El uso de la bicicleta en invierno
Flex your Spanish here, my pretties: El uso de la bicicleta en invierno from Spain’s El País, via Bartek Komorowski on Twitter. (Still, the one person I saw with a bike this morning was only pushing it.)
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Kate
Reply
Bartek Komorowski 15:41 on 2019-12-31 Permalink
Hi Kate, it is harder to ride a bicycle immediately after a big snow dump. It’s also harder to walk and to drive. However, there are rarely more than 5 major snow events per winter. The rest of the time, as the article points out, we’re riding on bare asphalt.
Kate 17:31 on 2019-12-31 Permalink
Indeed. Thank you.
Blork 11:54 on 2020-01-01 Permalink
One thing that’s really opening up winter biking for some people is the new “fat bike.” Those are bicycles with insanely fat tires. They sort of came out of nowhere a couple of years ago and now I see them around a lot, especially in winter. Every sports store in town has one in its window these days.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fatbike
Michael Black 12:03 on 2020-01-01 Permalink
But how fat are the tires?
Once mountain bikes became a mass produced item in the eighties, tye tires certainly seemed “big enough”.
And Heinlein had bicycles on the moon for prospectors in 1952. So the idea has long been out there.
Michael
Kate 12:51 on 2020-01-01 Permalink
I thought it was more or less regular wheels with studded tires that worked best, or would it depend on the kind of surface?
Even when I cycled, I didn’t winter-cycle, so I haven’t studied the subject closely.
Blork 13:00 on 2020-01-01 Permalink
I don’t know what the actual dimensions of fat bike tires are, but you can see they are extreme in the photos on this site: https://fatbikes.ca/
They’re not just for winter. I saw people riding them all year round. You can take them on beaches, sand, rough paths, and of course on regular streets. Obviously there’s an issue of rolling resistance, but that doesn’t seem to bother people who seem to like them just because they are so odd and a bit of a fad at the moment.
BTW, I also see a lot of folding fat bikes with much smaller diameter wheels (about 20 inches I think). These are often folding electric fat bikes. Even full sized fat bikes are available as electric bikes.
I recently had a dream that I was riding a fat bike and now I really want one!
Kevin 01:01 on 2020-01-02 Permalink
I tried out a fatbike last winter and they worked really well on snow.
I’m told by those who ride them often that they work well on pavement too. No reason they shouldn’t as long as they’re inflated hard…
The tires are about as wide as my hand, and the rubber sells for $2-300 depending on if you want studs or not
Raymond Lutz 09:37 on 2020-01-02 Permalink
Ah! Je reviens tout juste de quatre jours en yourte au Parc du Bic (près de Rimouski) et j’avais apporté les deux fatbikes de mes fils! We had a blast! Le parc maintient quelques pistes accessibles aux Fatbikes (le long des rives magnifiques du fleuve). L’été dernier j’ai électrifié un des vélo avec un kit de chez Grin Tech (https://www.ebikes.ca/shop/electric-bicycle-kits/fatbike/rear-fatbike-ready-to-roll-kit.html). Le torque du moteur essieu est incroyable: je tirais les deux ados en traineaux dans la neige! Trivia: you can deflate a fatbike tire as you need, mine go as low as 4 PSI (for best winter grip) and inflate to a max of 20 for summer riding.