snow_echo_NY

how's everyone's ride?

i switched out my 28mm gatorskins for 40mm nokian hakkapeliitta's and installed 50mm honjo fenders for my commute - they did great for this AM.

winter conditions:
much of NYC is plowed but there are many many spots that are not plowed. in which case i was putting one foot on a pedal and using the other foot to push off (like a skateboard) thru the snow. the warmth of yesterday melted lots and kept conditions mushy. i expect the same for today but tomorrow will be cold again. the studded tires did super perfectly going over ice, providing traction and allowing my brakes to work flawlessly.

there was lots of fishtailing going on. very similar i guess to driving a car thru snow. i might deflate the air pressure to be under recommended psi. which would make me slower on the cleared paths - so i just have to be careful to not lose too much air.

my commute is normally 20-25 min, and today it took me 30 min. not too shabby.

Riveting

Today was my first commute on studs too! 700x35 Schwalbe Marathon Winter, 75 psi. They have so much traction on ice and packed snow. I need to keep reminding myself over and over "Go slow around the corners", especially on dry ground, since I've been warned that studs cause a 20% loss of traction.

And what a great day to have studs, since maybe 50-60% of the ride was icy, due to the snow banks melting and refreezing overnight before the morning commute.

It was only 10°F, which makes the air denser and tougher to cut through, but I also noticed a 5 minute longer ride (the 9 miles normally takes 35 minutes, but was 40 mins. today). But some of that slowness might have also been me being extra cautious on my Maiden Voyage on studs. And some was obviously the extra resistance of wider, knobbier tires, and studs.

My co-workers now think I'm even more insane than before. But actually, I'm more "sane", since I'm no longer riding on black ice with 32mm slicks.

Daniel4

Even from Toronto, I'm hearing news reports from NY of the police and authorities telling commuters if they don't have to drive don't. But still people drive - I guess those are the few that have to.

noglider 

While it's true that a larger fraction of New Yorkers can get by without driving than the fractions in other cities, there is still a sizable number of people who have no alternative to driving.

We have something called Alternate Side of the Street Parking which requires us to leave one side of the street clear for cleaning every two or three days, for an hour and a half. This has people moving their cars two or three times a week even if they don't need to drive them. The rules are lifted for the week, and we will see a lot of cars not move for that period. The snow banks that the snow plows create get hard and crusty, and the longer the car owner waits to dig out, the harder it will be. My wife plans to leave her car at home this week as much as possible. She normally drives it every day. This afternoon, she is going to dig her car out just to make it easier when she does need to drive.

I didn't ride my bike today because I figured it would be too hard for me. I bet there's a lot of my route that is badly plowed or totally unplowed. Now I see on the wind map that there's a south wind, which is unusual. I kinda wish I had tried it. But not really.

By the way, isn't that wind map super cool?

jrickards

Mesmerizing, I could watch it for hours!!!

What???!!!?? Is that the time??? Hooly carp, where has the time gone?

Daniel4

Looks like a tornado forming at Iowa/Missouri.

noglider 

It does, but there is usually a vortex or two on the map. I guess what matters is the air pressure at the vortex. I'm not an expert, though.

IrishBrewer

I took my "ice bike" out for the first time. It consists of a late 70's/early 80's Ross Professional Gran Tour with 27" wheels. Was in rough but serviceable shape when I bought it for $35 about a year ago.

With the 27" wheels, studded tires are hard to find so I ended up making my own with some knobby Kendas (K161 27 x 1 3/8). I used rivets and 1/8" washers as studs with the finished end of the rivet on the inside and the washer/unfinished end on the outside. On the front tire, I put one on every other knob on each side of the tire so there were a bunch of them (around 100). On the rear, I used half that many. One key part of construction is to use an awl to pre-punch the holes as a drill will bind up in the threads of the tire construction. After all the rivets were in, I lined it with a layer of rubber cut from an old tube and cemented into place.

Here are a couple pics.



It handled very well on the packed snow and glare ice. I rode it up some pretty steep hills (ones that are a challenge in good conditions) and it did great with minimal loss of traction. Very stable in the front unless you got into any deep snow or slush that tended to push the wheel around (as one might expect).

Best thing was all the funny looks you would get riding around on the plowed streets as everyone was still out in their driveways digging out of the 30 inches of snow we got.

jrickards

Interesting DIY technique.

I made my own studded tires but used 1/4" metal screws, screwed from the inside out and then also an old tube between the inside screw heads and the inflated tube.

I'd like to see your tires closer up, inside and out, please.

Also, I didn't think to glue the protective tube to the inside of the tire so it made it rather difficult to insert the semi-inflated tube. If (when) I have a flat, I'll glue the tube. What glue did you use?

snow_echo_NY

yes i did get quite a few stares and funny looks. people honked at me, i imagine b/c i was "in their way" but unfortunately no other place for me to go but to share the road, so share the road they did. also i imagine people honked at me b/c their tires are so bald they're not sure they can stop. (lord help me).

in any case it was quite barren this morning in terms of other commuters. some people out and about but many were not. this goes for peds, cyclists and motorists. i think i saw more peds than anything else, hardly any motorists compared to most days. damn close to nearly none for cyclists too.

IrishBrewer

I used a spray contact adhesive made by 3M. I'll try to post a pic of that in addition to a close up of the studded tires. Another tip is to use some old wine corks to hold the beads apart as you attach the liners.

