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Fat Bikes Winter Rides 2021/2022

nay

dirt heel pusher
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Looks like fun, but the fat bikers are going to burn you at the stake if your skinny tires leave ruts in the trail?!

:duck:
They really don’t at all here. I wouldn’t ride in an actual fat bike groomed area akin to messing up nordic tracks, but out here is mostly hikers anyway.
 

nay

dirt heel pusher
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Not much snow in this pic, but 4-8” tonight. So I dropped the bike off for a full maintenance session. Rear brake pretty much had nothing left, you could pump it 3-4 times and get some pressure, kinda fun when you are still riding fast, teach you to not rely on braking so much :roflmao:

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firebanex

firebanex

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Speaking of brakes.. We rode the other night and found pockets of -38* back in the trails. Friend of mine has SRAM Level's on his bike and they pretty much gave up the ghost and stopped working, the lever stopped moving in any significant manner and his rear pads were dragging pretty bad. Couldn't do anything to alleviate it on the trail. I had similar issues past -30 with the Level T's on my bike in previous seasons but had replaced them with Magura MT8's over the summer. My brakes worked perfectly even at those temps and carbon levers are so worth it. Not that we were riding terribly fast as it was so cold but having functional brakes is good!

I don't take many if any pictures when it's that cold, took one picture of my watch to record the temp is all!
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nay

dirt heel pusher
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Speaking of brakes.. We rode the other night and found pockets of -38* back in the trails. Friend of mine has SRAM Level's on his bike and they pretty much gave up the ghost and stopped working, the lever stopped moving in any significant manner and his rear pads were dragging pretty bad. Couldn't do anything to alleviate it on the trail. I had similar issues past -30 with the Level T's on my bike in previous seasons but had replaced them with Magura MT8's over the summer. My brakes worked perfectly even at those temps and carbon levers are so worth it. Not that we were riding terribly fast as it was so cold but having functional brakes is good!

I don't take many if any pictures when it's that cold, took one picture of my watch to record the temp is all!
View attachment 158230

The commitment to suffering is here is outstanding.
 

nay

dirt heel pusher
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I just can’t fight hours of traffic to go skiing. At the intersection of dumb and stupid stands wisdom.

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firebanex

firebanex

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Even on a fatbike, that post hole section would be unrideable.

I went skiing today but a couple friends reported that they got passed by a 20 dog team pulling a snowmachine and a groomer drag today. Those pups were working hard! Kinda wish they had gotten a picture of that, it would have been so long.
 

Tom K.

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We rode the other night and found pockets of -38* back in the trails.

Mad props.

MAD!

I just can’t fight hours of traffic to go skiing. At the intersection of dumb and stupid stands wisdom.

Same. We don't ever really have hours of traffic here, but on solo powder days I've always got the fat bike in the car. I made u-turns twice last season in heavy traffic, and went on a bike ride with zero other humans present.

Luckily, this season, most of our best days were storm days that started out with a 2" or less report and ended between 6 and 12 inches. Awesome stuff, and 0-2" reports don't bring out the (mostly bad skiing) powder hordes. :ogbiggrin:
 

Tom K.

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Pre-ride sunrise with the morning coffee:

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We've got some grooming this year. A new thing. I think I like it.

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A view of The Madhouse (aka the local ski area on a sunny Sunday). We'll get some of this today.

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nay

dirt heel pusher
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Caught the sloppy side of freeze/thaw. This is the one area I ride that doesn’t have any clay, it’s just sandy/rocky, so wet trail riding doesn’t cause any damage. Hit some steeper pitches through the woods, got a little bit loose on some downhills, probably didn’t do my just serviced bottom bracket any favors.

Kinda fun. Now I’m off to Dallas for my first business trip in 2 years. Got COVID in Santa Clara on that trip (presumed anyway…it was ground zero…and the symptoms where spot on), just had COVID, Omicron style…vaxxed in the middle…so maybe I’m bulletproof.

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Tom K.

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OK, OK not quite a fat bike ride, but it was so darn gorgeous yesterday that I rode a gravel bike the 5 miles up to the Hungry Horse Dam just for the view of these peaks.

While not in Glacier National Park, they are arguably every bit as spectacular!

And maybe 38c tires qualify as fat-ish?! :ogbiggrin:

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chris_the_wrench

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OK, OK not quite a fat bike ride, but it was so darn gorgeous yesterday that I rode a gravel bike the 5 miles up to the Hungry Horse Dam just for the view of these peaks.
Did you ride across the dam to where the plowing stops? I wonder with this warm weather and general lack of snow, if it’s drive-able? Usually its snow machines only this time of the year, but its another weird year…
 

Tom K.

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Did you ride across the dam to where the plowing stops? I wonder with this warm weather and general lack of snow, if it’s drive-able? Usually its snow machines only this time of the year, but its another weird year…

Exactly where that pic was shot. Right by the viewing scopes. The plowing ends firmly about a block further up the road. Snow machines only past there.

Might be an interesting Monday morning fat bike ride. Not many "beelers" then.

