Mountain Biking in the Snow? - Cycling Mob: Road Cycling, Mountain Biking and More

ksk i · 01-02-2008, 09:55 AM

How deep can the snow be to mountain bike in? Should I deflate my tires to add traction? What else can I do? I have seen the Ktrak Cycle attachments (a front ski and a rear tread). Can I make one of these easily?

M R · 01-02-2008, 09:57 AM

I really don't know what kind of cycling you can do with the Ktrak. It doesn't appear to lend itself to hilly, technical single track. I've ridden gnarly single track in the snow. 2" is great, you can still see most big holes, roots, ice and rocks and the snow actually provides good traction. At about 4" or more I didn't care for it. The trail is hard to find (unless previously ridden by others) and the snow starts to really slow you down. I rode my bike without modification.

I don't know if they're still sold (you can always make them) but studded tires were an option. I never used them but I did see a couple guys use studded rear tires.

Two things to think about. First, I rode trails I was VERY familiar with only. Even with only 2" you can get in a lot of trouble not seeing the ground. You can even get lost if the trail system has a lot of turn offs and you don't know the trail well. Second, ice is you enemy. Ice under snow can get you in big trouble on hills. Ice under snow on the flats is usually not a problem. The conditions on the trail can vary widely from day to day. I don't think I ever rode below 20 degrees so I don't have experience with very cold weather riding.

Barry L · 01-02-2008, 09:58 AM

hey i do alot of riding in the mountains. summer when it doesnt snow, and in winter when it does. the depth of snow shouldnt affect u much, but the compact of it. the harder the snow is, the easier it is to ride, therefor i usualy ride in the afternoons, after the fresh snow from the night has hardened. deflation of ur tyre depends on how knobbly they are, but this usually shouldnt be too much of a problem, id leave them at a pressure that u normally ride in.
the ktrack cycle biks is pretty cool, but kinda hard to make. my friend made one, with putting ski at the front, bolted onto old lowers of a fork. the only problem was the rear end. personaly, the ktrack bikes r cool, but i recommend just using a normal bike on the snow. ur more familiar with this type of cycle, and the handling in the snowy conditions is much easier.

bikekid360 · 01-02-2008, 10:16 AM

There are many ways to get around in the snow. Some are homemade and some are manufactured. As far as Ktrax go they work great but it's kinda a pricey acssoriey. Yes you can make somthing simaliar to the ktrak systym. If you have disk brakes this will work if not ski this and move to the next paragraph. What I did to improve traction in the snow in ice was to make a sort of tire chain. I used a metal cable that had been laminaded with plastic, like the kind cable bike locks use( you will need a farly large peice with loops on the end or some other way of being able to connect it).It is a very basic setup, You TIGHTLY wrap the cable around your tire spacing it evenly, when you pace a spoke use a zip tie to anchor it and continue wrapping. Wrap a qaurter of your tire then once again keeping the cable taught, bring it through the inside of the wheel directly opposite where you stopped wrapping, then continue wraping in th OTHER direction ( if you started wrapping clockwise, you would now be wrapping counter clock wise and vis-versa) Wrap another quarter then cross over again and wrap the opposite direction. Do this one more time and you should have a makeshift tire chainzip tie all the cables crossing the tire and lose ends to your spokes. Beleive it or not but this graetly improved my traction. You might have to tinker with it to get it just right. Once again do this only if you have disk brakes and tie everything down.

If you don't have disk brakes or opt. not to make the tire chain yes deflating your tire A LITTLE BIT to increase the surface area will help in slick conditions. As far as deep snow its what ever you can power through. There is a way to make a make**** ski for a front wheel but i Will have to get back to you on that. It's alot trickyer then increasing traction. Stubed tires are also avalaible. Thay sell them pretty cheap here;

http://www.biketiresdirect.com/search_results.asp?cat=su

Hope this helps. Keep riding and stay warm