Originally posted by AMFADVENTURES
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Thanks Guys,
Tried to sign up for the MS 150 today but the website must have been having Christmas traffic problems however I am going to do it next year, Im already getting some recruits to ride with. It's planned to be a 2day event up to Ft. Collins and back. Hopefully they actually get it off the ground this year. Doesn't matter anyway, I really just needed some incentive to get back on the bike. Hey Susannah, if they actually get it off, want to grab a beer? Its the weekend of June 25
I need to tell you about the fat tire bike I rode with Endura while I was in Alaska. My daughter picked out the route, off a map. It was 11 miles and looked like it went right along the coast of the peninsula, and it kind of did stay within about 400 yards of the coastline. She thought it would be relatively flat. She was wrong, wrong, wrong! Nothing is flat up there. That whole coast sits along the "ring of Fire" which is the edge of the pacific tutonic plate which couldn't be more mashed up with steep volcanic hills and valleys and fissures and just generally couldn't be a less bike friendly terrain. Oh and of course it was raining or at least drizzling and misting the entire time. Fortunately the dirt road we were on was also volcanic and as such, it wasn't slippery, in fact the traction was almost as good as dry asphalt.
There were 4 of us, my daughter, her fiance, my brother and me. We were on 3 mountain bikes and Tomasso and a fat tire bike, I had the fat tire bike. It started out OK, steep hills but short, manageable for everyone. There wasn't a flat spot anywhere, even right along the coastline the terrain was rugged, sharp peaks and valleys. Fortunately the hills were pretty short, less than 1/4 of a mile and the fat tire bike I was riding had gearing you could climb trees with. Really, the front chain ring was half of the size of the largest rear sprocket, I could spin that thing at 75 rpm and still only be doing about a mile and a half per hour.. And the fat tires, which hardly had any air pressure at all in them, were so wide the bike almost stood up by itself, almost.
There's always that one hill though isn't' there? You know, the one that's at least a half mile long and 18 to 20 percent grade, the one my daughter and my brother had to walk up almost from the very bottom, But the fat tire bike probably had the lowest geariing of all of the bikes so as far as being able to pedal it on a 20 percent grade, I could do it. I'm sure that was the steepest hill I've ever been on. That hill was so steep that if it hadn't have been for the volcanic road surface it would not have been possible to get up it when it was wet. On mud one would just have slid right back down.
Anyway, I got about 2/3 of the way up that hill, to the point where I could see that not much further on, the gradient started to decrease a bit. But I didn't quite get that far. When I got down to pedaling about a mile per hour, those almost flat fat tires took on a mind of their own and made a sweeping right turn and headed for the edge of the road, which wasn't exactly a cliff but close enough. There wasn't anything I could do to turn that bike back up the hill. At that slow of a speed I just didn't have any control over it. This hill was just too steep. And it was a wet dirt road. Sometimes when a sttp hill stops me, I ride back down a few yards, turn around and keep riding back up. Not this one though, the volcanic road might have great traction but it didn't hold a bike in a turn well enough to risk trying to go back down and turn around, I also thought of going all the way back down and trying it again but that hill was so steep that just looking down it was too intimidating to even try that. So I dismounted and walked up the rest of the hill with my brother and my daughter.
Anyway, the fat tire bikes are a kick and I can see the allure of them. I can also see that just like anything else, they probably take a little time on to get proficient on, A ton of fun though.
Larry
Tried to sign up for the MS 150 today but the website must have been having Christmas traffic problems however I am going to do it next year, Im already getting some recruits to ride with. It's planned to be a 2day event up to Ft. Collins and back. Hopefully they actually get it off the ground this year. Doesn't matter anyway, I really just needed some incentive to get back on the bike. Hey Susannah, if they actually get it off, want to grab a beer? Its the weekend of June 25
I need to tell you about the fat tire bike I rode with Endura while I was in Alaska. My daughter picked out the route, off a map. It was 11 miles and looked like it went right along the coast of the peninsula, and it kind of did stay within about 400 yards of the coastline. She thought it would be relatively flat. She was wrong, wrong, wrong! Nothing is flat up there. That whole coast sits along the "ring of Fire" which is the edge of the pacific tutonic plate which couldn't be more mashed up with steep volcanic hills and valleys and fissures and just generally couldn't be a less bike friendly terrain. Oh and of course it was raining or at least drizzling and misting the entire time. Fortunately the dirt road we were on was also volcanic and as such, it wasn't slippery, in fact the traction was almost as good as dry asphalt.
There were 4 of us, my daughter, her fiance, my brother and me. We were on 3 mountain bikes and Tomasso and a fat tire bike, I had the fat tire bike. It started out OK, steep hills but short, manageable for everyone. There wasn't a flat spot anywhere, even right along the coastline the terrain was rugged, sharp peaks and valleys. Fortunately the hills were pretty short, less than 1/4 of a mile and the fat tire bike I was riding had gearing you could climb trees with. Really, the front chain ring was half of the size of the largest rear sprocket, I could spin that thing at 75 rpm and still only be doing about a mile and a half per hour.. And the fat tires, which hardly had any air pressure at all in them, were so wide the bike almost stood up by itself, almost.
There's always that one hill though isn't' there? You know, the one that's at least a half mile long and 18 to 20 percent grade, the one my daughter and my brother had to walk up almost from the very bottom, But the fat tire bike probably had the lowest geariing of all of the bikes so as far as being able to pedal it on a 20 percent grade, I could do it. I'm sure that was the steepest hill I've ever been on. That hill was so steep that if it hadn't have been for the volcanic road surface it would not have been possible to get up it when it was wet. On mud one would just have slid right back down.
Anyway, I got about 2/3 of the way up that hill, to the point where I could see that not much further on, the gradient started to decrease a bit. But I didn't quite get that far. When I got down to pedaling about a mile per hour, those almost flat fat tires took on a mind of their own and made a sweeping right turn and headed for the edge of the road, which wasn't exactly a cliff but close enough. There wasn't anything I could do to turn that bike back up the hill. At that slow of a speed I just didn't have any control over it. This hill was just too steep. And it was a wet dirt road. Sometimes when a sttp hill stops me, I ride back down a few yards, turn around and keep riding back up. Not this one though, the volcanic road might have great traction but it didn't hold a bike in a turn well enough to risk trying to go back down and turn around, I also thought of going all the way back down and trying it again but that hill was so steep that just looking down it was too intimidating to even try that. So I dismounted and walked up the rest of the hill with my brother and my daughter.
Anyway, the fat tire bikes are a kick and I can see the allure of them. I can also see that just like anything else, they probably take a little time on to get proficient on, A ton of fun though.
Larry
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