Winterizing

The basic set up

With my intentions of doing the Triple D Race this coming January, I have had to make some modifications to the Snow Dog. I had it set up nicely for summer time adventures in the single track, muddy woods, and on gravel road rides, but not ideally set up for a long wintertime ride. Not one like The Triple D at any rate.

So, here it is with a basic set up that I may tweak a lot,or not much at all. We'll see after I get to start riding it.

The major change was getting the 3.8"ers off and putting the claimed 4.7"ers on. Big Fat Larrys are definitely bigger tires. No doubt about that.

The next item swap had to do with bottle cages. Since toting around frozen water isn't too appealing, water bottle cages don't make a ton of sense, so those cages came off. I'll likely either run some insulated bottles in the top tube bag or do a hydration pack with some long hose going up my arm or something. I'm not really worried about this. I'll figure it out soon.

So, yeah.....bags! I swapped over the Revelate Tangle Bag from the Orange Crush to the Mukluk and kept the Planet Bike Snack Pack on the top tube as well. That big ol' red bag is an ancient Jannd seat bag. I figured it will either carry some spare garments and tools, or some food and tools. I have to do a load test to see what will work there. Likely it'll hold the spare clothes and some tools/tube.

The lighting will include the Blackburn Mars tail light, another blinky from Trek I have, and a Cat Eye flasher we got from T.I.V2. Up front I have a BBB commuter light for back up and I will have a Lezyne Superdrive any day now as a primary light. I may ditch the BBB light and go with my hacked Eveready lamp set up as a back up.

I also swapped out cranks and now have a 2X9 set up with the Origin 8 Sub Compact that has rings swapped to a 32/22T combination. I probably will not use the 22 X 36 combination, so chain rub is not an issue on the rear tire for me. I may use the 32X36 though, so that's why it stays on there.

More additions will come, like a computer, possibly a Salsa Cycles Minimalist Rack for the front. (That may carry another bag and may be a place to mount lights, or I just might want it for later adventures.)