The weatherpersons must be having fun around here lately. Snow! No, rain! No, rain mixed with snow! While the sun shines! Or not! And wind! Sometimes from the north, east, south or west, but mostly right into your teeth, especially if you’re trying to clip into a rarely used pedal system and get up to speed at a busy intersection with a six-pack of growling Escalades drafting you.
How God must laugh, watching me get ready for a bike ride in March. I did a smidgen of work, dithered a while, then saw a weather window open and started running around the house chasing bits of kit. With two of us collaborating on laundry my kit is always scattered between two places, the right one and the wrong one, but this time I found everything in short order and started suiting up: wool socks, neoprene tights and bibs, two long-sleeved jerseys, winter gloves, tuque and cap, shoe covers and rain jacket, to be folded and stuffed into a pocket.
Or not. As I stood to grab helmet and glasses I peeked out the window. Snowing. Shit.
“It’s snowing,” I told Herself, who was getting ready for her shift as a volunteer at the Humane Society.
“Looks like you’ll have to ride in the snow, then, you great, fat bastard,” she replied, or words very much to that effect.
So I did. And it was fun, much more so than riding the office trainer, especially since the snow stopped more or less immediately, leaving me with not much more than puddles and a brisk wind to bitch about.
I rode the Soma Double Cross, stripped of racks but not fenders, and with 36-spoke touring wheels and 700×35 wire-bead Vittorias on it was the perfect match for me in March — heavy and slow.
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We’re feeling for ya OG as we wind up our week in sunny Moab. Your SOMA doesn’t look a lot different than my LeMond Poprad set up in a similar fashion as a winter or “it looks like it might rain” bike. But mine seems to go as fast (or slow) as my other bikes despite its foul-weather bits. I’ve looked at overall ride times on a 50 km loop I do often to the north of Sioux City and which way the wind is blowing makes a LOT more difference in the time it takes than which bike I’m riding, whether it’s the LeMond or my off-the-rack Torelli or one of my thoroughbred Mondonicos. I’m slow on all of them unless there’s a twisty descent….only there can I hold my own with just about anyone.
Larry, the Soma is a nice little steel bike. “Little” in that it’s probably a wee bit too small for me, with its 55cm top tube. I run a longish stem to compensate.
The wind and the wheels are what slowed me down, I think. Those burly touring dudes with the wire-bead Vittorias make for heavy lifting. But they’re bulletproof and I need the exercise and I don’t care. It’s all good.
Tomorrow I’ll ride the Nobilette or a Steelman with some featherweight Dura-Ace/Open Pro/DT Revolution setup topped with Michelin Jets and I’ll feel like Lars Boom instead of Large Booty.
Patrick, your wheels MIGHT be heavier than mine, I have Torelli Triumph rims (same rim as most of our bikes) with a 36 out back and 32 in front shod with Challenge Paris-Roubaix skins…they ride a bit nicer than the Roly-Polys I had on it before but weight-wise I notice no difference and they haven’t been on there long enough to change my perception of speed/time on the 50 km route vs my genuine “roadracing” machines from Torelli, Mondonico or even my vintage TOMI made with SLX tubes – that bike is NOT light by any means! Gorgeous, great-riding, beautfully made…but not light…but neither is the rider…but HE’S not any of those other things either!
We are expecting snow today in the mountains. When I went out to the garage, I noted the Jemez Mountains were already completely socked in, so I took off the Mavic Speed Cities shod with 700-23/25 Armadillos and put on the Salsa Delgado Cross wheelset (32 hole) shod with Richey 700-32 Speedmax Pro K’s. The big cross rubber just barely clears the fenders on my La Cruz and you can definitely feel the weight difference between the two sets of wheels and tires. But if I have to ride home in an inch or two of snow, I’d prefer the cross tires to slicks.
I’ve not tried other cross rubber but the Richeys seem reasonably lively as a commuter tire and I’ve actually ridden home on them in a snowstorm with several inches of powder on the road and stayed upright.
Snowing pretty good as we drove across “scenic” Nebraska Monday morning. Glad I left the winter tires on the old Mitsubishi! Made it halfway across the Arbor Day State until after a stop for gas…..the old Expo acted like she inhaled some snow. Decided to take a lap around the gas station before getting back on I-80…but didn’t make it. Luckily we were across the street from a Chrysler dealership who had a tech from the old daze when the small cars they sold were actually Mitsubishi made. As of right now it sounds like the fuel pump conked out….we might not be making it home until LATE tonight or tomorrow. But at least the thing didn’t conk out in the middle-of-nowhere leaving us stranded in the snow!
My first wife and I had one of those Mitsubishis–a ’76 Dodge Colt. She took it when she fired me and ran that car for quite a few more years. That was a simple and dependable, if basic car. I replaced it with a 75 Rabbit, which was a lot more fun to drive but which was no end of mechanical trouble.
I do recall one night driving back to Stony Brook and the Colt just suddenly died and coasted to the side of the Nesconset Highway. Turns out the arm that held the ignition points broke in half.
Mitsubishi update–the wife had a Dodge Colt when she took up with me, simple, dependable and just about bulletproof, so when it was finally time for a new car we bought the “cousin” EXPO LRV with basically the same chassis and engine. With 100K+ miles on this one it’s been pretty much the same since 1993. Turns out this time it was just a cracked distrbutor cap letting moisture in which seems to have condensed and pissed it off while we were gassing up. Of course it took the local Dodge folks two labor hours to figure this out and find a new cap and get her fired up and running– but that’s better than yours truly out in the snow grovelling around under the hood. Back home with a 3-hour delay that cost us a chance to stop at the new Trader Joe’s in Omaha on our way home — but otherwise just a bit lighter in the wallet!