It's worth noting that after I posted above, I looked at some maps, and realize those peaks are in the fabulous Bob Marshall Wilderness, which I didn't realize reached quite that far north.
 

nay

dirt heel pusher
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We keep getting little refresher snows and it’s warm each day so this isn’t going away. I tried to get out early enough to just ride on the refreeze, which meant I rode on a lot of refreeze, but also wet, because I didn’t get out early enough. I am liking how much ice and snow traction I have just on a 2.6 tire at relatively low pressure. I’m not having issues climbing at all.

I finally bought a set of long pants and the winter five ten Freerider shoes. Those shoes are great so far, nice support, I think I may move to a mid height shoe for summer riding.

Always kinda wondered that - we have all this downhill focus on ankle support and stiffness in ski boot and then mountain bike shoes, at least those designed for flats, are basically skater shoes. That extra stiffness and support felt damn good on the first ride.

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Tom K.

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Only for @nay will we classify 2.6 tires as "fat"!
 
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firebanex

firebanex

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I'm really jealous of the sunshine and show riding you get to do @nay . Curse that 9-6 day job I have. I had to google the shoes as a winter biking shoe to me is much more of a boot. Was it the Trailcross FiveTen? That actually looks like it might be a real nice shoe for spring and fall for me, especially since I plan to start my commuting by bike a bit earlier this year. Currently use my waterproof FiveTen freeride pro's when commuting, but as they are a normal low rise shoe.. wet ankles and socks are common. Of course when the weather is good I take my road bike with spd pedals and it's a non-issue.

We've got a tinge of light still in the sky when I get off work, sooooon I'll get to see the sun from my bike again. Life has been catching up and getting in the way these last few weeks, gonna get to ride tomorrow night though!
 
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firebanex

firebanex

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If it wasn't for the insane likelihood of running into Moose on the trails right now, tonight would have been perfect for a lightless ride. However, Moose are scary and I wanted to be able to see them. My friend and I both admitted during tonight's ride that neither of us had been very motivated and would have bailed if given the chance. Thankfully, the ride turned out to be good enough that it was a good thing we had shown up. Trails were soft and slow, a snowmachine had gone down the trail sometime that afternoon and torn up the track. It wasn't a terribly cold ride but the temp was all over the place. We started at -6 by the cars and it went between -12 and -28 as we rode through the woods. I have such a skewed view of what cold is now.

We started the sad countdown to the end of ski season today, 6 weeks till the scheduled close of our primary local area. I usually get another couple weeks of skiing at the other place in town that is entirely northfacing and protected from the sun. This means we only have around 8 weeks of winter fat biking remaining. I really need to get out more as my travel adventures in December/ January and Covid really took out the middle third of my winter riding season.


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nay

dirt heel pusher
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I'm really jealous of the sunshine and show riding you get to do @nay . Curse that 9-6 day job I have. I had to google the shoes as a winter biking shoe to me is much more of a boot. Was it the Trailcross FiveTen? That actually looks like it might be a real nice shoe for spring and fall for me, especially since I plan to start my commuting by bike a bit earlier this year. Currently use my waterproof FiveTen freeride pro's when commuting, but as they are a normal low rise shoe.. wet ankles and socks are common. Of course when the weather is good I take my road bike with spd pedals and it's a non-issue.

We've got a tinge of light still in the sky when I get off work, sooooon I'll get to see the sun from my bike again. Life has been catching up and getting in the way these last few weeks, gonna get to ride tomorrow night though!
It’s the Freerider EPS Mid. The regular Freerider is way too soft and loose compared to the Pro (my regular shoe), but the EPS feels much more like the Pro in stiffness and support.

We’re supposed to get snow in the mountains and locally 4-8” so I’m gonna storm ski and then ride the refresh.

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chris_the_wrench

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If it wasn't for the insane likelihood of running into Moose on the trails right now,

Are they migrating this time of year through your riding area? Or do they hang out in this area all winter? We have moose in montana, but I see maybe a couple a year from a long ways away, Ive never got up close and personal(unlike bears).
 
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firebanex

firebanex

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No migration, just the normal moose population in the area getting pushed onto the trails and roads by weather. We had over the New Year a set of storms that snowed 16" then rained 2" and then snowed another 12" inches on top of it. That rain layer froze solid and made anything off of our established trails functionally impossible for the moose to travel through. It also made between 2-4" of solid ice on our roads for the good part of January, DOT still haven't busted it all off the road surfaces 6 weeks later. Keeping in mind that I'm in Fairbanks, Alaska there is no melting between storms. If we get a rare rain event in the middle of winter, we are stuck with that ice layer till April. Anyways, the moose now have no way to escape from bikers, skiers, or mushers when encountered on a trail they are much more likely to stand their ground and defend the trail from us. Thankfully I've not had a moose trail encounter this winter so far, crossing my fingers that it stays this way.

I've got a cow and two calves that live around my neighborhood, we see them every couple days and I haven't let my border collie out in the evening without his leash on for a couple weeks now. Found them sleeping under my deck last week. Scared the crap out of my dog and I when they stood up and booked it from under my deck at 9pm.
 

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