Matt's Bike Thoughts

Did another ride with the Mukluk on the snow, with drop bars. Glorious Drops  A friend and I rode on North Table Mountain, in Golden, Colorado. It was great. The temperature was around 37 degrees, and it was way too warm for the clothing I had. I ended up just wearing a base layer and my leggings and still being a bit too warm. I didn't feel like the drop bars hindered my snow performance much. I was able to wrangle the front tire effectively, and I didn't have any harder of a time getting traction than I did with the flat bars.  pleased with snow rides  Snow conditions ranged from hard packed snow to 4-6" of fresh powder. Since it was around 37 degrees, the snow was starting to get wet, heavy, and melty. It packed into my cleats and pedals and froze, making riding kind of annoying. By the end of the ride, I couldn't clip in on my right foot at all, which made it quite annoying to descend the fire road and get off the trail. There's something inc

So I put drop bars on my Mukluk. Fat tires and aerobars It's awesome. I love it. But until today, I hadn't tried it on the snow. Many folks warned me that I'd regret the drops on the snow, and that I'd really wish I had a wider, more set-back position. I just got back from a ~15 mile ride  that featured a decent bit of snow. The Mukluk performed admirably! Handlebar view of the snow Rampart Range Road had between 0-3" inches of snow, and it was mostly packed by all the motorcycles and ATVs. There were a few sections that I lost traction and had trouble, but that was due to high air pressure. I let a bunch of air out and didn't have any further issues (when I got home, I checked the pressure I ended up at -- 5psi! I should have been even lower.) feat. Arkel, Rockgeist It's possible that my loading situation helped here. The drop bars situate your weight further forward on the bike. Even after getting a stem that is 20mm shorter, my reach