Blech, horrible handling

[johnridley]

The gravel roads here were completely unplowed and horribly rutted, the air temp was 36 degrees so the snow was essentially grease. There were stretches where I couldn't keep the bike upright at all, at any speed. This was really a first for me, I haven't seen anything quite like these conditions before. At first I was cursing the new studded tires, but I think that may have been unfair. It's unclear that even the old ones would have done any better on these conditions. I think I'd better reserve judgment until later in the season.

It's also possible I should lower my tire pressure, it's still up at 80 PSI. It's conditions like this that make me think maybe I should have a 26" junker mountain bike with big fat knobbies on it though.

Comments

[c0nsumer.livejournal.com]

I think that at these temps tires just get packed full of almost-slush and spin. When out riding on knobbies on trails last Wednesday night there were a few points where I simply couldn't get started if there was more than a slight uphill.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

The weird thing in this case was it was the REAR tire that was sliding out on me. I think the snow was just so greasy that the tire with the most weight on it just had no ability to track. The front got hit with ruts, making it almost impossible to steer, and the rear was sliding out. Very interesting, but I'd as soon have skipped it. I very nearly backtracked the 1/4 mile back to pavement and took the long route in. Probably should have. Things should be better by this evening though.