Today I went back out into the cold to try to get some mileage in and make up for yesterday’s near failure. As usual, I got left (hee hee) later than I wanted. As usual, it had to do with changing bike tires. Having realized that a 2.1 was far too wide for my narrow rims, I was ready to try the studded tires again. The front one went on surprisingly easy. I went to finally pump it up, but while I was attaching the pump to the valve the rim fell away from me, causing the top of the valve to break off. In the words of the wise-beyond-her-years Clara: Grr! So, after some initial pissed-off-ed-ness and a quick slam of the mini-tool on the bench, I proceeded to grab a spare tube and swap it out. I switched the rear out without any issue and I was ready to go.
I drove the Jeep out to Graf and parked at the picnic area. I unloaded the bike and headed west, pedaling out over some Pugsley and Nokian tracks, all of which were so much wider than mine. I began wondering if I was trying this on the wrong bike, but I wasn’t having too much trouble with the riding. I kept changing out different things in regards to clothing. My face was getting a little cold, so I took off the sunglasses and switched to the goggles. The goggles fogged up a bunch, so I let them hang around my neck. I never did experience enough cold in my face to warrant dealing with the fogging. My upper body was hot, so I took the liner out of the snowmobile coat I was wearing and bunched it up on the Hydrapak, which was outside of the coat. My hands got cold in the snowmobiling gloves, so I threw some handwarmers in them. That didn’t work, so I got out my $10 El Cheapo mittens and threw the handwarmers in there. This worked surprisingly well, and I never changed anything else for the rest of the ride.
I got about five miles out and realized that my hose was frozen somewhere between the bladder and the bite valve, so I decided to turn around. I thought putting the hydration pack inside my coat would help it thaw out. The bunched-up liner attached to the pack was too thick to put the coat over, so I rolled that up and tied it around my waist. I was heading back and a pretty good clip, as it was getting pretty dark and my toes were freezing. Suddenly, I was slowing down like I dropped a plow. Turns out the coat liner had come untied from my waist and had decided to become one with my rear cassette.
I flipped the bike over and started trying to figure out how the hell I was going to get that out of there. Lots of tugging and pulling and swearing and thinking and I finally managed to pull the wheel most of the way out, and then get the coat liner unwrapped. It’s a good thing I didn’t have a knife, because I would have cut that thing to pieces. It was way too cold to be screwing around with stuff like this.
Once that was done, I was eager to start making time. I got back on the bike and put the hammer down, relatively. More of a ball peen hammer than a sledge hammer, but it was put down all the same. I made it another few miles and my toes were getting way too cold. I found a good spot to sit and decided to try something different. I took out another pair of insole warmers and put them directly on my toes. I ditched the thin Pearl Izumi socks and put the ‘Large Warmers’ directly on my feet as well, despite all of the dire warnings about burning skin. Pulled some smartwool socks on over the whole works and got back to moving. Just about the time I got to the Jeep I was feeling pretty good; feet were warm, hands were warm, everything else was doing okay. My hose had even thawed, just in time to pack it in.
Lessons learned:
1. I don’t need goggles for positve temperatures, at least for the first two hours.
2. My hydration hose can freeze, even if I blow air back into it every single time I use it.
3. My big snowmobiling coat may even be overkill, except to keep my hose warm.
4. I need to figure out something different for my feet, as the thin+thick socks just aren’t doing it, even with chemical warmers. I can get away with putting the warmers directly on my skin, but I’d rather find someway to just keep my feet a little more insulated. I think getting a pair of the insulated booties are the answer to that, although I would prefer not to call them ‘booties’.
5. Everything needs to be tied down tightly, or it can fall into the drivetrain. If you lose the drivetrain, you lose everything.
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