The freedom of fat tyres!
The last few days have been a very interesting experience riding my budget mountain bike. I’ve always riden road bikes with narrow tyres assuming speed is everything.
It’s quite an eye-opener cycling on a mountain bike. The idea of being able to ride straight over potholes takes quite a bit of getting used. I’m so used to keeping my eyes peeled and avoiding lumpy road surfaces; it’s really great fun just to be able to ride in a straight line – no matter how bad the road surfaces are. (and in Oxford as most other places, they are pretty bad at moment…)
The snow’s a bit of a pain – but, it has been beautiful.
Certainly a mountain bike is quite a bit slower. If you don’t pedal quite fast, you can find yourself plodding along at less than 10mph – something I’m not very used to doing.
Of course in the snow, a mountain bike really comes into its own. The top photo is from Port Meadow, basically you can go pretty much anywhere.
Be Aware of Melting Snow!
Safer to walk in some places
I have to say, that although the thaw has started, it is more dangerous now than ever. The difficult thing is when you have patches of snow / ice and patches of road. Going from one lump to the next can be slippy – even for a mountain bike.
Road Tyres
When the snow is a distant memory, I’m sure I will revert to thin road tyres. The freedom of riding through potholes is not quite as good as the extra speed you lose. Nevertheless, I could get into mountain biking and for commuting into town, I would be really quite happy on a mountain bike.
fat tyres? I’ve had to slim down to 1.75′s with the Schwalbe Marathon Winters I’m rolling on. btw – it sounds like I’m cycling over rice krispies. spike tyres rule!
Manchester has not been any fun since the snow froze and became impacted into ice. My 7 mile 80% cycle path route through Trafford Park (past Uniteds ground) to work in the city centre has been too much to cope with.
I ordered the spike embedded tyres very late considering the continuing weather conditions and they arrived this week (3 days on a special delivery before midday, ha – I guess manchester was not the only part of the country suffering from the frosty weather.) And now it’s all thawed so they’re pretty useless but still super stable.
Crawling along past Old Trafford Cricket Ground, out in a lane where a car would be (because they don’t leave space for cyclists – I miss my cycle path!) As usual I was able to balance while stationary and while looking over the cars up ahead I had amazing grip on wet tarmac. Rock solid cycling.
Not much tread depth so going in the snow wasn’t an option as I didn’t order the (downhill mtb style) Ice Spiker tyres. I’ll keep them on until the end of Feb though. They’re fine for commuting on normal roads. Today I cycled in the pouring rain, for the first time wearing overshoes stretched onto a pair of size 11 caterpillar boots. So many weather conditions. So little inner moisture since I finally bought the right base layer / waterproof jacket / trousers. You have to love Manchester for it’s climate.
I was worried about my precarious balance as I ride on my toes at 6′ 4″ on a high seat post attached to a steel framed mountain bike. The spike tyres have put my fears to rest. Very happy with my choice to buy them, although on most online cycle shops they are out of stock regularly. It takes more effort to get the bike moving from a stand still but once i’ve got going they feel like regular mtb commuter tyres apart from the riding on rice krispies noise.
My advice if you’re going from Urmston to Manchester city centre.. Avoid the faster traffic / narrower road lanes through Trafford Park and get onto Chester road past Stretford Arndale. A slightly wider road lane and slower traffic so you can act confident and push yourself out into the traffic when the traffic slows down (and they won’t allow you cycling room near the kerb). I even shaved 10 minutes off my commute time. I guess I must be taking it too easy on the cycle paths. I always feel pushed to go faster when i’m on the road. Makes me sweat but I feel more comfortable at a faster speed.
Lots of bus / taxi rides later and I’m back on the bike. And I need it. My waist line has expanded so much my trousers for work barely fit. I want my fitness level back! And to think I would never ever consider the use of a cycle trainer. I just might do next winter.
Bob
I bought myself a hybrid with massive 32mm tyres before Christmas, glad I did now.
Something unexpected was that the front tyre has a tendency to wash out when I’m going through slush. Maybe it’s my riding style!