We got about 4" last night, and calling for more over the weekend, so I'll be playing with pressure and testing it out more tonight.
We got about 4" last night, and calling for more over the weekend, so I'll be playing with pressure and testing it out more tonight.
I'm calling the first snow ride a success!
There is room for improvement though. The brakes weren't too bad, but the rear pads turned hard as rocks. Fortunately I have a pair of trials pads I can throw on. The tires did much better than I expected, but I think I'll pick up a pair of 26x2.35 downhill tires with a more knobby/open tread pattern.
Wouldn't disc brakes be a better choice?
In reply to bent wrench: Absolutely. If the frame/fork/wheels were disc-compatible. 
That came out really nice. Good job!
Good deal. Kudos to you for frosty riding. I'm really hoping to start biking the 6 miles to work this spring. It's GA, so weather's not an issue, but the multiple road-widening projects between work and home sure are.
Nathan JansenvanDoorn wrote: A trick with snow riding: don't take a bike from a warm place and then go riding - the rims ice up when some snow melts on them and then refreezes as it cools, and the snow sticks to the bike for the same reason. Keep the bike in a cold place (below zero). This will make your elastomer fork suck, but your brakes will suck less. :) Also: flotation requirements vary. I needed it a lot, but Keith was in a much colder climate, and the snow may have been harder. I simply aired 2.2" DH tires down to 'as low as possible'. (This was a long, long time ago.)
I was actually commuting, not goofing around for fun on trails. About a 30 minute ride, I did it once in -30C weather 
Trying to get through deep snow wasn't a factor for me, dealing with slush/icy spots/piles of snow was. It was easier to slice through the chunky stuff than to try to float over it. The studs were a lifesaver on the ice patches. Still, based on my snowshoing experience, I just don't see even the big floaty tires having enough surface area to really help out much in real snow. You're putting more weight on a much smaller area than with a set of shoes.
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