What better way to bring in a New Year than a good old bike ride? We met up with a small crew at Pipestone for the annual New Year's Day ride.
It was my 4th day in a row of riding outside (bear in mind this is Montana in winter) so I was curious to see how the legs felt after the prior 3 days of getting worked. The little bonus for the day was that the legs felt decent - The joy of being outside riding (as opposed to spending time on a trainer indoors) more than offset the heavy bike and potentially heavy legs.
The conditions at Pipestone were surprisingly good! There was not a lot of snow on the ground, and the sections that had puddled up or snowed up were frozen so the traction was relatively good. You did have to stay on the alert for the renegade ice patches that kept you aware and ready to compensate for the start of the ice slide.
We took the phatties out and I came away pretty impressed with how well the fat tires did in the dirt. You could really rail the berms and corners as the big rubber just ate it all up. I was concerned about running low pressure on the tires on the dirt but fortunately there were no pinch flats. The bike definitely showed its weight when going up-hill. There were some short punchy climbs that the legs got a little punished but I kept thinking about the reward of the downhill and how it was just good training.
As usual, we explored some new trail out at Pipestone and were pleasantly rewarded with some killer views that looked south towards the Highlands and the Tobacco Roots. Regardless of how much riding I do in Pipestone, I always...repeat, always find new trail. There are hundreds of miles of trail out there - much of it made up of shorter loops and it turns into a huge maze of looping trails that loop off each other, back into each other, around each other, rinse...repeat....you get the idea....The good thing is that it is always relatively easy to tell where you based on the 2 roads that make up 4 corners in the Pipestone area. When you get dumped out on a road, you can always gauge your whereabouts by looking for the Tobacco Roots or the Highlands ranges.
All in all, it was a good day to be out on the bike. The temps were decent (hovered in the 30's and popped into the 40's for a bit). The trails were pretty tacky (with the exception of the icy spots) and fun was had by all.
Ride Summary - just under 14 miles of riding and around 2K of elevation gain.
It was my 4th day in a row of riding outside (bear in mind this is Montana in winter) so I was curious to see how the legs felt after the prior 3 days of getting worked. The little bonus for the day was that the legs felt decent - The joy of being outside riding (as opposed to spending time on a trainer indoors) more than offset the heavy bike and potentially heavy legs.
The conditions at Pipestone were surprisingly good! There was not a lot of snow on the ground, and the sections that had puddled up or snowed up were frozen so the traction was relatively good. You did have to stay on the alert for the renegade ice patches that kept you aware and ready to compensate for the start of the ice slide.
We took the phatties out and I came away pretty impressed with how well the fat tires did in the dirt. You could really rail the berms and corners as the big rubber just ate it all up. I was concerned about running low pressure on the tires on the dirt but fortunately there were no pinch flats. The bike definitely showed its weight when going up-hill. There were some short punchy climbs that the legs got a little punished but I kept thinking about the reward of the downhill and how it was just good training.
As usual, we explored some new trail out at Pipestone and were pleasantly rewarded with some killer views that looked south towards the Highlands and the Tobacco Roots. Regardless of how much riding I do in Pipestone, I always...repeat, always find new trail. There are hundreds of miles of trail out there - much of it made up of shorter loops and it turns into a huge maze of looping trails that loop off each other, back into each other, around each other, rinse...repeat....you get the idea....The good thing is that it is always relatively easy to tell where you based on the 2 roads that make up 4 corners in the Pipestone area. When you get dumped out on a road, you can always gauge your whereabouts by looking for the Tobacco Roots or the Highlands ranges.
All in all, it was a good day to be out on the bike. The temps were decent (hovered in the 30's and popped into the 40's for a bit). The trails were pretty tacky (with the exception of the icy spots) and fun was had by all.
Ride Summary - just under 14 miles of riding and around 2K of elevation gain.
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