Bike-To-Brown

Snow Riding Tips

After our recent storm, a recent post on the Up in Alaska blog offered ten snow-riding tips. One tip that I know we have covered before, but it’s worth mentioning again, is

When in doubt, let air out. Often, snowy trails are what we would call “marginally ridable.” By letting air out of tires, you can increase the surface area and improve your flotation. Sometimes it means riding on nearly flat tires at a pace a snail wouldn’t envy, but, despite what I said in the previous paragraph, it’s still better than walking.

Another point that I know would be of particular interest to Connie is

Re-lubricate and be free. There is nothing that will slow down a snow biker faster than having their hubs freeze up, which is always a possibility when the mercury drops below 0. We have to lube up our moving parts with a special low-temperature grease, sold widely in cold regions like Fairbanks and Minnesota.

I’ll let you read the rest of the article for the remainder of the tips.

Goog 411

I just happened upon another service from Google that may come in handy for you some day.  If you ever find yourself cycling in unfamiliar territory, the Goog 411 service may be able to provide you with a helping hand.  You can call 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411), say your city and category (i.e. bike shop).  Google will then look up the closest business and connect your call for free.

On Tail Lights

There are two basic groups of people when it comes to tail lights, those that run them in the blinking mode and those that run them solid. I for one, have been in the “blinking is best” category. I also figured that whatever is most likely to catch a motorists eye is best for me. I’ve been involved in numerous conversations discussing the various merits of these two camps and for the majority the arguments focus around a blinking light attracts more attention, solid lights put out more average light, blinking lights conserve battery power, etc.

I’m an open minded person and, up until yesterday, had yet to hear an argument that I felt could sway my blinking light camp. Oddly enough, the discussion came from a motorist friend of mine. He frequently passes me on a stretch of road during our evening commute and we quickly wave. Lately, it’s been almost dark when he’s passed me and when I ran into him yesterday, I figured I’d get his input about how visible I was. As an aside, this is something I recommend everyone do periodically, I’ve gotten some really good feedback from motorists about how visible I am at night. He assured me I was very visible, but then went on to comment that he thought I was signaling my intent to turn! My right tail light had gone out, leaving only my left one blinking. I suddenly realized, this wasn’t the message I was trying to convey at all and started to rethink my approach.

With this knowledge in mind, I’m going to rethink my approach and try this. The two lights on either pannier I’m going to run solid, leaving the light on the back of my helmet to blink. The one on my helmet sits to high to be a car light, so hopefully, it can still catch drivers eyes and let them know there is something out of the ordinary.