More of the Same... but Different

More snow riding this week. I still can't believe we've gotten enough to get in a few rides on the white stuff. Riding in snow is so different, too. You just take 'er slow and trudge along... that's just my style!

It's also nice to get some time in on the Troll. I love this bike so much and the wet winters usually leave me desiring time on the fatter tired bike.

It's no fat bike. But the 2.4" rubber does a great job on snow. I've passed several other riders out there and my footprint is always twice as wide as theirs. They may be on a 2" tire. But I've got just enough plush to drop the pressure super low in the snow. That leaves me with a lot more rubber on the white slippery stuff. I have gone to some cheapo platform pedals for a while. My clipless shows just aren't warm enough for super wintry rides. So platforms and hiking boots are the key.

Here's to more accumulation!

Get out there.

New Glubs

Every once in a while, you make the tiniest of mistakes that has rather large consequences. On New Year's Eve Jason and I went for a nice little ride in the cold. Upon my return to Jason's truck, I took off my helmet, gloves and balaclava and placed them on the bumper while I loaded the bike on the rack. I loaded the bike, hopped inside the ruck and didn't even realize my goodies were missing until I had arrived at home. All my goodies were gone and never to be found again. I went back and drove the route... no goodies. I bike the route the next day... no goodies. We had parked in a cafe parking lot. So I'm guessing that someone else scored some new used goodies for themselves. What was once on my good friend's rear bumper was gone forever.

What's that mean? Well, when you add up the cost of new gloves, 'clava and helmet, it's rather discouraging. Helmet came first. I scoured the internets and shops to find a good deal. But, alas, I just bought something that worked and made financial sense. It doesn't even deserve a blog post, though.

The balaclava was a deal on Nashbar. You could buy any Nashbar brand product and receive free shipping. So it was a nice little on-sale $9 investment that will serve it's purpose well.

And, now, I have finally replaced the gloves.

I bought these Outdoor Research Arete Gloves from The Clymb. These gloves were $89 at REI. But I got them for a steal of a deal on The Clymb. They had them drastically discounted and I even had a little bit of credit. So when they sent me another $10 of credit as a gift, I jumped on the opportunity. (I'd recommend signing up for The Clymb's site. They have killer deals on outdoor stuff and send a ton of random credits. The catch? They send you a daily email that tempts you with stellar deals everyday. I've fallen victim to purchasing a couple unnecessary pieces of gear because the deal from The Clymb was so good.)

Back to these gloves...

I've always used two pairs of gloves. One is a pair of cheapish mittens that work fantastically for anything under 25 degrees. The other pair (the lost pair) were a pair of Gore Bike Wear gloves. They did the job well at about 25-45 degrees. So I've been hurting for the last few weeks with only mittens. It's just too dang hot for anything north of 30 degrees.

These OR gloves, I believe, will be perfect. They've got liners, too. So essentially, you have three pairs of gloves with you on every ride (gloves+liners, liners solo and gloves solo). Good stuff. Insulation seems great. And they've been carefully considered, not just to keep you warm, but to be useful. They've got wide open ends to slide your hands in when they're nearly numb. They've got carabiner hooks if you need to lash them to your coat or rack. Long wrist cords which I will use when I'm on the go and take them off and hang them on the bars.

I'm thinking I'll be a big fan of these glubs.

Get out there.

Another Opportunity!

Believe it or not, us Kentuckians had another dump of snow yesterday! So I took the opportunity to hit up some trails on the Troll yesterday.

What is that that I spy? Krampus tracks! I chased a set of Knard tracks with a second set of MTB tracks along side them. I never caught up. But at the end of the ride, I finally saw a male/female duo loading their respective bikes on their car rack. If I had to guess, Husband probably talked Wife into riding in this stuff to test out his new fatties. Meanwhile, Wife was suffering through the punishment that the skinny tires were throwing at her.

That's about where I was. It was a whole lot of fun. But it was exhausting. I did one lap in about 30 minutes. Usually, I think it's about 14. But it was so fun to be out.

Snow makes for fun opportunities to track the wildlife, too. Lots of deer and (what I would guess to be) raccoon tracks were out there.

There's also a freshness to the beauty that snow brings. The water was visually enticing, too. It beckoned me to reach down and fill up my water bottle... which I did not do... but I wanted to... but that's gross.

It looks like all this may be gone by tomorrow. So I'm glad I took advantage!

Get out there.

Disc Truckin'

There was a bit more work done on the Disc Trucker this weekend. That fact paired with the temps in the 60's meant that a ride was inevitable. The work on the bike? Just slick tires, fenders and new gray cloth bar tape. This stuff was the eventual intention of the bike to begin with. But with last week's snow adventure, the end result of the bike was delayed.

I thought I would hit up some of my hillier routes to test my new disc brakes. The verdict? UH-mazing. Admittedly, the old brake set up on the LHT was a funky mix of components that should work together. But this new disc thang is awesome. The braking is crazy consistent and powerful. The photo above was taken after I had plummeted down about two miles worth of descent.  And the brakes were responsive the entire way.

That was basically the ride all day. WAAAAAY up a climb.... then ZOOOOOOOMING down the other side. Brakes killing it the entire way.

How do you test the wet-weather abilities of disc brakes on a dry 63 degree day? Ride 'em through the creek! Honestly, that wasn't the purpose at all. This creek is on one of my favorite rides around the house and I just happened to hit it. But it was fun, nonetheless.

I'm loving the Disc Trucker thus far. I've still got to shellac the tape and figure out the front rack situation. I've got no way to mount my basket right now and I'm not really into leaving the front rack on for no reason. It mounts quickly enough that I'll probably only utilize it when I am going camping and actually need it. So the front end cargo situation has to be sorted out. There's still some finagling to be done but I'll enjoy the ride until I figure that out.

Get out there.