Cold Winter

With cold temps and mostly frozen rivers, I spent most of my outside time fat biking around Lowell. I did one overnight trip near the Pere Marquette.

This is my fat bike. There are many like it, but this one is mine.

Fat Bike Finally

This has been just about the best winter ever, but I've had a difficult time getting out as much as I'd like. Rode tonight, it helps to have some measurable amount of air in tire, even fatties.

Fat Bike - Finally

After trying a Salsa Mukluk a couple years ago, I became convinced that a fat bike was the perfect tool for running my small number of sled dogs. Regardless of trail conditions (which are usually poor in this part of the state) these things do it all and are really stable...snow, ice, mud.  The only conditions they don't really work in is deep snow, which is what my skis or dog sled are for anyways.

Plus they're just super fun to ride.

Towards the first of the year I started looking a lot harder at picking up a bike.  The cost on these things is really astronomical and no matter how much I kept running the numbers, it just wasn't looking realistic.
Then I saw that TreeFort Bikes in Ypsi had bought all the left over 2011 Mukluk frames from Salsa and was selling them at a big discount.

I deiced to move on the frame purchase.  Planning to build the bike up over a few months and using as many parts from my current bike (that I'd bought on Craigslist a few years ago) as I could.

This bike had been converted into a half-fat bike last year by Ted at Ada Bikes, so I already had a few fat items I could use.  I ended up getting a "open box" Hope FatSno 170mm rear hub from TreeFort in Ypsi at a huge discount also.  Lastly, I ended up getting a Fatback FSA crank from Einstein Cycles in Traverse City which finished out the bike.

For the maiden voyage I took the bike and two dogs to the end of Esch Road at Sleeping Bear Dunes for a beach ride.

The ride went awesome, floating over the beach and even trough a little stream (mostly)...Unfortunately, I found out bikes aren't allowed on the beach at Sleeping Bear.

So far the bikes been working out great, I've been riding a lot and am ready to start doing longer rides and bike-packing trips both with and without dogs.  I'm also looking forward to biking around the Big M and Pere Marquette rivers to do some Steelhead fishing this spring.

Because of the schedule Brigid and I keep, I've mostly been riding around town and on local trails with Emelia in her bike trailer...lots of fun and good training I hope.

Half-Fat Bike Experiment - Success

Finally got a chance to try out my new studded rear tire from 45NRTH. Part of the goal my half-fat bike experiment was to come up with a solution that would allow me to train sled dogs when trail conditions deteriorated. This is exactly what we had over the last week. Lost most of our snow, trails where a mix of ice and bare spots with a little fresh accumulation added this AM. I took three dogs out with the goal of a 12-14mph run. The bike performed really well, especially on the straight aways. I was still a little overly cautious on the tighter turns, but I stayed upright for the entire ride. The rear tire handled really well with little to no slipping. These conditions (where a sled and especially skis aren't possible) is exactly the void I was hopping to fill with the bike....and as of today I think it is a success!

Half-Fat Bike Experiment: Dog Trial Run #1

 

Went out for my first dog powered run on my newly modified half-fat bike. Pretty mixed results. My existing back tire, isn't made for any type of sandy or snowy surface, so this resulted in a nearly unrideable first run. I don't think I traveled in a straight line for more than a few hundered yards over the 6 miles. And I was litrealy standing still, spinning the back tire when trying go up hill. So I need a more aggressive tire for the back. I knew that, but wasn't sure if I should go with a studded tire or not. Still not sure, but am leaning towards studded .

Next step, upgrade the back tire. This will hopefully give me enough traction to stay safely upright. I took one big spill, but was able to adhere to the first rule of mushing - never let go of the sled, or in this case bike.

Half-fat Bike

Turned my Mtn. Bike into a half-fat snow bike with help from Ted at Ada bike shop. Test runs have been promising. Maiden dog powered voyage to come tomorrow hopefully! Surly Pugsley Fork and Surly "Nate" tire up front at a whopping 5psi. Back tire still needs some work. More to come...