limits to see where they were. I hit a turn that was fairly narrow and did so at about 15 mph, and as long as I kept a good line I was fine. So I decided to kick the weight around a little, and finally managed to slide out the back end, but nothing bad enough that I couldn't recover from. Then while just lolling along on a side road I started doing really tight turns and once again no major issues excpet when I really tried to throw my weight off hard. I am pretty confident in my knobbies now. One question I have is will rain-x or any other substance help keep the wet snow from building up on my rims and brakes?
Finally I skipped down to check out the Voodoo Skate Park here in town. A cool skate/bike/climbing indoor park at an old warehouse that has been around for about a year. This was the first time I checked it out and I have thoughts about going down to do some winter indoor climbing or bouldering, maybe teaching Sue in the process. We'll see, but it's a positive place after the other losses I talked about in my previous posts.
This was a great chance to test my skills and my bikes chutzpah without having to be on time, or get on the main roads. And I report a positive all around. No problems driving through snow on the ground, no slipping and sliding, fenders working great in the slush. In fact I came across a great puddle, about 10 or 12 feet across in each direction, at least as deep as my wheel to the rim, and I plowed through it. I looked down and the water was being directed perfectly out to the sides away from me and my shoes, I couldn't ask for anything more really. My shoes still were getting wet from the wet snow (which turned into hail while I was out, I could hear it boinking off my safety glasses) and setting my feet down a few times, so I still need to find good overboots. Will try the newspaper bags someone suggested if I can find any (we don't get the newspaper).
I even started pushing my limits to see where they were. I hit a turn that was fairly narrow and did so at about 15 mph, and as long as I kept a good line I was fine. So I decided to kick the weight around a little, and finally managed to slide out the back end, but nothing bad enough that I couldn't recover from. Then while just lolling along on a side road I started doing really tight turns and once again no major issues excpet when I really tried to throw my weight off hard. I am pretty confident in my knobbies now. One question I have is will rain-x or any other substance help keep the wet snow from building up on my rims and brakes?
Finally I skipped down to check out the Voodoo Skate Park here in town. A cool skate/bike/climbing indoor park at an old warehouse that has been around for about a year. This was the first time I checked it out and I have thoughts about going down to do some winter indoor climbing or bouldering, maybe teaching Sue in the process. We'll see, but it's a positive place after the other losses I talked about in my previous posts.
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