Had to lube the chain since I hadn't touched the Reign after the last ride, when ever that was, but after that I was good to go! Didn't even bother to bring any water with me. "It's just a short ride".Yeah, right...
It was somewhat late in the afternoon and the clouds didn't make the day lighter, a light snow fall was in the air.
The climb isn't really that long or steep but with yesterdays bike ride still in fresh memory in my unfit legs I was breathing like a pregnant hippo. Had to stop a few times to take some photos... ;)
Didn't really have any use for a full face helmet but with the cold wind and snow it was no burden.
Right before I got to the trail head I heard and felt something strange from the bike, looked down and the rear suspension had totally collapsed, too little air in the suspension and the cold weather made it to bottom out, got off the bike and adjusted the rebound to fastest setting and after a few minutes of jerking I got some acceptable suspension back again.
I was prepared to drag the bike the first part because of the snow and my suspicion was correct.
The snow was really deep outside the path but since it was so loose it hardly gave any resistance!
Once and a while it felt like I was very far from any civilisation!
After walking for at least 10-15 minutes I managed to sit on the bike and roll down a few meter of trail, and by now I really didn't feel like turning back and drag the bike up hill so I kept plowing through the snow with the bike.
After passing a small forest area I was out on the second area of deforestation, now my heel started to ache, not from the cold but from the fact that the shoes was way to small to accommodate the thick stockings I had but on them...
Perhaps that was the reason for the resolute look in my eyes, and now I was wearing out.
Finally I reached the steeper trail and actually managed to bike for at least 100 meters! ;)
After some short pushing I got the longest coherent ride so far, didn't bother to stop and document it once getting speed it was just a matter to keeping it up!
After almost 40 minutes of pushing the bike through the snow I was out of the forest back on the road.
The bike lane ride back home felt like a downward sloping road, I was so effortless to pedal! =)
Well, I badly needed the exercise but a few hundred meters of usable trail wouldn't have hurt!GPS-plot: http://sportstracker.nokia.com/nts/workoutdetail/index.do?id=1980210
And the reason for this madness. Part 1 of "Finally":
Part 2:
Part 3:
Posts
Winter walk-a-bike, hell yeah! :-) Far too common this time of year unfortunately so I've more or less turned to the dark side of skiing (downhill that is) to get my fix.
ReplyDeleteOn a completely different note: you don't look quite like yourself in the photos, especially the second one. Maybe it's the helmet? Or maybe it's not you? Who are you and where is Harri?!? ;-)
Hehehe. I biked past the trailhead on Friday night but one look at the very sparse footprints in the snow was a dead give-away that the gravel road down was the best option.
ReplyDelete"my feel started to ache" - I hate when that happens. ;)