Fruddled Gruntbugglies

Enthralling readers since 2005

Tag: winter

  • Ergon MTB Grips Midseason Report

    Took my 6th bike ride to work for the month of February this morning.  It wasn’t all that cold, and no snow anywhere except for a light frosting on some north facing slopes.  But all the same, it was more winter-like out that it has been for most of this year.  There was some black ice on the back roads and the park, and salt on the main roads.  I was happy to be riding studded tires.

    Yesterday, I took the car to work for the first time in 2012.  The culprit was a combination of a slightly upset stomach and a predicted afternoon snow storm (which, of course, never materialized).  Also, not that I’m superstitious or anything, but yesterday was the 1-year anniversary of my fall on ice last February that landed me in the hospital, so it’s probably better that I avoided tempting fate and riding on that day.  🙂  It’s a testament to the warm weather this winter that I made it so far into the year without having to take the car.

    I am still liking the Ergon grips I put on my mountain bike last fall, after almost a full winter riding with them.  It’s amazing the difference they make in comfort compared to the old generic-grip-and-bar-end combo I used to have on the bike.  With the Ergons, my hands stay in a comfortable position, and I no longer have problems with numbness.  The grips have small integrated bar-ends, which provide a perfect alternate grip which is particularly nice when going uphill.  The only problem with them is that both grips do slip occasionally, despite being fully pushed onto the bars and tightened to spec with a torque wrench.  They don’t slip during normal riding, but they’ll slip if I accidentally torque them enough.  This isn’t common, but it can happen in certain cases,  like when I have to swerve around something, or get the bike moving on an uphill grade in traffic, etc.  It might just be that the bar is too slippery.  Next time I’m doing maintenance on the bike, I might pull the grips off and rough the ends of the bars up with sandpaper, to see if that prevents it.  Stay tuned.

  • Stud Test

    This morning, at long last, I was able to give my studded tires their first true test.  We got around an inch of snow Saturday, followed by a nice glaze of ice, plus a little bit of melting and re-freezing action on Sunday and Sunday night.  As a result, I had a nice variety of road conditions on which to try out the tires this morning.  For the record, these are the “Marathon Winter” tires by Schwalbe, 26″x1.75″, and I’m running them on a 1993 Specialized Rockhopper.  These tires are designed mainly for traction on icy roads, more so than for deep snow.  Each tire has 200 studs and the tread is not very aggressive.

    Most of the roads on my commute were salted into oblivion, and pretty clear.  The only icy spots were on overpasses.  The real fun was in the state park.  The access road I ride into the park never gets touched in the winter, and it was still covered with 1″ of snow, with footprints and tire tracks from those who braved it before me.  Despite the Marathons not being snow tires per se, I was able to plow through the snow pretty confidently, with just a bit of side-to-side deflection from the ruts.  I wouldn’t even think of riding through that on one of my road bikes.  Any more snow, though, and I would have been hiking it.  The roads and paved trails inside the park appeared to have been plowed but not salted.  There was a lot of ice everywhere, and the tires handled it extremely well, with no slippage at all.  I’ve never felt more confident riding on ice.  I was actually purposely riding through ice in spots where I could have avoided it.  It kind of reminded me of my first ride with fenders, splashing through puddles just for the hell of it.

    Anyhow, we have another warmup coming for later this week, so it may be a while before the tires get tested again.  I’d like to test them out on some really hard-core ice, as opposed to the slippery-slushy stuff we had today.  This winter just hasn’t been cold enough for that.  I guess we’ll see what February brings.

  • Outfitting for Winter

    Labor Day is less than a week away, summer is mostly behind us, and thoughts are turning towards the coming fall and winter.  To avoid the rush, I’m getting my shopping done early for the cold-weather biking season.  After a bit too much excitement with icy roads last winter, I took the plunge a few weeks ago and bought a set of studded tires.  After careful consideration, I went with the “Marathon Winter” tire by Schwalbe.  These tires have been well reviewed, and seem to be best suited to the type of riding I’ll be doing:  mainly paved roads, with occasional icy patches.  I got the 26″ size and will put them on my mountain bike.  I plan on putting the tires on in early to mid November, and riding them all winter.  I’ll be sure to post my experiences.  If they work out well, it’d be nice to get a set for my single speed, which should be able to take 700cx32 tires with studs.  However, there wouldn’t be enough room for fenders.

    For the past 3 winters, I’ve been using a NiteRider “Sol” headlight.  It’s not super bright, but good enough for commuting.  Unfortunately, the cable that plugs the light into the battery pack died recently.  I can make the light come on if I flex the cable just so, but as soon as I let go, the light goes out.  I’m a bit disappointed that the light didn’t last longer.  I’m now in the market for a new light.  Quality issues notwithstanding, I was thinking about going in a different direction for my next headlight anyhow.  The NiteRider, while functional, isn’t the best for commuting.  It has a proprietary battery pack that’s expensive to replace, and the o-ring handlebar mount is difficult to deal with when you want to move the light from one bike to another.  After 3 years of night commuting, I have a very clear list of things I want in a light:

    • It must use non-proprietary batteries, preferably NiMH rechargeable AA or AAA cells.
    • It should be as bright, or slightly brighter, than the Sol.
    • It should include a daytime flashing mode for visibility, something the Sol lacked (though most of NiteRider’s newer lights include this feature).
    • It should be easy to transfer between multiple bikes.

