Procrastination

[johnridley]

I'm generally a great believer in the awesome power of procrastination. But I overdid it this time.

I figured I'd wait until snowfall to mount my studded tires on my commuter bike. Unfortunately, on Wednesday we got a lot of snowfall, going from totally dry to a fair amount of accumulation by afternoon. I was a bit concerned, but I had a backup plan of mostly gravel roads all the way home.

Turned out that it wasn't a problem on the travelled streets; riding in the right-hand tire track where I usually do anyway, I was on pavement. And for 9 of my 10 mile journey, no problem. Then I popped over a hill near home, and realized I had a pretty greasy spot coming up, at the bottom of the hill, on the turn onto pavement into our subdivision. I decided to follow the usual advice for slippery surfaces, and use my rear brakes a little more. The instant I touched the rear brake, the bike and I parted company. I suspect I'd have a nice bruise on my left hip, if I ever bruised. It was uncomfortable to sleep on the first day.

But that's the great thing about falling on snow/ice. You fall, you slide to a stop, get up and keep going. No big deal.

Yes, the studded tires are mounted and ready to go now. They're great, I can ride on stuff too slippery to stand on, I didn't fall once with them on last year, I put 650 miles on them.

Now that snow's here, I hope we get enough to go out and have fun in it. It bites when we just have enough to make the roads suck, but not enough to go sledding.

Odometer GUESS: 3600

Comments

[renniekins.livejournal.com]

Ouch, glad there were no cars or pavement! Feel better quickly. I've nver done the winter biking thing, maybe someday I'll have to give it a try....

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Riding in the winter can be fun, depending on your liking, or at least tolerance, of a couple of adversities. Around here, there's generally a lot of wind, usually headwind for me. Last year that really discouraged me at times. This year I decided to embrace it and look at it as an extra edge on my workout. Bystanders (if there were any) would be amused, because now I'm growling at the wind.

The other downside is just general PITA of dressing for it. But once I get used to it again, I just look at the thermometer and ForecastFox and go back to the cycling clothes stack and suit up. Getting that dialled in takes some time though; you wind up being too warm, or too cold (I put a little extra fleece in my bag just in case, until I was sure I had the right clothing).

The slick roads aren't really a problem with the studded tires. I didn't fall all last year, because I had the studs on the whole time. In the future I'll have them on in time for the first slick roads. I don't think I'd ride in the winter at all without them.

[rmeidaking.livejournal.com]

I thought of you when we were headed out on North Territorial at 1:30 pm on Wednesday. "And Ridley will be riding his bike home in this....hmmm...." We agreed: You're nuts! But in great shape!

And what do you mean, not enough to go sledding? K was out all afternoon on Saturday, after we got back from Grandma's.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Riding without the studs on was uncomfortable. Now that they're on, I'm not concerned. As far as weather, now that I have a nice cycling rain jacket and helmet cover, I honestly don't even care if it's raining or not. I can only really tell because my glasses get wet. OK, on Wednesday, my glasses were getting ICED UP. I had to stop a few times and clear them.

Yes, I suppose my "enough to go sledding" gauge is still adjusted to Houghton specs. I always tried to go XC skiing too early, and wound up gouging my skiis on hidden rocks. So I got to where I didn't want to do any snow stuff unless there was 10 inches on the ground. That means almost never around here.