This guy has some skills!
To restate an overused quote, “It’s not about the bike”.
I’m sure that road bike is an endangered species at the Whistler Mountain Bike Park. Next up, let’s see him take the A-line all the way down.
Part of the fun of winter cycling is crashing through snow drifts or trying to clear a stretch of deep powder. When going through any amount of snow deeper that 6 inches, it makes a lot of sense to sit up straight, lean back, and put as much weight as possible on the rear wheel. Allow the front wheel to roll over the surface of the snow, instead of plowing through it. You’ll notice the extra speed and reduced effort right away. Steer with only with the tips of your fingers to get a real feeling for “un-weighing” the front wheel. Your rear wheel for the most part will follow in the path cleared by the front wheel. If you start to sink, push down into the pedals to more evenly distribute your weight. Without the friction of the front wheel snowplowing, you’ll have the extra bit of loft you need to get through longer and deeper stretches of snow. Just beware of the rear wheel sticking and then being pitched over the bars!
Another way to practice floating that front wheel is to practice your manuals going over snow drifts or when you’re about to cross plowed snow rutts. A “manual” is similar to a wheelie, but you stand and coast on the pedals instead of sitting and pedaling.
From pedaling speed, hover over the rear brake lever as you pull back on the handles bars. Lean back until you find that sweet spot. Conversely you may only need to clear a small object like curb, pot hole or block of frozen snow, and only need a little lift to get the wheel up and out of the way. If you lean too far, give the rear brake a light squeeze to pull the bike back under you.
If you can get that front wheel over an obstacle, the rear wheel can pretty much follow it, and that goes for summer riding too. Have fun!
Why Winter Cycling?
Cycling in sub-zero temperatures? “You must be crazy!” Any one whose ever rode their bike in the winter is sure to have heard this from some one. When people ask “why would you ride your bike in this weather?”. I have a few answers for them. First off, yeah I’m a little bit crazy, but remember, people do all kinds of winter sports. Imagine commuting to work every day on your snow board or hockey skates. Imagine going to get grocery’s by cross country skis, or tobogganing with your friends on the weekend? How fun would that be right?
Here in Winnipeg most people are content to hibernate in their homes all winter, only leaving the cozy couch to bundle up, pray that their cars will start, then spend 15 minutes practicing their Lamaze breathing, shivering as the frozen auto warms up. This includes most cyclist from “pros” to fair weather cyclists. Even the local bike shops may have only one or two brave souls who will gear up in ride in the ice and snow, if any.
If you’re environmentally conscious you’ll be interested to know that driving your car in the winter is up to 50% more polluting than driving in the summer. The engine is always running a rich fuel to air ratio because of the higher density of cold air. The extra time it takes to get anywhere is testament to that. Think about it? You warm up the car at high idle for 10+ minutes every time you decide to drive. The oil is frozen solid in the equally frozen engine block creating mass friction, and sucking down fuel. Traffic is most certainly slower as ice and snow reduce your traction in braking and acceleration. The catalytic converter isn’t working until the engine reaches running temperature, so until then, the exhaust is spewing out of the tail pipes untreated. I won’t even go into your odds of getting into a fender bender compared to summer. Besides there is great bike parking at the unused bike racks!
There are many reasons why you might want to get out there and ride. Winter cycling allows you to enjoy your favorite sport year round. For a lot of people winter is the off season. A time to increase you BMI, and catch up on all the latest snacks and sit-coms you’ve been missing during the training season. Come spring most cyclists will regret this. Trust me. In the spring you’ll see all kinds of cyclists hitting the streets as clumsy and weak as a new born fawn. Come spring, winter cycling will have helped you become the predator, the wolf, eager eat any gear skipping slow moving commuters. Seriously though, winter cycling will ensure that you stay fit through out the off season, and will give you time to perfect your technique, without having to train for any specific event.
Speaking of technique, winter riding will increase your sense of balance as you navigate rutted ice and take slick frosty corners knowing full well that wipe out is closer than ever. Of course the crashing is less daunting when you have layers of insulation and end up barreling into a 3 foot deep snow drift. Nearly every day the course or route will change as snow drifts form, roads are plowed, (or not plowed) creating new features to play on.
