Slush Ride

Timothy, Asher, Tim, and I met up yesterday morning for a ride in the aftermath of the “weather event” Louisville experienced.

Originally, Timothy was putting on a 100k Populaire, but with the winter weather, nobody was going to shop up.  He decided if we’d show up, we do a shorter ride for coffee.

The snow/sleet/rain/ice mix hadn’t quite finished, so roads were not in great shape.  I was riding the Fargo with the studded tires.  Timothy and Asher both rode ‘cross bikes with studded tires.  Tim was the oddball with his new fatbike – and no studs.

The Fargo looks a little silly with the 700×40 Marathon Winter tires.  The bike is meant for 2.2″ tires, but these studded tires were bought for the LHT, which I no longer own.  The Fargo is the only bike I have that they’ll fit.

Asher’s Specialized Tricross Disc is meant for ‘cross racing, but he added a rear rack for commuting, and some Schwalbe Snow stud tires for the icy mess.  The bike was in it’s element for this ride.

I don’t know a lot about Timothy’s bike, other than the frame is sold by Origin 8.  He built it up from a frameset with his choice of parts.  He had some 45NRTH branded studded tires mounted.

Tim stole the show with his new bike.  He wasn’t running studded tires, but snow was not an issue for him.  Ice could be, but he managed without falling.

This is the monster truck of bicycles.  He got a few comments from people we saw.

We headed across the bridge into Indiana.  The roads in Jeffersonville were pretty bad.  Strangely, they were a bit better in Clarksville.  We crawled up to the Levee Trail which was completely ice and snow covered.  Many children were sledding down the small hill from the top of the trail.  Again, the orange bike with 4″ rubber brought stares and comments.

We made our way to New Albany, where the main roads were mostly clear, but the bike lanes were a mess.  We stayed out of the bike lanes.  We warmed up at Quills coffee – again people were agog over the size of Tim’s rubber (wait, what?)

We mostly followed the same route back to Louisville.  We finished up at Against the Grain brewery for food and beer.  We each went our own way – I ended up at Four Pegs for more beer.  Diane got off work and met me at Four Pegs.

I ended up with 24.6 miles on the Fargo.  That was enough.  I had dressed well enough for the ride that I was comfortable, but my sinuses were bothering me from all the cold air.  I believe now that I was coming down sick, as I had trouble sleeping and I’m a bit sick today.

Diane and I went out on the tandem to a local Mexican restaurant for dinner.  There are no studded tires on that bike, but the main roads were fine by that time.  The alley behind the house was a little slippery, but we did fine.

On the way home, I must have run over some glass.  After we were back home and warming up, I heard the hiss of air escaping from the front tire on the tandem.  Fixing that is on my to-do list for today.