Carrying snowshoes on the bike

For a few years now I've been meaning to experiment with carrying snowshoes on the fatbike, to see if it can be done with what I have. Today I did just that.

I used my Alpkit Kanga harness, which is designed for bikepacking and allows you to carry a pack (usually a drybag) strapped to front of the bike. This attaches to the handlebars and forks and works best with a 'loop' bar such as the Confucius bars that I use. I strapped my snowshoes, MSR Evo Ascents, to the harness and went for a short ride, my local figure of 8.

We had snow on Thursday, not as much as originally forecast, but enough to make for some interesting riding, especially in the quarry. The plateau above was especially good;

Some shots of the snowshoes and harness;

I also fitted an Alpkit Stem Cell inside the bar loop, for gloves, spare skull cap etc. It can't really be seen in the photos but there's also a Beerbabe No Rack Pack, made from recycled inner tubes and designed for forks that don't have rack mounts, I keep a bothy bag in it.

As can be expected the extra weight high up on the front did affect the handling, especially downhill, but does prove the idea to be sound. There are times when parts of my preferred winter route is covered in deep snow and unridable, the ability to don 'shoes and walk for a couple of k would I think be quite good fun.

Paul.

First ride of the year

And a cold one it was.  I'm not sure what the temperature actually was, but whatever it was the wind chill knocked it right down. We had a light sprinkling of snow the night before, but the main picture today was one of frozen ground and plenty of ice. This was the Old Macc. Road;

Danebower Hollow was better, there was ice, which was actually grippy, but on the whole it ran very well;

The original plan was to head for 3 Shires Head, but as the wind chill was pretty harsh (despite my wearing a skullcap) I cut short and turned left at the end, up the Congleton road then right onto the cut-through. I then took advantage of the frozen ground and went across the moors, heading up onto a ridge and one of my favourite places to stop; 

This is somewhere that I will only go when the ground is solid. 

Taking shelter behind the rocks I drank tea, ate a couple of bars and enjoyed a brief moment of solitude, before heading back down the edge and crossed over more moorland.  

After that it was just a quick run over Axe, then onto the main road and back into town. I will sometimes take the road back in winter rather than cross over onto the Old Macc, simply to avoid an icy descent.

Paul.