I've come to terms that the weekends involve long rides on questionable surfaces because long rides are required this time of year. And hey, its still winter here in Wisconsin and winter in Wisconsin its cold, and cold leads to frozen water, and frozen water is slippery - leading to the aforementioned questionable surfaces.
I don't like creaky bikes. I don't like mechanical noise that would otherwise interfere with the sounds of a ride. I try hard to keep my bikes in excellent mechanical condition. I choose the words mechanical condition because they are usually very filthy - but work oh so sweet. By this logic, I don't like studded tires for the whir they make on patches of pavement sandwiched between the questionable surfaces. So I go without.
I had a great ride this weekend on the Badger State Trail south of Fitchburg. I avoid the roads in winter as I really hate the blast of salt spray from passing vehicles. 1 or 2 blasts is manageable but after a while, those blasts end up coating everything and can lead to some terrible salt rashes. I'll stop there.
My ride ended up being close to 4 hours and it was remarkably pleasant given the temperature. As I worked my way home towards a warm shower and well deserved beer, I came across a non-plowed bike path. (Madisonians are very fortunate in that this is a very rare occurrence.) I'd been riding for about 30 seconds on this bike path and my thought process went something like this. "I'm sure glad I chose to ride my cross bike today for the extra traction.....WHAM!!!!!??????!!!!"
It seems that nice little 2" of snow that covered up all the brown snow also covered up the ice on the bike path. After a chuckle and reminder to myself to take more care, I continued on. WHAM. Down I went again. It was still funny. WHAM for the 3rd time.
NOT.
FUNNY.
AT.
ALL.
I ordered studded tires this morning.
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