A short Sunday jaunt.

I mostly ride more in winter than summer, for various reasons. Work is one factor, there's plenty of weekend overtime available in the spring/summer/autumn and I can't really afford to turn it down, last year I worked 13 out of every 14 days for a while. The summer before I was doing quite a few fell races, all good until I injured my Achilles tendon, which still isn't quite right a year on. But at least I can run now, thanks to seeing both a physio and a podiatrist.

Also, winter is when it snows, and I like snow. I like running in snow as well as riding in it, but my running at the moment is at quite a low level so long runs up big hills are out for the time being.

On the fatbike I tend to stay fairly local when it snows, riding in an area that is easy to reach from my front door and that I know well. Luckily there's some good trails close to home, although some of the riding that i do is a bit cheeky.

Today's ride was short and sweet, I faffed about too much this morning to get out for a longer ride, and the main purpose of today's jaunt was to ride a particular trail for the first time in the snow.

I started off by riding up an unsurfaced road, well used by 4x4s. A lot of vehicle tracks had compressed the snow to ice, which made the climb out of town interesting as I had to keep hard over to one side, and even then I had to dab and push at a couple of spots. A 110 sat behind me spinning its wheels, more down to bad driving than the vehicle I reckon, and he never managed to catch me up despite my taking things easy.

Further along there was a patch of rough ice;

Ridable on a fatbike, although riding on ice to me is a bit unnatural so I tend to take things very steady.

The next track was a bridlepath;

Well used by walkers who'd groomed the trail quite nicely;

As close as we in this country are going to get to the groomed trails that can be found in Norf America and Scandinavia I suppose.

And onto my goal, a cheeky bit of riding that I thought might make a good snow route;

There's a bit of pushing to be done as there's a dip down to a stream with a stiff climb up, and a tricky narrow path through a quarry, but on the whole it contours around on a fairly level course, coming out behind a children's home where I used to work. The snow here was soft, with a few drifts, which could get bigger in the right conditions.

The rest of the route was cheeky as well, apart from the very last section. Our rights of way need updating, although I shouldn't technically be riding on these cheeky trails for the most part they have been built with vehicles in mind, so if a Landrover or quad bike can use them why not a bicycle or horse? Here's an example, under the snow there's a wide stone track in very good condition;

Up here I found some deep soft stuff, and even with my tyre pressures dropped to 3/3.5psi I frequently got bogged down;

Hard work for sure.

I've tried to stay above 400 metres on this ride, to get to the best dry snow and avoid the wetter slushy mess that can be found further down. I've seen boot/fell shoe treads, ski and even snowshoe tracks, but only one other set of bike treads. As I was getting close to home it starting sleeting...

...just when I was thinking of stopping to enjoy the views and drink my tea. So I kept on going, across to the UCR that I came up at the start. Going down it was taken rather gingerly, the sleet turning to rain. Rain on ice is not a nice combination! A quick ride across town gave me the chance to check how much self-steer an Edna gives at 3psi - a bit but not as bad as it was the other day at 2 3/4psi. Funny the difference how a quarter of a psi can give.

Paul.

A quick ride before work.

I haven't updated this blog for ages! Must be time for a new post then.

Yesterday morning I decided that a quick ride in the snow before work would be in order. So, out I went.

This leads to the first off-road section;

A byway, well used by 4x4s, which have compressed the snow to ice as can be seen above. On the tarmac climb I stuck to the icy ruts, steady riding on fat tyres works wonders although the rear slipped a couple of times. Once on the rocky broken climb further up I was reduced to pushing as the terrain became more difficult and thicker ice had formed where there had been running water.
Broken tarmac followed the climb, mostly flat, and I had my first off as the front wheel washed out on the slippery compressed snow. And then another off as the lane headed downhill...

At the end of the lane I turned left and along a bridlepath - no compressed snow/ice to contend with but deep soft powder instead;

Hard going, but in a good way. Not good fatbiking snow though, it wasn't firm enough to support the bikes weight. Through a gate and up a climb, stiff enough on a summers day but even harder in soft powder. Lots of pushing involved even after lowering the tyre pressures, but I should have known better as I've had problems on this hill before. Once it leveled out I could ride again;

The sun was just starting to think about making an appearance;

On the way down the other side I had little control in the soft deep stuff, resulting in another fall. At least the landings were soft. Once back on tarmac I decided to ride home as I was running out of time. Not  a pleasant ride, I'd dropped the pressures down from 5psi front 5.5 rear (Surly Edna/Spesh Ground Control) to 2 3/4 front 3 rear, resulting in loads of self-steer. I'm going to have to experiment with pressures on this tyre combination to see just how low I can go before the handling becomes too much.

Paul.