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Monday, December 2, 2013

Mountain Biking in the Snow! Some Tips.

There's something just awesome about flying through a forest covered in snow.

Most of the time. 

Snow is tricky.  Sometimes it behaves like sand, you sink in and slide around.  Other times it's hard packed and feels like a fast trail... only to find if you go a bit off-centre you sink in and down you go!   Corners that were firm and fast in the summer can be icy and dicey.

But riding in snow is how I got used to that feeling of not having the bike completely planted under me, and that being OK.  So if you take it slow at first, you can really improve your bike handling just from the experience.

Things to watch out for:
  1. Roots/logs/etc are slippery as heck in the snow, always wet/icy.  Attack them as close to perpendicular as possible, anything else and your wheels can easily slide sideways under you.
  2. Snow is unpredictable, be ready for it.  Where people have done a lot of braking, the hard pack deteriorates into loose slippy snow.  And it's usually at the worst possible time, ie. that sharp turn at the bottom of the hill!  So be careful and alert to what's ahead, even more than normal.
  3. Use what you've got.  You don't need a "Fat Bike" (below) - I'm sure they're fun, get one if you want, but you can do a heck of a lot with your regular bike and tires (which I do!)
  4. Follow the Crowd.  It's hard to even know where the trail is in the snow, so best to stick to trails that have had traffic and some good hard pack.
  5. Bundle up and have fun!

Fat Bike

2 comments:

Joseph said...

This post is very useful for us. Because we have a lot o tips and tricks from this post. Thank you for this amazing post share.

Unknown said...

So much in snow, I just bought a fat bike for this reason! Thanks for the tips mate!

Richard
bikingadvice.net