now on the other hand this is basically a foot race in that ya have to push your bike 70-80% of the time even on the downhills.
in 2009 i thought i was being smart and brought my pugsley which can handle the soft slushy stuff quite well. just no traction on any hilly parts. well......last minute course change that year from soft trail to mostly ice fire road made the pug a big disadvantage. especially pushing it up the hills.
one choice is to run the jet9 with nokian studded tires. these tires are 1.9(narrow) but with large knobs and tons of studs. the weight is the disadvantage to these. but if there is pedaling to be done this tire will shine.
just to see how bad they are to push or even pedal through soft snow i took them out to lambart trails where the frozen hog will be raced.conditions where 6"-12" soft powder with a hardpack underneath. pretty close to race conditions as thousands of riders ride the same snowy trail it gets soft and slushy.
brought the dogs along and glad i did. cutting first track everywhere we went i sometimes lost the trail. with their magic smelling noses they seemed to be able to pick out the trail from past hikers/riders scent.
you can see that i ran 90% of the course and rode only the fire road that was packed down good from cars. one lap took me 50 minutes at a slow jog.
the next test bike will be possible the single speed. a light weight easy to push bike that sucks in the snow.the dogs went ballistic out there today as the deer tracks were everywhere and very close as well. if you run dogs through deep powder for an hour this is what you get on the ride home.
ahhhhh, good times.
