my son woke me up at 6am, to ask if he should drive to swim practice, being that there were 4 inches of brand new snow on the ground. i told him to skip practice since he’s a relatively new driver. after we settled that little bump in the road….all i could think about was the snow on the ground.
when you hear this, bare in mind that i haven’t found the time or energy to ride my bike to work for the past two weeks. now there is 4 inches of brand new snow on the ground, i wasn’t contemplating if i should ride to work, the only thing i was contemplating, was, which bike do i ride. my bike of choice was the bianchi, with nokian hakkapeliitta studded tires. the bianchi was sitting in the garage tireless, since i stoled its cross tires to put on my “cyclo-cross” rig.
these hakkapeliitta tires are so freaking heavy and stiff. they are made with an extra thick wire bead around them which is near impossible to put around my campy rims. [note: when i search for these tires so i could put a link on this post, the only tires that came up were for suv’s!]. while muscling on these beasts, i didn’t quite break my tire iron, only bend it…. i did however, manage to draw blood from two of my knuckles. luckily, i didn’t notice that i was bleeding till the project was complete. i happened to find the blood drops on the floor.
after the tires were on, i went back into the bedroom to pick out my clothes for the trip. it took me so long, but i finally picked out some stuff that would keep out the dirty melted salty road snow, and still keep me warm. not an easy task, i must say. i headed out the garage ready to brave my current adventure. feeling strong and surefooted from the studded tires i cruised out the neighborhood to the sounds of radar love. when i got out to the county road, the snow had not been completely plowed. only the middle part was taken care of, which was rather unfortunate since i like to ride my bike on the shoulder. however, the shoulder didn’t just have 4 inches of powder on it, it was riddled with dirty frozen snow balls from the debris of the plow. i tried riding straight through them, but the skinny tires just got pushed around. even though i had some pretty sweet studded tires, i couldn’t really weave through them, it would have been too dangerous. i ended up, riding off the shoulder down toward the dirt. this wasn’t too bad but i didn’t know how long i could continue this. it turned out to not be very long at all.
the whole thing was just really sketchy. i felt like i was going to slip and fall into the road, and get smashed by an on coming car. i made it through a really bad section, only because there were no cars. the big highway was only a couple miles from my house but by the time i got there i was in a full sweat. the clothes i spent so much time choosing turned out to be exactly wrong. with all the technical death grip riding i had done so far i was having a pretty good work out…a little too good.
the big highway had a big shoulder …. and bigger frozen snow balls :(. after about a mile of pure suffering and intense fear, i decided that i had had enough, plus i was already an hour late for work, and it would have taken me another hour and a half to finish the ride. i turned around, rode back home through all the same type of stuff i rode on the way out… only on the opposite side of the road.
i got home took another shower, and drove in…. i feel pretty lame that i didn’t make it, but sometimes common sense eventually hits me and i do the right thing. it doesn’t happen very often, but when it does, i think everyone is better off.
Amen to that.
I knew you were crazy…it’s good to know you have a little bit of common sense buried deep down. :) In a weird way you are my hero for even thinking about trying to ride in that.