Yesterday’s short, sweet. intense ride on the trainer (yuck!) was semi-enjoyable, but as I mentioned in the last post, there really is nothing like riding outside. So that’s what I did. But not before some Fredwardian maintenance.
A quick investigation via car yesterday confirmed my suspicion that that dirt roads (affectionately called “snirt” roads this time of year due to their mixture of snow and dirt) were indeed a hodgepodge of hard packed frozen dirt, packed snow, glaring ice and ruts. A heartier man than I would think nothing of riding the roads in their current state on mountain bike with 2.1 tires: I am not that man. When snow, ice, mud and snirt top the roads I reach for the Fatterson, and when the glaring ice makes its appearance I take the time mount up the studded 45 NRTH Dillingers. Sure, they would be overkill for the dirt and whirl like a squeaky Panzer on the pavement, but on the long sheets of ice (going up, down or flat and steady) they would hook up like shark’s teeth in a fat man’s leg.
Before I could ride them, I had to mount them, which is super easy. What’s NOT super easy is getting the Bontrager Hodag tires off. I can’t say for sure if it’s the tires or the SUNRinglé Mulefüt rims, but let’s just say feet are used to help remove the tires. I’ve never really had a tire that refused to come off a rim like the Hodag. Once the tires were removed, I threw the Dillingers on, went to tote the bike upstairs and noticed that I mounted the front tire the wrong way. OH FOR FUCK’S SAKE, I’M SUCH A FREDWARD PUTZ!! Thank God it was a Dillinger!
A few minutes later I kitted up in five layers of winter bike clothing, packed up, and headed out to roll dirt roads south of town with my Fuji X-T10 camera. The first official ramble of the year was about to go down.
As expected I creaked, whirled and lumbered the mile down the road until I hit dirt and ice. Then all was good and I was stoked to have all that extra grip under my blood thinned blubbery body that bruises like rotting fruit.
Today is my normal day to strength train but I figured a low-key couple hours on dirt roads wouldn’t hamper that, so I planed to do it when I got home as lunch was cooking up. That too was easier said than done, for I sort of under estimated what riding a fat bike for over two hours in the cold will do to your body. I threw some laundry in the washer and started my work out… two reps in I said screw it and went upstairs to make a big salad. The weights can hold off ’till Friday when rain is supposed to move in and make a real mess of everything.
Here the pics from today; mostly cow and horse shots. Click the pic to view the full-sized image.
Hoping to venture out again sometime tomorrow before the rain hits later in the week.
Later.