Weekend Report

Out with the boy Muklukin'

Saturday was a day that I felt was a better day spent with family, so part of that included getting out with my son and getting his new Mukluk dirty. The venue was going to be the Green Belt.

The plan was to take him back out to where we had ridden out there this past Summer when he still was riding his 24"er. On that ride he complained profusely about the sand, and he struggled mightily with trying to get through the sand without dabbing. Then there was also the Prescott Creek crossing, which I wasn't letting him try with that 24"er, with those skinnier tires, which I felt would not work well on those loose, baby head rocks out there.

The light was perfect for dramatic photos and the woods were a perfect place to be with the strong winds. Our fat bikes were crunching leaves and snapping twigs. I was just hoping that one of those sneaky twigs wouldn't find their way into one of our rear derailleurs. Fortunately, that did not happen. I suppose we could have set up either bike in single speed mode had it occurred though. Both our Mukluks have Alternator drop outs.

Well, my son crushed every obstacle and rode well. I was so pumped for him, and so glad that I went the fat bike route for him instead of a 26 inch wheeled, traditional mountain bike. It was so obvious riding behind him, as I did for quite awhile, that the stability and roll over anything nature of the fatter wheels was working for him and keeping him riding instead of having to ditch off the bike or crash.

More pics from the ride...

Checking out Black Hawk Creek

Rest stop on the way back

Dirt path going under paved cycling path

Like needlepoint for Men

Sunday I spent the afternoon watching a race on the television while I studded a 45NRTH Gravdal tire. I had a pair laying around here waiting to get worked on, and I decided to just be done with as much as I could get done with in one sitting. That turned into about three hours of on again-off again tire studding.

Yeah, that's a long time for one tire, but there were 252 studs that I pushed in by hand! The Gravdal has stud pockets molded into it and you can opt to use them all, or do a minimal pattern if you want to save some weight. However; with the alloy wrapped steel studs that 45NRTH uses only weighing an extra 80 grams for all 252 studs, I figured why not just put them all in.

The Gravdal tires and the studs for them came with a 45NRTH stud installation tool that made sticking the studs into the tire pretty easy. I just probably took longer to do 252 than most folks, but that's okay.

One thing I will say about this tire so far that has impressed me. It is an Innova made tire, and I have had several examples of Innova studded tires in the past. They were effective, but dismal in terms of ride quality. The tread compound seemed hard, the casing very stiff, and of course, they were wire bead tires. These tires are very different. They have a folding bead, for one thing, and the tread compound feels worlds softer and the casing is by far more supple. With the different studs, I expect a nicer ride quality. We'll see soon enough when the snow flies. These are to be my commuter tires when the Winter finally comes, so stay tuned....

Anyway, that was my weekend!