Riding rollers, or spinning endless circles at the local gym gets old pretty quick and you will soon lust for terrain, scenery and challenge. Outside your strength and endurance will increase by leaps and bounds as rolling resistance is increased due to frozen bearings, studded tires, deep snow or having to carry your 50 pounds of winter beater bike up stairs and to the top of snow hills. Just think about how easy riding in the warm summer rain or riding into a relentless headwind will be once you’ve braved your first winter of riding!
Winter cycling requires a paradigm shift in thinking. Winter cycling is not about racing, or stunting (well it can be) but more about survival. The most important thing to remember is to dress for the conditions. And always pack an extra layer in case you have to stop for any extended amount of time. A lofty vest is perfect, made of down, or synthetics like primaloft is great if cases of bike failure. You want to be comfortable, well at least mildly comfortable? With the temperatures and wind chills you have to deal with, winter cycling is closer to mountaineering than any other sports I can think of, well at least in Canada. In fact I have to laugh at what bike companies call winter cycling gear. The could learn a lot from mountain climbing crowd.
So get out there and get some fresh air! I grow tired of breathing the same recirculated air in the home and work place. In the next articles I’ll go into my philosophy of winter riding, clothing and gear so that you too can get out there and be one of those crazy guys who rides his bike all year round.
PS: don’t forget a thermos of hot chocolate!
I spent this last week end at Lake Of the Woods tearing up a private single track on an Island. For those who haven’t been out this way, LOTW is one of the largest lakes in Canada second only to the Canadian Great Lakes. The scenery is truly unbelievable and will leave you feeling like you are traveling through an undisturbed prehistoric landscape.
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| From LOTW |
You have to ride with some reserve back here. Even though you can pedal into top gear in some portion of the trail, you have to remember. One endo and you could easily disoriented, in some spots it looks the same in every direction. There is plenty of technical stuff, lot’s of high speed slalom that is reminiscent of the speeder chase scenes on the moon of Endor. Oh and course enough torquey low speed climbing to make your head pop!
Sometimes you have to take the easy line rather than turn back and start to session some skinny log or monster cliff drop, after all the nearest hospital is a forty minutes away by boat, and that’s if the wolves don’t find you first. Seriously…
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| From LOTW |
There was all forms of scat on the trail. That bone fragment was about the size of my thumb and surrounded by deer fur?, I’m told it’s from timber wolves. A neighbor on the island has captured them on a wildlife camera, but he claims you will never ever see one in person. It seems the wildlife use these trails to get around the forest too, and why not, I’m sure they could crank out some serious speed on the well groomed single track portions. I have had near a collision with a doe on this trail already.
It was strange to go through the different types of forest on this trail. Some times you were in a poplar scrub with a dense underbrush, other times in a forest of Red Jack Pines with their limbs forming a canopy countless feet above. At one point you enter a pocket of old cedars dubbed the Cedar bog.
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The Cedar Bog lies below a large stone ridge carved by glaciers during the last ice ages.
Everything is covered in a thick layer of moss and pine needles, making nearly every climb a lesson in traction.
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A small crystal clear creek flows down the ravine, draining all the rain water from the surrounding area into the bog. The cedars must love all that moisture as you don’t see many anywhere else on the island.
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It’s not a “North Shore” caliber stunt, but this wooden bridge doesn’t detract from the the natural beauty either.
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This is truly a magical place, the photo proves it. Is that a pixie flying home? This un-touched picture was just a fluke but it turned out quite interesting.
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Next time i’m out , i will take more pictures of the trail. I hope that by then i will have the replacement batteries for my GPS. (AAA just don’t compare to the Lithium brick) and i’ll be able to post some numbers.
Friday Commute
Oct 9
Good thing it was so cold this morning… With the puddles all iced over it was a nice dry ride. With the minus seven windchill it was time to break out some ear protection. It’s going to take a few days for my face to get accustomed to that cold wind again. First case of cold face this year! Now I’m ready for winter!