    I researched lights, and quickly turned up the Planet Bike “Blaze”.  On paper, this looks like the headlight of my dreams.  Self contained, takes regular batteries, has a flash mode, has a quick-release mounting bracket, extra brackets available for other bikes, and best of all, ridiculously inexpensive.  I actually ordered 2 of them, a 2-watt and a 1-watt model, plus 2 extra mounting brackets, all for less than I paid for my NiteRider back in 2008.  I’m already a fan of Planet Bike, but I’ll be an even bigger fan if all this gear works out for me this winter.  Stay tuned.

  • Today’s ride

    It was my coldest morning commute of the year today.  14° with a wind chill of 2°.  I usually check the temperature before getting on the bike, so I can figure out what to wear.  Didn’t bother today..  already knew it was going to be cold, so I just bundled up.  In hindsight, I’m glad I didn’t check, because it would have made the ride seem colder, and may have deterred me from biking at all.  Sometimes, ignorance is bliss.

    Stuff I wore..  Head: balaclava, helmet and Uvex glasses.  Torso: short sleeve exercise top, arm warmers, Under Armour long sleeve top, PolarTec top, outer shell.  Legs: thermal tights under cycling shorts.  Feet:  SmartWool socks, “toasty toes” chemical toe warmers, cycling shoes, slip-on toe covers, and neoprene thermal shoe boots.  Hands: thick winter gloves.

    I kept pretty warm with the above.  My hands and wrists were a little sweaty at the end.  This was the first time I tried the chemical toe warmers, and they worked pretty well, that is to say, my toes weren’t numb at the end, unlike the last time I rode when it was south of 20 degrees.  My face got a little cold when riding into the wind, but not unbearably so.

    20° seems to be the magic ice-in-the-water-bottle cutoff temperature.  I’ve had ice on both my sub-20 rides, but never anything when it’s 20 or above.

    Last but not least..  I’d recommend staying away from the “Zero Xposur” brand.  They make various kinds of winter outerwear.  I’ve had the zipper break on a winter coat, and the stitching is coming apart on a pair of heavy gloves, both after relatively light and infrequent use.  Might just be a coincidence, but I’m going to be avoiding them in the future.

  • Aargh, I hate winter

    Forces of nature are conspiring to keep me off my bike lately.

    I managed to bike to work twice last week in spite of the big ice storm that hit the Baltimore/Washington area.  Then I went out for a quick 20-miler this past Sunday, and promptly broke a spoke on my back wheel.  This was the third broken spoke for me since last fall.  The first, I replaced myself.  After the second, I dropped the wheel off at the bike shop.  They replaced the spoke, trued my wheel up and informed me that my rim was bent and this likely wouldn’t be the end of my problem.  Sure enough, they were right.

    So…  the bike spent Monday and Tuesday in the shop getting a wheel rebuild with a new rim and spokes.  Naturally, the weather both days would have been fine for bike commuting, if I had had a working bike.  Tuesday evening I bring the bike home from the shop, anxious to ride in this morning.  And of course, this morning I wake up to a “surprise” 2-inch snowfall.  Bummer.

    The snow prompted UMBC to delay opening till 10am (caution on their part because of all the bad press they got after the ice storm, I guess).  By 9:45, conditions had improved to the point where I probably could have biked in, but I had a 10am meeting scheduled, which didn’t leave me enough time.  So I drove in, and found out the meeting had been cancelled.  And now it’s beautiful out.  A Murphy’s Law day if there ever was one.

    It looks like the snow is out of the forecast for awhile, but tomorrow is going to be arctic with a high of 28 and a wind chill of probably half that.  Damned if that’s going to stop me, though. 🙂

  • The Joys of Winter Biking

    Took my first fall of 2009 yesterday.  We were coming off two straight days of rain, it was 7:45am and the temperature was right around freezing.  All of that adds up to (you guessed it) ice on the road.  Most of the roads were treated and in pretty good shape, but in my infinite wisdom I decided to extend the ride with a lap through the State Park.  And in the park, the roads were..  not good.  Long story short, I was coming down a hill, braking a bit, hit a previously-unseen patch of black ice, and the bike promptly came out from under me.

    Falls happen so quickly and suddenly that it’s often hard to tell right away what happened and if there’s been any damage.  Sometimes it doesn’t become apparent until you try to get back on the bike and resume the ride.  In my case, I ended up completely undamaged (yay for slippery ice and multiple layers of winter clothing) but my front wheel was knocked out of true.  Turned out to be a loose spoke.  A quick twist with a spoke wrench got me back on the road.  I also had to re-position my front fender, which I did after the ride.  So apparently my front wheel must have taken some kind of impact, although the fall was so smooth that it’s hard to picture how it could have happened.

    I guess I should count myself lucky that this was such an easy fall and it happened in the park where there’s no traffic.  It’s been north of 20 years since I last did any regular riding in the winter, but this was enough to remind me of the perils of icy roads..