Checked out the Gorge in the valley and there is sufficient snow on top of the ice that I believe it’s doable for the most part without studs.
Shubie Park was plowed with some major glare ice…fine with studs. Rode out around the lake and it was nasty boot-bombed icy shit.
The secret single track is fattastic. The canal trails are icy studs a most. The bigger tires smooth out the boot bombs. If you got big tires hit up shubie tomorrow morning
Just rode a bit of Whopper. It’s ok, but not as good as it could be due to hiker and runner traffic ruining it when soft.
- Da Minion is bootbombed and frozen and not particularly enjoyable even with studs
- Fire road to Flipside is also bootbombed (how the fuck?) and slippery. Doable though.
- I was the first fat bike into Flipside in a while. It’s seen a bit less foot traffic than Da Minion so it had less ice, but a lot more snow. There are some very tricky icy patches, especially on a couple of climbs. I rode this both ways because the fireroad looked gross and I wanted to pack it down a bit more. It’s quite fun.
- Scotch was stomped with snowshoes, and then froze, making it slightly better than DM, but not as good as Flipside. Still, mostly fun.
Went to Spider Lake. Fell off, walked, fell over. Realised why you need studs. Walked back 350m to the car & now online looking at studded tyres
Schwalbe Ice Spiker Pro’s are good tires for skinny tires. (I have the 2.35" on my 26er. 361 studs total)
+1 for the Schwalbe ice spikers. Bike Discount usually has the best price.
Snowshoed Irishman’s again. Snow over crusty ice pretty much everywhere. Seemed like it was fat-bikable. Who knows what tomorrow will bring.
Winter here is like a box of chocolates…
Anyone been out today?
Trying to decide if I should play it safe and ride my skinny studded tires but possibly prematurely dull my fresh studs (screws) on exposed rocks, or ride my non-studded fatty.
Just ride!
How’s MSP? Might head there today before the rain.
Icy! There is quite a bit of bare ground but also plenty of ice in sections, usually covering most or all of the width of the trail.
Thanks…Might try somewhere else since I don’t have studs.
Macdonald Park was probably 80% or maybe even 90% bare, but the 10-20% that had ice on it was in some places the whole width of the trail. It’s doable if you don’t mind walking a few sections here and there. Big frozen puddle just past the overpasses by the railway tracks, and in the swamp by the big hill - Other than that, singletrack by the subdivision was pretty good. The singletrack down by the pump track was almost bare.
Rode dominion, flip side, lake loop, green mile, suzie q and . All have ice on it. -studs only or risk RUbber Side Up.
Anyone ridden fight lately?
Should be quite rideable, if you don’t mind some ice where all the usual wet spots are normally at.
Daminion/flipside/farside is late spring roulette conditions. Alternating snow-frozen dirt-ruttable wet dirt/mud-ice.
It was too good of a day at fight, besides couple of smaller and 3 bigger 4-8" diameter toppled trees at secret and lake loop, really need chainsaws, manage to clear like a dozen of smaller trees. Nevertheless the beavers been busy that it made a makeshift bridge lake crossing. Mostly off camber ice on usuall spots , studs are a must and due mind the soft spots and not to scratch the granites.
Heading to spider at 9.