After putting the liners, I dusted them with baby powder so the tubes wouldn't stick to any excess adhesive.

After mounting the wheels, there were about a half dozen of the studs that made slight contact with the chain stays so I touched them up with a flap disc on an angle grinder.

EDIT: Here's a better closeup of the front tire. I'll have to wait until I swap these tires out for my regular tires for the inside but there isn't much to see as the liner strip (1.5 inches wide) covers the rivet heads.



Here's the adhesive.
Interesting, the link I used for the adhesive was to Amazon but it gets replaced with Newegg at a much higher price. What's up with that??

rumrunn6

saw some pics of NYC where the drifts were completely covering cars! wut is with that vortex in the middle of the country?

noglider 

I don't think it indicates anything ominous. I went to the USA satellite image page and found this. I don't see anything bad.

corrado33

List price... $296??? WTF. Sale price $15... something is weird with that ad...

capejohn

I'm waiting for my set of studded tires. They were difficult to find locally and online at this late date. I have a mix of bare streets and never plowed bike path so 700x35 with 130 studs should work just fine.

I used to get upset at the four wheeler who goes on the path during and right after a snow. Now I ask him ( a neighbor) to make a few more passes and go all the way to the supermarket. His tracks are just about down to the pavement with the warm up. The rest still has about 9 inches of snow.

I'll be riding again almost daily by next weekend. Then we start all over again with another impending storm.

For those of us who like winter. It's our time now.

biketocamp

Ripping up everything in terms of mobility on my neck of the woods. The street's aren't cleared at all. My neighbors and I helped clear a 15 foot parking lot entrance to where we live, just so we can get our cars out. I rode to the market and bank today. Surly LHT, Schwalbe Marathon Modial 700x35 35 psi. Rode slow, got through slush well. Was able to pick up nice speed and mash through slush down side streets.

My friend and I proposed a month ago to ride Fat Bikes in the Catskill Mountains here in New York, a bit north of Kingston, NY is where we would pick up a trail. I've never biked in snow before but wondering if it is at all possible to do a ride on a trail out there. Perhaps to one of the water towers. Anyone experienced in this area? Or if anyone can shed some light here would be appreciated.

Image credit https://www.instagram.com/p/BA6d9WFA...anualpedalpix:

V73

@IrishBrewer
Would love to see more pictures of this bike. Perhaps consider posting in this thread?

Unfortunately, we up here in the Detroit area missed out on all the snow. We've got almost none left... it's a shame, because midterms are this week, and a snow day would have been a welcome respite from the insanity.

snow_echo_NY

yes i've been there recently and they have no new snow - the snow only hit as far as NYC and that's it.

if you ride up to the water tower at Hunter, you can probably only do so on the front side - the back side is much too steep and is usually used as steep hike training during the spring/summer/fall months. however the front side is being used for skiing right now so i imagine you won't be allowed to.

i don't know of another water tower in the vicinity but i would check it out. @biketocamp where are you located?

biketocamp

Thanks for the info @snow_echo_NY. I'm in Long Island, and travel up there every chance I get. Do you get up there often? We usually hike to Overlook Mountain and Echo Lake, dunno if you're familiar with that area. But the trail head starts at the Buddhist Monastery and is a little less than 1400 ft elevation gain. I'm not sure if this would be the idea trail to ride due to it having some steep sections.

Anyone out of Woodstock, NY can chime in on the weather up there?

snow_echo_NY

oh nice, i'm originally from Long Island. we go to Hunter every weekend , so we were just there this weekend when the winter storm jonas hit NYC & LI. there was not a drop up there and we had sunny clear skies.

unfortunately, i'm unfamiliar what the areas you're talking about though.

snow_echo_NY

today's ride was much of the same as yesterday with the brooklyn bridge being completely cleared this morning on my way in. yay!

on my ride home yesterday i noticed that even tho my brakes do lock up the wheel, the bike keeps sliding forward in mushy conditions, so i had to just put my foot down to stop the bike. fun times.

i guess this is winter riding! i've been waiting almost an entire year for this my last snowy ride was March of 2015.

i much prefer the wet/snowy conditions to the wind we've been having lately. the wind has been absolutely brutal (gusts up to 40+ mph), and the cold temps (10-20 F) were pretty brutal. uncomfortable and miserable but still somehow better than the subway so it was all good. now we're getting 35-45 F weather and i'm completely psyched for that.

biketocamp

That's good to know it's nice weather up there. Hunter Mountain has a lot of nice areas to hike.

noglider 

@biketocamp, there is a book of bike trails in eastern New York State. Look for it.

We have a house in High Falls at the edge of the Mohonk Preserve. High Falls is just beyond New Paltz. It's a privately owned park. A permit to use the park is about $60/year, and we buy them each year. It is famous for having incredible bike trails. Scenery is astonishing. I haven't explored it on bike yet, which is really crazy. I have been riding the carriage roads in Minnewaska State Park Preserve. Permits there are for parking and I'm sure they're cheaper than Mohonk permits. I don't remember what we paid, and I think that permit gets you into all NYS parks. My rides on the carriage roads there, on my road bike, are some of the most beautiful and blissful rides I've ever taken. But there is more to explore. We've only been in the area for three years.