Rain...then fog...then ice!

Ok, If you commuted home last night you earned another commuter stripe (possibly the one up your backside if you don't have fenders).  I rode in yesterday morning with visions of riding home in nice soft snow.  While it did snow yesterday and was beautiful....it was raining steadily and a slushy wet mess by the time my 5pm commute rolled around.  No pics but again credit to everyone who rode!

By around 10 pm (when I was headed to bed) I couldn't hardly see across the street due to sublimating snow and fog.  This of course turned into a lovely sheet of ice on every road in town this morning!

This makes me excited for the commute because I have a bike with studded tires!  And today is the rare but exact commute for the setup.  Except that I hadn't ridden the Xtracycle since the tire change and apparently I pinched a tube...because about two blocks from the house I had a blowout.

Since I was already dressed for the ride, I switched out for my normal bike (the Fargo).  It doesn't have studs, so I opted for deflating tires to around 20 psi and rolled out with caution in mind.  While I skittered here and there and skipped clipping in most of the ride...everything went smoothly enough.

However, don't think that meant that the bike lanes (and roads) weren't slick as hell everywhere in town!

And if the icy conditions weren't enough....yeah, just park the big rig in the bike lane.  I love merging with traffic traveling 50 mph on a skating rink!?

Anyhow, hope anyone nuts enough to ride a bike today had a safe commute! 

Great day for a ride....if you have studded tires!

Well, fancy that.....I do have studded tires on the Xtracycle! 

I didn't get to ride in on this bright sunny, cold, and icy day however.  This was due to the fact that wifey does not like to drive in icy conditions, and very nicely asked me to drive with her.  Turns out (with very cautions traffic), it takes far longer to drive than to ride in icy conditions. 

Ridiculously longer!!!

I did however, have the presence of mind to throw a bike in the back of the car!  So at least I can go for a nice snowy ride on lunch. 

So, yeah....that's kinda it for this post. Perhaps I'll have a better story after the lunch ride!!

Beautiful day....but beware the ice!

Watch out kids, the skiff of snow is beautiful, but the black ice adds a little bit of adventure!  If your bike commuting this morning you probably wish you had some studded tires, eh?  I can tell you they make a huge difference on days like this.  I didn't slip or slide once on the whole ride. 

The old northwest neighborhood was really icy!

Downtown had a bit as well!

There's probably snow on the ground....how are you getting to work?

UPDATE:  This is what happens when you post the night before....stupid Reno weathermen....2 inches my butt!  It's still a great comic for studded tires.  And even if you don't need them, they definitely make cool sounds when you ride!

Stolen from the Yehuda Moon Comic archives:

The Yehuda Moon series is on hiatus, but if you want to see more just click on the cartoon!

Back to the bike (and studded tire pros / cons).

After playing hooky from riding yesterday, I was greeted with an encouraging sunrise this morning.  It pretty much said, come outside and enjoy me on the way to work!

The truth is it really does make the ride that much better.  Now about that ride...  I'm sure you saw the post where I belatedly threw on the studded tires.  Well the studded tires are great, especially with the freeze and thaw cycles we've been having that literally turn portions of the river path into a skating rinks.

On a bike with normal tires all I have to say is good luck!  Glare ice at angles with a lot of bumps to make sure you slide out and die.  Now I'm not saying that the pucker factor doesn't increase when I hit these, but to date (knock on wood) the studs make riding on this stuff non-event!

So those are the merits of studded tires.  The other merit (if you call it that) is that I'm gonna have quads the size of Velodrome rider by the end of winter.  Meaning studded tires add some serious rolling resistance!  So if you didn't make good on that new years resolution to start working out, just get a set of studded tires!  They will up the calories burned on your daily commute by about 15% (at least that's how much they slow me down)! 

Studded tires are on....better late than never.

Ok, so I said I'd start with the posts here in the new year.  I'm a little behind but here we go.  First up, getting the studded tires on.  I realize that not everyone is going to go for this.  There are many reasons not to ride when the conditions are extreme enough to merit studded tires on a bike.  However, I have to tell you.  It gives you access to some of the most fun riding out there.  Just cruising along in a snowstorm with no worries is it's own reward!

Anyway on to the tires.  It's going to be disappointingly simple I'm afraid.....

Step 1.  Remove original tire from rim.

If you haven't cleaned the bike or rims lately....this will be ridiculously dirty job.  Just for reference the tire you're looking at has gum walls (not black rubber) around the edge.  Notice you can't even tell!  That is a year plus of brake dust, dirt, etc.  Apparently I need to improve general cleaning with the bike.

The end results after a little ton of cleaning. 

Step 2.  Grab the studded tires.  If you happen to be looking to purchase a pair, I don't think you can find them at any local shop.  I ended up getting these a couple years ago from Velo-Orange.com.

Step 3.  Install liners and tubes and mount back on rim!

Step 4. Admire your work!

 Step 5.  Repeat the process for the other rim.

Step 6.  Reinstall on the bike and go take a test ride.

 Here they are on the newly reconstructed Xtracycle.  Don't worry, I'll have a write up on the Xtracycle rebuild this week!

And just in case you think winters over and I've wasted my time with studded tires.  Here's the river path this morning.  There was probably about a mile of this type of ice and hard pack snow.  Just perfect for studded tires, thank you very much!