New #Wheels and riding like newbie, on a #Fatbike

Choosing a new bike was an agonizing decision. I went with a #Fatbike because everyone said it was fun. I am not racing anymore and I wanted a bike that could be loaded up with camping gear and head into the woods. Since winters have been so poor with lack of snow, I figured I could extend my riding time since, I was not being able to Nordic ski much.

The XT trail pedals that I have, will not release easily, and I have fallen several times at a few km an hour, with tension set at zero (Rookie!) Do NOT get your bike stolen, like I did, and then you will not have to put up with these sort of things.

AMA Insurance was useless, as there was a $1000, deductible because of a large forest fire up near Slave Lake in 2013 They also crank your premiums up by 25% for 5 years so in total you re looking at an extra $3000-$3500 and this is with no claims!

So now to the riding of a #Fatbike. The Q-factor of the bottom bracket and cranks takes some getting used to. The first time I rode in the mud, I ended up having both sartoris muscles cramp, at the same time. That was very painful. A #Fatbike loaded with mud, weighs 60 pounds too.

I have a theory that since my cycling leg muscles are use to a narrow width, that the muscles when on the #Fatbike have to adjust to the wider width. Does anyone else have this kind of experience?

I rode on frozen mud today and that was easily done. What surprised me, was that tuffs of frozen grass, just pulls and pushes the bike around. I am sure as I get more use to the bike, it will become easier.


Well the other day I was out for an almost 3 hour #ride. As I found out, the extra pounds on a #bike, makes for some push #hiking. On some of the steep hills I had to use an extra hand with him pulling and myself pushing, from underneath the bike, as the frozen ground would not give me enough foot grip to get up. There was no way I was going to be able to #walk up!
My stomach #muscles were sore for 3 days, from all the twisting of the fat bike tires on grass. I am sure on slicker surfaces like dirt it would not have been so noticeable.

Dec. 1st and still no snow, as I wait for #Nordic #skiing to begin, with maybe some fat biking thrown in.
I was thinking I would use #snowshoes to set in single-track for the fat-biking. Does anybody else do that?

Bike Ride. 2nd Day of Fall

 It has been a long time that I have posted. I am looking in the general direction I am going to ride for the next two hours or so of exploring.

 This picture is taken from the same spot as the one above but in the opposite direction.

 The grass is cut on the downhill slopes waiting for snow. The river has gone down too.

 

 Gravel trail waiting to be ridden.

 More gravel trail waiting to be ridden, again.

 A whole bunch of logs have come to rest against the bridge pillar.

 Single track on slicks, sick.

 The trails has washed away in spots.

 The river bank is eroding.

 It is so nice to be outside even if it is windy, and cool.

 Hmm, which way should I go?

 Ah, a lovely spot to sit back, and relax with a view.

 Wally Trail I am not good enough to ride and walking down is very dicy.

 The trails will challenge some of you.

 Souvenirs that were found while building the tracks were left by the trail builders.

 The many leaves make for slippery trail.

 This is perhaps the easiest trail to ride up if you do it right.

 Far in the distance you can see the the few city high rises.

 Another hill to walk up as my 22front-32rear gearing is not good enough. Oh for the days when a 42-26 was more then enough. Haha

 Coming down on slicks makes it tricky

 Going up on slicks you really need to move your hips forward or back to get traction.

 Yup another view of the city Skyline far in the distance.

 Hmm? Do I take the paved trail or the double track?

 One of many coyotes can be easily seen amongst the spruce trees.

 Made it home again and now it was time to eat breakfast.

Tips on uphill #Bicycle Riding

Here are just a few points to remember from the last class.

As you discovered even when you are riding a road bike with 23mm width tires, you certainly can ride on gravel and grass. Both surfaces will raise the heart rate, more then riding pavement.

Going uphill, you practiced staying seated and tried riding with high ankles(higher spin), ankles level, and ankles lower then your foot(lower spin). It was mentioned you practice applying pressure to the pedals all away around. Imagine scraping some dirt off your shoes at the bottom. As one pedal is pushing down the other leg is pulling up. At the very least the leg that is going up, should not be dead weight. Using half of Esso hill till later in season is good practice.  :)

(Added a few hours later) You practiced going uphill shifting gears both up and down the cassette. You can soft pedal either seated or standing, but you must ensure that there is little pressure on the pedals, to allow the derailleur to shift correctly. Anticipation and shifting to the correct gear before you need it, is the key. Many a derailleur has been destroyed, because there was too much pressure on the pedals. You only need to soft pedal for a moment, to give the gears time to shift. Broken and twisted chains may also occur, if you do not shift correctly.

