The Fat Guy In The Back
Join Date: Sep 2009
Location: Sioux Falls, SD
Posts: 2,533
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 1127:
If you like predictable weather, then South Dakota isn't for you. Up until yesterday afternoon there was zero percent chance of precipitation. Then they said we might see some flurries in the evening. I woke up this morning to 4" on the ground. I guess I'm back on the fat bike.
Decided to take an extra 1/2 hour before I left the house and blow the snow off the driveway before the cars rolled over it and turned it into a frozen icy mess.
Temp was 16F and the headwind was whipping hard at 27 mph. It was a slow ride to work. Thankfully I only had to go 4 miles to a client location. 2.5 miles I rode on the MUP were mostly through virgin powdery snow. Today I noticed the fat bike really performed better than my old winter mountain bike. The wide tires allowed me to maintain traction on the mashed potato snow where cars had driven over it, whereas my other bike would have just slipped and slid around unable to get any traction. The fat bike did a pretty good job floating over the unplowed powder on the MUP where the other bike would have sunk all the way to the pavement.
I made it almost all the way to work before a big drift brought me to a halt and I had to walk about 50 yards to get on the other side of it. But I made it. Turns out I was 1/2 hour late which meant I'd had been right on time had I not cleared my driveway before leaving the house.