Fat ebike to the rescue! First snow action of the year

[craneplaneguy]

I was minding my own business while taking a short ride in the snow on the farm road that runs behind my place, when I saw the Peruvian cowboy who works for my neighbor rancher was having a problem. He had his two wheel drive ATV high centered on a dirt berm, left over from a road they had recently cut in with a dozer, so I sprang into action! No, I didn't use the BBSHD powered fattie to tow him out, I got off and between the two of us we got the ATV off the berm and all was good. I speak no Spanish and he no English, but it didn't matter, mission accomplished. I remounted and rode off up the mountain, feeling pretty smug, what a cool ride I have!

Later in the day I rode up to the little local (but kick ass, lots of black diamond real steep runs plus ready access to the out of bound back country) ski area 3 miles away further up the mountain. It's 1200' vert from my place, and with the recent snow was a fairly challenging ride. Especially as when I made the decision to cut off the county road and go overland through the fields, I failed to take into consideration, THE SNOW WOULD GET DEEPER AS I WENT HIGHER, duh! It was a struggle but ended up being doable, just. I needed to pick up my season pass for the year at the area's office, and apparently I was the first to ride a bike up to it, ha ha. Coming back down took a different skill set then getting up. I was on asphalt, with icy rutted snow, normally I'd take this road at 30+ MPH, letting gravity do it's thing, not this time, I old manned it down and took my time. The fattie is weird enough on pavement, with the low pressure I run, pavement with ice, rutted ice, it's downright bizarre, but keeping it slow got the job done.

As our bike trails are now snowed in for the winter, I was going through a little riding withdrawal, until I remembered the fattie does just fine in the snow, ride on!

 

[craneplaneguy]

Nah, I'll keep it as is, as simple and light (!) as possible. Though the thought of AWD is interesting.....

The technique to ride uphill in deep snow is interesting, the other day as I climbed the mountain the slope got a bit steeper while the snow got deeper, and I found that keeping a certain amount of speed up was critical. The speed helped the front tire bust through the snow, too slow and the snow in front tends to chock the tire almost. Towards the end I had to traverse up the slope to keep that needed speed up, then sloughing off to the downhill side started happening, so I had to correct for that, all in all it was a lot of fun and a new skill set to work on. It sure beats not riding at all!

 

[drew12345]

Cool! Sounds like the BBSHD is able to handle the snow. Did it get hot? Will be getting some snow at some point soon and was wondering.

 

[craneplaneguy]

Don't believe so, it had plenty of cooling available to it! Actually, I quit worrying about heating issues with it long ago, plenty of steep low speed rides in hot weather convinced me its not a concern

 

[dogman dan]

Snow rides are great fun. I only have a 2.5" tire, so I really cant ride in snow that is hub deep. But then again,, here hub deep is a once in a lifetime thing. The typical 4-6" is a blast.

The only problem, you can't find the roads or trails, and tend to come home with a tire porcupined with mesquite thorns.

 

[craneplaneguy]

No plan for studs, don't think I need them for snow? We'll see.

My area has a large cross country ski area in the mountains outside of town, I remember last year hearing some about people riding their fatbikes there. I'll be check it out.....

 

[E-geezer]

Floatation for snow, studs for ice

 

[Ykick]

Tie wraps around the tires every few inches serve admirably as temporary chains/cables if you ever want/need a little extra "dig" into snow or even mud? Obviously rim brakes need not apply but you've got discs, IIRC?

 

[Mündawg]

such a good story and photo! Ebikers for the win!!

 

[ecycler]

I road about 6 or 7 miles through 10-11 inches last winter and it was a blast. I can really relate to your part about going down the mountain road with the grooved ice trails from the car tires. I think for the several miles I was on a road like that my wheels were pointed different directions about half the time. Can't believe I didn't go down, but I was dressed and fully prepared for a dump. With almost a year's worth of wear on those tires I would not attempt that again until I replace them. My favorite is the same as dan's... 4-6 inches is a blast!!!