The Fat Guy In The Back
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Sioux Falls, SD
Posts: 2,532
Bikes: '81 Panasonic Sport, '02 Giant Boulder SE, '08 Felt S32, '10 Diamondback Insight RS, '10 Windsor Clockwork, '15 Kestrel Evoke 3.0, '19 Salsa Mukluk
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Consecutive bicycle work commute number 854:
We had about 3" of snow overnight on Sat/Sun, with really high winds that caused plenty of drifting. The city didn't pretreat the roads, or plow anything but the main arteries. Not sure why, but I'm speculating they're trying to save money at the end of their budget year. I know with all the snow last spring they already used up all the plowing budget for the year and had to ask the city council for additional funds.
As a result, the side roads are an icy rutted mess. They did plow the MUP (different budget) but they don't use ice melt on the MUP so there was lots of ice there as well. I rode the fat bike. There was enough ice that I probably should have ridden the winter bike with studded tires. But there were enough snow ruts that the fat bike handled better. Even if I did ride the winter bike I would have been saying "I probably should have ridden the fat bike."
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I went slow, trying to pick the areas on the MUP that looked least icy and going real gentle around corners. I kept it upright the whole way to work so it's all good.
9F this morning, but there was no wind so it really didn't feel too bad temperature-wise.