First fatbike snow ride.

Last night (Tuesday night) it snowed. So as I'm on late shift this week I set the alarm for 7.30 ready for an early ride before breakfast. As it was I got out of bed at 7.20, ate a banana, then out I went on my fatbike. The route I chose was short and local, heading over to Dove Holes and looping around the back of a quarry. Its not particulary taxing, rather a nice little bimble when time is short or legs are tired. But that made it ideal for my first time in snow on the fatbike, I could concentrate on the ride without worrying about big rocks and technical climbs etc.

I've recently swapped the tyres on the bike as I don't think that the supplied Jumbo Jim's, good as they are on hardpack, would be much use in snow and mud. On the front is a Spesh Ground Control, chosen for its extra size and confident tread pattern, and on the rear I've fitted an On-One Floater, chosen because it was £21 in a sale. I'd reduced the tyre pressures to 7 psi front and rear, usually I run them slightly harder but I figure that riding in snow would require less pressure and therefore more grip.

Silly name, but what do you expect from the company that named its first three bikes Runt Gimp and Inbred?

So, leaving the house I headed onto the golf course up the road, well the byway that runs through it rather than riding up the fairway (tempting though that is...). A short grassy climb showed a slight loss of grip on the rear, but nothing of concern.

Golf course byway.

After the byway a short tarmac ride, where I had a brief chat to a hardy runner carrying a large backpack, I reached the second off-road section, another byway. Along there I skirted around some puddles, went through others, and noted how the snow covers up any rocks or lumps, making for an interesting ride..

At the end I crossed a road and headed up another track. This was in fact a public footpath, but one so wide that you could easily drive a lorry up it, yet according to the law of the land I shouldn't have cycled along it. Another example of our strange access laws, which to my mind need updating.

This is in fact a Public Footpath, albeit a very wide one. Under the snow is a well-kept gravel track.

About halfway along this PF is a ninety degree bend, which I took quite gingerly as changing direction like that in snow on a bike is something that I'm a bit nervous of.
From the PF I headed towards Dove on tarmac, along a side road which I can never remember the name of so its known in our house as Liver'n'bacon Lane. Anyway, the views over towards Combs Moss took my mind off the slush and cold water that my tyres were throwing up onto my ill-protected legs. As did these coos;

Through Dove next, along the A6, then once past the village but before the road dips down to the roundabout I turned right up a UCR and onto the longest off-road section of the ride.This makes its way around a quarry and starts off as a typical farm track (more puddles) before turning to a wide stretch of gravel;

Around the quarry.

Along here I was on virgin snow, enjoying the continous crunch of snow under 4" wide rubber, the only other tracks belonging to wildlife;

Grouse if I'm not mistaken.

Seeing such tracks is one of the joys of winter wanderings.

Along this track I encountered the deepest snow yet, about 3-4", which made handling interesting, so interesting in fact that I fell off. It seems that I had too much air in the front tyre and once I'd stopped a couple of times to let a bit out the handling improved somewhat. I checked the pressure after I got home and found it to be 5 psi. The back I left alone.

Virgin snow!

This UCR does rise and fall, the climbs being short and stiff in places and the descents fast and loose. Except today the descents were taken with a greater than usual degree of care, at a slightly slower pace.

At the end of the UCR I turned right again onto a bridlepath, were we once disturbed a rare bird sunning itself on the ground whilst being admired and photographed by a gaggle of twitchers. But there were no birders around today, just more puddles to skirt around until I reached a farmyard where an emerging farmer did a classic double take on seeing me ride through on what is quite an unusual bike.

On exiting the farmyard I headed up towards Peak Dale, with its steep tarmac climb, and back onto Liverythingy Lane to retrace my steps and return home. I did spot hares haring about, always a welcome sight and quite common in the fields around these parts. I've even seen hares on the golf course.

An enjoyable ride, but also a valuable learing experience;
Riding in snow is a bit harder than normal, and slower as well. Todays ride, which was about 20k, took about 35 minutes longer than it usually would. I might consider fitting a smaller chainring as well (the bike is 1x11).
Tyre pressures need to be quite a bit lower than I would normally use.
My wardrobe needs updating. Baggy shorts over Ron Hills over padded shorts just ain't good enough! And warmer gloves are a must as my hands were bloomin' cold! My feet were ok though, I wore unfashionable neoprene overshoes over my mtb shoes.

As I type this the snow has all but gone, so I'm glad that I seized the moment and got out whilst I could.

Paul.