"max" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:
word pr()n.
last week, at night, in the snow ...
The my bike light beam fractures across the glitter snow in a stroboscopic dance. My wheel is relentlessly thrust aside by jarring ice cobbles and crevasse, and unremitting sound of ice, pulverizing beneath my 600 silicon carbide studs, is hypnotic. my surreal world is reduced to a jagged flashing white obfuscation 15 feet long and 3 thee feet wide, and i am a ball of purposed white clawing luminance, grinding through the lonely, dead night.²
. . .
if last week's rides were a study in simple endurance, this week has descended into a pulp fiction arctic horror story.
Only some stories are true. No purposed luminance clawing this week, it's been more of a desparate reeling veering teeter from chasm and massif to cleft and summit, a bravado-goaded terror-sustained aspiration to defy gravity, just this once, i promise.
Never fall down, never crash, because you'll stick to the ice and there is so much ice, and it is hungry for your heat. Never fall down, because that would belie your gloating boastful words, and you'd have to eat them, post by post, during your convalescence. Never fall down, never hear I Told You So. That's what keeps you up, through the miles and miles of ice.
.max
Ah...riding on ice.
Tried it once.
Didn't like it.
Forget the lack of control, the extra effort required to push thru frozen slush, the sticking drivetrain, the ice rime on your wheel rims making braking barely possible...it's the Almost Dying that put me off...
I'm still here man, and I'm telling ya: don't rely on luck and good reflexes forever...'cause they'll both run out on ya sooner or later. It's a classic case of; "just because you CAN, does not mean you SHOULD". Apologies if it is a necessity for you...but I myself would chose public transit <shudder> before riding in the snow again...even if I did have the proper tires...which I don't.
Not just studded tires, but internally geared hubs and hub brakes are best for the all year commuter in Chicagoland.
-- Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia The weather is here, wish you were beautiful
"max" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:
word pr()n.
Quoted message said:
Quoted message said:
last week, at night, in the snow ...
Quoted message said:
Quoted message said:
The my bike light beam fractures across the glitter snow in a stroboscopic dance. My wheel is relentlessly thrust aside by jarring ice cobbles and crevasse, and unremitting sound of ice, pulverizing beneath my 600 silicon carbide studs, is hypnotic. my surreal world is reduced to a jagged flashing white obfuscation 15 feet long and 3 thee feet wide, and i am a ball of purposed white clawing luminance, grinding through the lonely, dead night.²
Quoted message said:
Quoted message said:
. . .
Quoted message said:
Quoted message said:
if last week's rides were a study in simple endurance, this week has descended into a pulp fiction arctic horror story.
Quoted message said:
Quoted message said:
Only some stories are true. No purposed luminance clawing this week, it's been more of a desparate reeling veering teeter from chasm and massif to cleft and summit, a bravado-goaded terror-sustained aspiration to defy gravity, just this once, i promise.
Quoted message said:
Quoted message said:
Never fall down, never crash, because you'll stick to the ice and there is so much ice, and it is hungry for your heat. Never fall down, because that would belie your gloating boastful words, and you'd have to eat them, post by post, during your convalescence. Never fall down, never hear I Told You So. That's what keeps you up, through the miles and miles of ice.
I fell on the ice two years ago at 10:00 PM avulsing both cruciate ligaments and causing a plateau fracture of my tibia (no studs, I thought there was no ice under the snow). (I'm a real man, I somehow remounted and rode home, all with one leg, went to work the next day, then to the ER after work). I am since petrified of the ice but I had so much fun riding through snow fields. Unbelievably hard to ride through snow with a thick frozen crust. The cold air is great. I would love to do it again but I might not be able to recover the next time.
"max" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...
Quoted message said:
word pr()n.
last week, at night, in the snow ...
The my bike light beam fractures across the glitter snow in a stroboscopic dance. My wheel is relentlessly thrust aside by jarring ice cobbles and crevasse, and unremitting sound of ice, pulverizing beneath my 600 silicon carbide studs, is hypnotic. my surreal world is reduced to a jagged flashing white obfuscation 15 feet long and 3 thee feet wide, and i am a ball of purposed white clawing luminance, grinding through the lonely, dead night.²
. . .
if last week's rides were a study in simple endurance, this week has descended into a pulp fiction arctic horror story.
Only some stories are true. No purposed luminance clawing this week, it's been more of a desparate reeling veering teeter from chasm and massif to cleft and summit, a bravado-goaded terror-sustained aspiration to defy gravity, just this once, i promise.
Never fall down, never crash, because you'll stick to the ice and there is so much ice, and it is hungry for your heat. Never fall down, because that would belie your gloating boastful words, and you'd have to eat them, post by post, during your convalescence. Never fall down, never hear I Told You So. That's what keeps you up, through the miles and miles of ice.
.max
Ah...riding on ice.
Tried it once.
Didn't like it.
Forget the lack of control, the extra effort required to push thru frozen slush, the sticking drivetrain, the ice rime on your wheel rims making braking barely possible...it's the Almost Dying that put me off...
I'm still here man, and I'm telling ya: don't rely on luck and good reflexes forever...'cause they'll both run out on ya sooner or later. It's a classic case of; "just because you CAN, does not mean you SHOULD". Apologies if it is a necessity for you...but I myself would chose public transit <shudder> before riding in the snow again...even if I did have the proper tires...which I don't.
Not just studded tires, but internally geared hubs and hub brakes are best for the all year commuter in Chicagoland.
i wish! you are so correct. I was down to a six-speed a couple weeks back. three in front, two in back. Sunday, my front shifter mechanixm got so covered in ice that it froze up.
Not just studded tires, but internally geared hubs and hub brakes are best for the all year commuter in Chicagoland.
max said:
i wish! you are so correct. I was down to a six-speed a couple weeks back. three in front, two in back. Sunday, my front shifter mechanixm got so covered in ice that it froze up.
Everyone is an expert on his own taste but I think my fixie is 6x better in salt slush than a six speed! -- Andrew Muzi www.yellowjersey.org Open every day since 1 April, 1971
Not just studded tires, but internally geared hubs and hub brakes are best for the all year commuter in Chicagoland.
max said:
i wish! you are so correct. I was down to a six-speed a couple weeks back. three in front, two in back. Sunday, my front shifter mechanixm got so covered in ice that it froze up.
Everyone is an expert on his own taste but I think my fixie is 6x better in salt slush than a six speed!
I suppose it depends on how one feels about fixies. Being uncoordinated, I would have issues just getting in and out of the pedals on a fixie.
A fixed multi-speed hub with a clutch might be a different matter, but such a thing does not appear to exist.
The fact that I learned to ride on a bicycle with hand brakes and a five-speed freewheel may have biased my future tastes, however.
-- Tom Sherman - Holstein-Friesland Bovinia The weather is here, wish you were beautiful
