Fatbiking and Other Junk

Not Quite Ready.

Yesterday afternoon I rode up Cache Creek and it was still pretty soft, despite being groomed a few days ago and having lots of foot traffic on it.  Maybe after this next pulse of snow it will be better.

Snow Fatbiking Probably Done for Season.

Since my last post we have undergone several days of warm weather and colder nights so riding up Cache is probably dicey at best with the ice.  I know the King is super icy so no riding up Cache for me until it dries out.  The crust cruising up north may be good though.  I am still riding my new Skookum to work at the King when I can.

Still Going.

Since my last post it got colder (down to the low teens at night) so the fatbiking is ok.  I rode the Hagen Trail on Friday and it was just on the edge of doable.  I fell off the balance beam a couple of times and wallowed in heavy wet snow up to my thighs.  I rode it yesterday and the colder temps have made the singletrack much better but holy shit is the balance beam getting higher and narrower.  A 1000' section of the Sidewalk trail between bridge three and two is completely off camber and super narrow so only suitable for walking.  The rest of Hagen is doing well but this is pretty much the only singletrack available for fatbiking now.  Running out of options.

End of the Season?

It hasn't frozen in a few days so I am afraid the singletrack fatbiking may be done for the season.  I am working a tour/event this coming Monday but that may not happen.  Don't think Turpin Meadow Ranch wants us to tear up their nordic track with a bunch of fatbikes, and not sure you could let out enough air from the tires to prevent someone from sinking several inches into the snow.  Crap, crap, crap.

Current Conditions.

In the last six days we have gotten almost two feet of new snow in town with much more up Cache Creek so the fatbiking has been spotty sometimes.  Before this week the singlettack was riding great with almost all of the trails in Cache still ridable.  Now, not so much.  I tried to ride yesterday from Bridge five down on the Hagen trail but no go - too soft and too narrow.  Today's mission: go for a hike and try to pack in the Hagen trail.  Cold though.

Last Hurrah.

At the end of last month I went biking with the boss up on Togwotee Pass after he raved about hitting Shadow Mountain after a hard freeze and riding all over the place on top of the frozen snow without sinking in at all, but we didn't time it right at all.  It had snowed the day before up high and there was six to eight inches of new snow and drifts on Flagstaff Road.  Figuring that was out we backtracked and rode down Four Mile Meadow road to Turpin Meadows then out the Buffalo Valley road.  It was pretty fun but now with the weather warming up the fatbike is going to hibernate.  Some photos:

Start of the ride.  Pretty soft conditions at first but it firmed up nicely once we got to the part of the trail that had been groomed over the winter.

Still sinking in a few inches, despite the girth of my tires.

We are not alone: grizzle bear tracks.

Bare pavement.  Fatbikes suck balls on bare pavement.

Now that no more fatbiking til next season, segue to dirt biking with more normal type bikes, like this one:

2014 Kona Explosiv 27.5.  It rides pretty well from what I can tell so far.  Jury is still out on what I think about the 27.5 platform.

Light it ain't.  That is the out-of-the-box weight.  I may have saved a few onces by getting rid of the wheel reflectors, plastic spoke protector on the rear wheel, and swapping the pedals for a lighter pair from Xpedo but still heavy.  More to come soon on this bike.

Early Season Biking.

I took a car ride with my boss on Friday up to Togwotee Pass to check out the conditions.  We had been hearing about the excellent early season skiing and snowmobiling up there and had high hopes for snowbiking up there.  Well, if wishes were fishes.  There was not much snow, even up high.  We didn't hit snow until almost 8000' and at 9600' at the top of the pass, there was only perhaps 15 inches total.  Holy Crap, boney didn't even begin to describe it.  None of the trails were groomed so we turned around and went back to Four Mile Meadow and parked.  There was maybe four inches of snow and we went up the summer road heading back to Togwotee Lodge following a set of tire tracks.  Thank goodness because within half a mile the snow got deep enough that trying to ride uphill was practically impossible.  Still a fun day.  Couple photos:

Heading up the road.

Not many visitors besides us.

Fatbiking Season Upon Us.

With colder temps, snowmaking, and fresh snow on the ground it is time to take the old fatbike out on Cache Creek and check out some of the trails.  I went yesterday and the road up Cache was in good shape up to the old parking lot.  Past that point the snow got significantly deeper and there had been a lot less traffic so I only got a few hundred yards up the road before I bottomed out in the snow.  I don't care how strong you are or how light your fatbike is, you ain't gonna ride in ten inches of fresh snow.  No way.  So I ride back to the old parking lot and decide to follow a set of footprint down towards Tiny Hagen but even on a downhill grade I couldn't ride through the deeper parts.  I would just bog down and fall over.  Push my bike back up to the road and ride out until I get to the Sidewalk and then ride down the sidewalk.  I had fogotten how squirrely these big tires feel at first.  Plus, summer tire pressures makes for a really rough ride so let a bunch of air out and good to go again.  Should be a fun season.

Saddledrive Thoughts.

Earlier this week I went down to Snowbasin ski resort outside Odgen Utah for an event called Saddledrive.  It was put on by Quality Bicycle Products and was meant to showcase their in-house brands of bikes and biking gear.  QBP is the largest distributor of bike components and bikes in the states (maybe the world) and has been growing at over 15% a year for several years.  Anyway, some of the brands owned by QBP are Surly, Salsa, Ridley, Whiskey Parts, Civia, and Foundry to name a few.  They have a great network of trails but Hunger and I wanted to ride as many bikes as we could so we stuck to a short half-mile trail that did the trick.

I rode a new frame from Surly called the ECR (extended camping rig I guess) which had 29x3 tires and moustache handlebars.  The geometry was a bit laid back for singletrack but probably perfect for longer rides on pavement and dirt roads with camping gear.  Still fun.

The ECR.

I also rode a Moonlander like the one I have and it was a blast on the singletrack.  Roll over anything with those 4.7 tires although it sounded like a tank tread on the rockier sections.  Very noisy.

I also had the chance to ride the Salsa Beargrease, a full carbon fatbike.  It was fun but not worth the $4000 price tag with SRAM x7 components.  I liked the Moonlander more.

Huge downtubes.

There seemed to be a huge push from the manufacturers to get shop owners and dealers to think about fatbikes outside of winter and snow, and to push them as year round bikes.  I love my Moonlander and had a gas on it this winter but it is a heavy pig.  I have several rigs that are much lighter and more fun to ride in the summer plus the tires are cheaper (the fatbike tires can be as much as $150 each non-studded).  Still fun time was had by all.

Frankenbikes.

Fatbikes look pretty weird anyway but when you start mixing and matching like Hungerman, they look pretty damn silly.  He has been using his fatbike this summer and seems to enjoy it.  Lately he has been using an older Niner frame with a normal 29er wheel in back and a 29x3.3 up front.  Talk about a slow rig.  I don't know how he does it.