There's no ride like snow ride

We received 3 inches of snow overnight. Went for a ride in the snow this morning - the first real snow ride I've ever done. I've ridden on dry roads with snow on both sides, but not a full-out ride in the snow.

Here's the Cedarville Reservoir. The weight of the new snow has pushed water up from around the edges of the ice. There's about 4 inches of clear, strong ice on the edges - plenty for ice fishing now.


Snow on the twigs and branches looks beautiful.
One thing I found is there are certain conditions that make for difficult riding. The open tire track here is fine for riding.

This grey snow is packed and partially melted snow - it is very difficult to ride on. The front wheel is very squirrelly in this stuff, making going straight very tough.

Scraped road surface, packed and frozen, is no problem at all. I had good traction, and could ride almost as fast as on dry asphalt. The interesting thing is this surface is slippery to walk on, but the new Nokians had plenty of traction.

This deep snow riding was no problem either - plenty of traction and it was fun to ride in. When I say deep snow, it is only 3 inches deep. I could only get up to about 9 1/2 mph in this stuff.

Snow packed itself in the brakes.

And in the derailleurs and in the wheels. I rinsed everything off with hot water. After everything melts off in the garage, I'll wipe off the chain and put some lube on it.

This happens to be my 100th post. Thank you to all of you folks who follow this blog and make comments. I've learned a tremendous amount from your blogs and comments.

Happy riding!