Snow riding

Syrinx

I work in a meteorological office and as I imagine all of you are aware we are expecting snowfall in the SE tomorrow in the region of 10 - 15cm (on high ground). I am a keen MTB-er but I must confess I have never ridden in the snow so I am hoping to have my first foray this weekend ( I will be doing the Bedgebury red trail and some bridleways in the region). As my snow biking experience totals zero I was wondering what tips people can give me, I presume riding in powder snow is very different to riding in hard-packed snow for example.

Cheers.

gaz047

its a right laugh, pretty hard work going up, sketchy coming down but landing in the powder doesn't hurt!! just remember you need more room to stop, i had an incident with a dry stone wall last winter, that did hurt

ride_whenever

^^ pretty much, an awesome laugh, don't really need lights at night if the moon is out.

Good chance to practice your bike handling as well.

TheNorthernTrain

you know you will only get about 1cm of snow max, your guys forecasting is terrible.

sorry, im just pissed off, ,mind you, they do a better job than me, im suprised i even managed to pass my climatology module, i tried a bit of forecasting in the lakes as well, that went down badly.

Im yet to ride in the snow as well, we have a fairly thick covering here, im hoping for it to stay and im going out for a ride tomorrow which should be good.

fletch8928

Just head out for the highest parts you can and enjoy it. Stamping feet on the peddles to clear the snow from your cleats is always funny to watch, Not seeing that log/hole makes for fun too.

I was out in it today, not too much but enough for it to be a right laugh. gears were all over the shop. took new lines into the trees. Bad bit was taking my jacket off when it got pleasant and then it started snowing and blowing again.

Syrinx

Fair comment, accuracy in these things is pretty hard to come by. However judging by the cloud thicknesses over the sea at the moment I would say that the forecasted amounts are fairly reasonable, even if we are wrong and all we get is a light dusting, it is a foregone conclusion that the country will grind to a halt.

seataltea

Syrinx wrote:

I work in a meteorological office and as I imagine all of you are aware we are expecting snowfall in the SE tomorrow in the region of 10 - 15cm (on high ground). I am a keen MTB-er but I must confess I have never ridden in the snow so I am hoping to have my first foray this weekend ( I will be doing the Bedgebury red trail and some bridleways in the region). As my snow biking experience totals zero I was wondering what tips people can give me, I presume riding in powder snow is very different to riding in hard-packed snow for example.

Cheers.

Simple rule.

Powder = Grip

Compacted = No Grip (unless you are on snow tyres)

You need low psi, warm clothing and an absolute expectation of falling off.

Northwind

Really wide tyres are a nightmare on soft snow because they don't cut it- like mud in some ways. Loosen up, have fun, aim for soft snow when you fall.

Oh, but remember, you can't really tell what's under the snow, so unless you really know the trail, be a bit cautious- I smashed a wheel on my old road bike by riding straight into a completely buried breeze block, that one hurt quite a lot. Off road, it's more likely to be a hollow filled with snow which looks flat til your wheel drops in.

bamba

fletch8928 wrote:

Not seeing that log/hole makes for fun too. .

i tend to find things hurt more in the cold ,
going out sunday morning, would like to try it out on snow for the first time, but for some reason derby normally misses out on it for some reason

bike-a-swan

be prepared for your wheels to go shooting off to the sides when they hit the root you don't even think about normally- it's better than anything I've found yet for riding by feel

scale20

If you get the chance to get out riding in the snow it has to be done. It can be damn hard work on the ups especially if you cant ride and have to push the bike uphills due to to no traction. It can get emotional

The downs are ace, you vertually have no controll, hang on for dear life and enjoy the rush. You will come off guaranteed but it doesnt tend to hurt if the snows deep enough unless theres some old spiked iron railings under there

This is the view of the trail from the top of snowdon in the snow last year. This section is the railway line, the path was so trodden it was like trying to ride on greased glass.



I plan on hitting the summit agian over xmas if the snow falls up here.

stunter ant

Snow Riding = Honda CRF450 = chaos LAst year we made a sweet drift track and a snow man out of bike bits ..........if i knew how id post the pics of him up :oops:

Alex

Mud spikes are your friends.

Stay away from pine needles. They bind up the snow and block your wheels up completely.

Northwind

To me the big thing is just relaxing, loads of people ride really stiff on their bikes without it usually being an obvious problem but in the snow, you want to be mobile and relaxed- when the bike slides you'll correct quite subconsciously whereas, if you're bolted to the bike you'll just fall. Snow's quite a good way to work on that I think, since it's really obvious when you're doing it right or wrong, whereas usually you can get away with it.

myopic

Snow riding tip: if you need to re-fill your water bottle, avoid the yellow stuff

benneally

just got back, amazing.

delcol

definatly don't eat yellow snow.. or brown...


snow riding is such a laugh, stay loose let the bike slide you will end up on the floor at some point laughing,, be aware of hole warter bars drainageditches, those warter eroded channels rocks ect that disappear under the snow...
and be prepared to feel like peaty or minnar when your drifting...

night time snow riding is just as much fun but colder...

joshtp

its basicly a right laugh, brake gently, but often (you will skid if you brake too hard, and your rotors will ice up if you dont brake enough) try to kep speed going, and drift all corners....