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Wednesday, December 22, 2010

10 lbs of Air Pressure and the 60 lb loaded FatBack Bicycle

Took a day off work. So ride was the plans. For the first 5 miles the snow was soft, with 5 inches of loose snow on top of 10 inches of hard snow. I was sliding around with too much air in my 4 inch tires. So I went from 20 psi down to 10 psi in the rear wheel. That made a big difference I now was maintaining a blazing 7 mph.
I am finding out with snow riding with a snow bike with 4 inch snow tires there are 3 main factors regarding your tires to consider. And they are
1. Air pressure
2. Air pressure
and
3. Air pressure
I have heard of some riders routinely go down to 5 psi or less to get the tires to hook up in lose snow.


Pedaled for 6 hours, my speed varied from 5 to 8 mph, with and occasional burst up to 10 mph, riding snow mobile trails. Only saw a couple of snow mobiles the whole time I was riding. The sun started going down and I heard there are creatures that come out at night, so I kept the pace up.













It warmed up to 31 degrees and the snow was flying up from  tires and coating my gears and derailleur, and freezing on my rear gears. Causing the chain to skip, hop, and grind.
My bad knee behaved well enough, with a one day rest, I'll be ready to go again.
Back to work tomorrow, all the salaried management are off until after the 1st. So Yahooo, the inmates are running the asylum.

So over and out and thanks for stopping by
RideON,
DAve

7 comments:

tainterturtles said...

New meaning to a snow-bound bike. Don't worry about the speed. Just getting out there is awesome.

Enjoy your snow riding!

Harry Legge's Cycling Blog said...

Can't think of a better way to spend a day off from work, than riding a bike.

dawn marie giegerich said...

Snow riding ees complicated, mon.

Unknown said...

Awesome! Hope the knee gets better for you and you and yours have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year

64 CLASSIC said...

Having trouble staying healthy running. Specifically surfing cycling blogs looking for motivation to go back to the sport I USED to do.

Yours is perfect for that. 100 metric gravel century rides. Nice. Crazy. But nice.

Love your blog. Gotta read some more.

Michael Lemberger said...

6 psi in the Larry out front, 8 psi in the Endo out back has been working pretty well for me.

Clive Chapman said...

Merry Christmas and a Happy new Year! 