A Record Attempt

The Blackborow DS worked perfectly.

The weather reports were all calling for it to dip down into double digit negative numbers for the overnight low, which would actually occur after Sunrise Thursday. I'm not sure how they figure that this was an "overnight" low, but at any rate, I was thinking that an attempt to ride to work was going to be a last minute call. I had not felt the peppiest on Wednesday and rested all day to recharge the body. Thursday morning when I awoke I wasn't 100% feeling great either, but I gave myself a bit of leeway. I needed to go out and scrape off the frost from Mrs. Guitar Ted's car windows anyway, so I figured I would get a read on the situation while I was out there.

It depended upon which "thermometer" you believe, but it was anywhere from -13°F to -15°F by the time I had layered up and decided to push off toward the shop. There was absolutely no wind when I left, and despite the Sun riding high up into the sky, the temperature seemed to be holding steady. The Blackborow didn't seem to mind. These days, I think anyone that makes a fat bike realizes that it is going to be going into severe conditions and puts grease in the spinning bits that doesn't make you feel like you are pedaling through mud. Well.....if they don't do this they should. It would seem that Salsa Cycles did this, at any rate, because I didn't feel any stiffness and when spinning the cranks backward at a stoplight I saw that they moved quite freely.

However; it did affect my air pressure. Negative teens air seems to really make a dint in the feel of the tires! I was okay with that though since much of the paved parts of my commute had that super-hard packed snow that was shiny. That means it was very, very slippery. The lowered by cold air pressures in my tires meant that I had a more stable, grippier tire than I would have had if it were above zero.

The bottom line was that I made it and this now is my lowest temperature day that I have commuted to work on. That will likely be the last chance at that record for quite a while, as it is forecast to go above freezing daily and stay that way for some time now. That will end the snow and bring on the slop!