It was snowing pretty well Tuesday night, and I couldn’t resist riding. I think Sarah was a little surprised, because as we were driving across the valley, it really kind of sucked. Once we got back home, I couldn’t resist the temptation to ride. Somehow it’s fun to ride in, but makes driving a pain. I set out on my newly-discovered direct, trafficless route to the Levee Trail, so I could avoid stupid drivers. That turned out to be unnecessary because the few roads I did ride on had very few cars on them.

I almost took my old mountain bike, which in the past has been my winter bike, but then I realized that I hadn’t ridden the Trucker in snow yet and took it to see how it’d fare.

The roads were a little slick from the wet snow, but not icy. I really had no problems with traction.

Dark road

Some Christmas lights

Warehouse

A huge puddle, and the limo I noticed previously

Church (this also gives you a good idea of my headlight beam)

Riding on the Levee Trail

I tried a few different modes on my camera before I figured out which one worked best in these conditions. I had the best luck with Night mode, with the flash set to Slow Sync. This fires the flash, but also keeps the shutter open longer to fill in the background. Having the flash fire is nice to illuminate the snowflakes.

Riding

Abstract

Another action shot

Market Street Bridge

Pond

Intersection of Bennett and Wyoming

Back home

The Trucker handled very well — better than I would’ve expected, in fact. The only problem I had was that my fenders got clogged with snow. It didn’t prevent me from riding, but I could hear it rubbing, and it was mildly annoying. I don’t remember having this problem with the fenders on my old mountain bike, although they have extra clearance, and this snow was particularly wet and sticky.

Front fender,  clogged with snow

File under: Bicycling, Rail Trails, Road Biking, Snow
 
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