19degrees, ice, snow-- great day for a ride!

A few days ago I tried and failed to go for a ride. First I took out the cyclocross bike and tried busting through the piles of snow on the sidewalk. Nope. The tire tread was too small and it quickly turned into a snowball donut. Then I tried the Surly/Xtracycle, recently hooved with studded tires. Again I tackled the same mountainous sidewalk. Nope. TODAY I noticed that the area of cleared road was much wider. I donned my long johns top and bottom, Carhartts, 2 pairs of wool socks, full leather boots, a wool sweater, a down jacket, a wool hat, wool scarf, Planet Bike fleece-lined waterproof gloves, a helmet and glasses and tried again.

Success!

While I was a bit disappointed last time in how the studs performed in "lumpy snow conditions" (they didn't seem to offer improved performance over my regular touring tires), they absolutely rocked on hard packed snow and ice. I felt gloriously confident in my traction. I think real snow riding will have to require a real snow bike, like Surly's Pugsley, which accepts tires up to 4 inches wide for riding in sand and snow. Mine are only about 2 inches.

My toes quickly got cold, so the ride was short. Next time I'll have to toss some heat packets in there.

This (above) is what most of the road looked like: thick ice and dry snow.