Sure Beats the trainer

After the weekend's snow, I was going riding even if it meant up and down the sidewalk in front of my house (which I might add is beautifully manicured in wide sharp paths unlike some neighbors who I will not mention, Jim Burke). The 15" we got of white and fluffy meant singletrack was out of the question, but hopefully the paved loop would be rideable at the good old res. Worse comes to worse, I figured I could always take my chances with X-mass addled zombies on the roads.

Well, the entrance gate was closed, but the old in through the out door seemed like a good idea, and well, no cop no stop, so on to the fun.

Plowed, but hard-packed snow all to myself.
After a few exploratory trips down some dead ends, I stuck to the 5k (that's Euro for 3 miles) loop, plus a trip up to the water tower as my lap. Traction was decent, with very little ice. Doing laps isn't so bad when it's so picturesque; huge contrast to the brown slush of the roads!


I don't see the need for 4 wheel drive, but I sure am glad someone does!


This is actually a somewhat steep and treacherous downhill

Monday I had to keep things shorter, due to family commitments. Tuesday I got in 4 laps, which added up to about 24 miles. My legs where telling me go, go, go, but my feet finally won the argument and we headed home after being outside for a couple hours; Lake boot are only so good.

I'm loving my new Nitto Northstar handle bars. I got the idea for a swept back drop bar a month or so ago riding along the ridge at a good clip, slightly out of the saddle. I had just put Nevegal 2.2's on my Soma, and something about how they "floated" gave me the feeling a swept bar would center my weight well for offroad hammering. As a bonus they have a little flex to them to; I'm looking forward to how they'll handle the rough stuff. Very curious how they are going to be once I can get out on the singletrack.

With the swept back bars and fenders the Soma has become a function, yet ugly duckling.

Tomorrow my Surly Fixxer is showing up, so I'll have the best of all worlds; disc brakes and a fixed gear! What could be better for Winter.
The ugly duckling


Neato! Err, I mean Nitto.