You tried riding uphill honking, which basically means you had a bit of a harder gear and low rpm and used your body weight to push the pedals down. You rocked the bicycle underneath you from side to side.

You also felt where to move your hips to get the best traction, as the tires would lose their grip if your hips were too far forward. If the hips are too far back, the front wheel will rise.

You experimented with different hand positions while going uphill. With a comfortable spin that did not require too much pedal pressure, you tried riding with your hands on the drops, on the brake hoods, middle of the bars and a new position you had not tried before. This position had your thumbs on top of the stem and your fingers on the top of bars in the middle. In this position, you raise your chest to a very upright position which helps open up the chest to breathe easier, as wind resistance is low, because of the slow speed.

 The hill was not steep enough or trail wide enough to teach zigzagging going up, but another day we will go to a hill about a 5 minute ride away.

Of course all that climbing meant you had to come down a steep hill on loose gravel, which required some thought.

First mentioned to you is not to apply braking all the way down the hill, but to release and then re-apply pressure strongly and release again. This will save on brake pads and rims. Yes, I do have an old set of rims that have had the side-walls worn through.

You also need to look ahead and decide where is the best place to apply braking, on the loose surface. Your front brake has by far, the greater stopping power. From the very beginning it is always better to be safe, then sorry. as the ground is not nearly as forgiving as snow.

I had you practice moving hips back on the saddle or standing up a bit, with pedals level and gripping the seat, with the inner portion of your thigh. I showed you in real steep downhill conditions, that you can put your stomach on the saddle.

The arms should have a slight bend at the elbow, to absorb any little bumps, up, down or level.


I encourage you, to ride on the same trails on the bike, that you Nordic ski race on in the winter.
As per normal, your homework is to try and get in at least 10 hours of raised heart rate, per week. Every 10 days or so you should be doing a 3-4 hour ride for now.
Weights, stretching and other forms of activity, are in addition to the 10 hours.

This picture was taken in July of 1975, by me. This is at the top of Sulfur Mountain and if you look close, you can see most of Banff, in the back wheel of my bicycle. I was riding a Raleigh Professional, Campy equipped with either a 42-26 or 28 tooth low gear. The tires were sewups/tubulars, which I was riding at the time, and it was dry conditions. As they say ride what you have, wherever you are. If you have to get off and walk a bit. so what, get off and walk, do not take chances. Of course I raced cycle-cross back in those days so this was just a training session for me, with all those switchback both up and down.

Early Season Blackfoot Bike Ride

It was sunny and 13'C today with just a little wind. Riding on the old Santa Cruz Superlight on the dry trails so early in the season, was very surprising and easy riding.
The lack of snow this winter does not look good for this summer.

Since there had been very strong winds a couple of days, small branches lay everywhere.
TIP Be careful how you ride over small sticks so that they do not flip into your rear dérailleur. This happened many years ago to my son while out riding, and we had to take off the chain(6inches were twisted), undo the rear brake and true the wheel well enough to have it go around in the frame. By walking the uphills, me pushing him on the flats, and him riding downhill with just a front brake, we got home.

 Every so many kilometres there are wash-rooms and or a rest area. There are also a couple of cabins out and about if need be.

 The dry brown grass is very much in evident and there were very few mud puddles.

 The beaver have been very busy this winter because there is so little water for them to live in. There must also be a lot of them because one beaver home was at least 3.5 meters (12 feet) high or so.

 Waskehegan Trail is almost 400km long and crosses part of Blackfoot Area, if you want to follow it all the way along the Battle River Creek.

 There were a lot of birds like ducks, crows, geese, blue-jays, and some ruffled grouse that were noisy from the beating of their wings.

                                     Beaver have built 3 layers dams over the years.

 Two Canada geese can be seen standing on top of the beginning of a beaver house through the trees.

There were lots of coyote scat, both fresh and dried out on the trail. I reckon the rabbits took a beating this winter, because there was not much snow for them to escape on. Some squished garter snakes were on the road as well, which is uncommon for the middle of April.

I kept my eyes open for moose, but today I did not see any. Did not see any elk or deer, not even tracks, but that is because I did not ride to an area where I know they are more plentiful. I will ride a lot further as I get fitter and see at least tracks.