After much fear of falling and somewhat dubious winter riding, I’ve been saved by the arrival of my snow tires!  Saved may not be the right word I suppose – safe would have been sitting in my steel box securely idling down the freeway in 1st or 2nd gear all the while watching the few hearty souls pedaling along the path and wishing I was one of them.  Safe is boring.  Safe is not doing and I want to do.  At least do this.

The tires arrived mid-Monday so I hastily swapped them on over lunch spent the rest of the day bouncing around in anticipation.  What would they ride like?  Would they be slick on pavement?  Would they really be of benefit?  How slow were they going to be?  Stick around ’cause after the break we’ll answer all these questions and more!

There hadn’t been much in the way of snow the last few days so the pavement was by and large clear, perhaps frosty with the occasional spot of ice.  First impressions of the new studded tires?  Noisy.  It’s been said they sound like frying bacon but I disagree.  I’d have to say they sound like phonograph (records – remember them?) static.  The frame and tires have a resonant frequency somewhere in the (fairly) low-speed range that makes the bike buzz but not uncomfortably.  There was no snow to test them on (on the path at least) and enough clear path that I didn’t hit any ice with them.  Yet.  Were they slow?  In a word, no.  They aren’t quiet when you’re buzzing along at speed, but they aren’t particularly slow.  If nothing else, they’re not slower than me as I recorded what I consider a reasonable summer speed over one 5km stretch.

The next morning, being cocky and sure of myself, I decided I ought to at least try them on the ice, despite not having any ice blocking my path.  So I did.  Their performance was admirable but not enough to stop me from using my cranium as a makeshift ice scraper (not really).  No, they stuck to the ice fair enough, but when the ice broke off in a large chunk and skidded across the pathway, my front tire still on it, I got an up close and personal look at the concrete suddenly pressed up against the side of my head.  That’ll learn me.

Wednesday morning the temperature plummeted 12 degrees in a matter of a couple of hours – from +6 to -6 and it kept going, down to -10…-12….  The perfect time to test my Pearl Izumi PRO jersey and jacket.  Armed with a long-sleeve Merino wool base layer, I suited up and headed out without my purple wind-breaker (though it was stowed securely in the backpack just in case).  My forearms were cool, but otherwise I was over-dressed and arrived sweating profusely.  A smarter man might have unzipped the jacket just a little but I don’t lay claim to the smart gene very often.  Performance out-stripped expectations and the lack of flapping was a nice change.

That evening it continued to get colder and mother nature saw fit to throw a bunch of snow on the ground to make it doubly interesting.  All through the office people were giving me the elbow nudge and gesturing to the windows, “still going to ride home”?  Well what choice did I have?  Snow tires, snow riding gear (except for fingers and toes but what’s a few digits between friends), snow-capable bike…sounds like a reason to keep riding.

Well that’s a whole new experience now isn’t it?  We aren’t talking about light skiffs of snow blowing across the pavement, we’re talking 3 inches of fresh powder.  3 inches doesn’t sound like much, but it slowed me considerably.  Yes, some of it was down to caution and trying to avoid any more horizontal concrete inspection, but most of it was the sheer effort involved.  It’s hard work!

The great thing about riding in the dark, all suited up, attention firmly focused on not crashing is that you fail, utterly and completely, to be aware of your speed or the time.  It took me almost 50% longer to get home and I never once felt that plodding, demoralized feeling that comes from fighting a strong headwind.  I wonder how people who have longer distnaces to commute manage this – there are after all only so many hours in a day.  I suppose I’d get up earlier and drive to somewhere closer, then ride from there.  Whatever, apart from the effort, it was uneventful.

It continued to snow on and off through the night.  The furnace started acting up this morning so not wanting to leave when it was only 14 degrees inside the house, I ended up leaving late and riding in daylight for a change.  There were only a handful of people who’d been along the route so I had a mix of fresh powder and scattered bike tracks to ride in.  The Nokians were absolutely sure-footed in the powder – a glorious revelation – but crossing the existing tire tracks caused the front tire to plow for just an instant.  The first time it happened, my heart was in my throat but by the time I’d logged the first 5km I was content to let the front end push and float around as it did it’s thing.  More snow hadn’t helped matters and a sub-20km/h average speed was the result by the time I’d made it to work.  I wasn’t the only one suffering a loss of velocity however as the light traffic made it easy to note the sudden appearance of phantom footsteps beside a bike track, only to disappear again at the top of the hill.

The ride home in the dark was admittedly more challenging but the paths had been cleared!  Now, they’re not shovelled and broom-swept clear like my neighbour’s sidewalk, but they’re clear enough that we buzzed along a good deal of the way home. They are decidedly slicker than a few days ago though so lots of caution (some might call it fear), especially going down hill because the City determined that the best thing to have at the bottom of a hill is a sharp corner, blind if you can manage it.  This of course means that I can’t hit the bottom of the climb with any speed until I find my courage, and that I descend these same little hummocks like…well, like I’m a scaredy cat.

The winter riding verdict is in now.  All systems go.  I may have to make some equipment adjustments and there’s definitely some hand and foot heat to sort out (Forzani’s new electric heated receiver’s gloves come to mind) but this winter riding thing is fan-freakin-tastic! 

A studly Ridley – what could be better?