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Christmas Eve Day Ride


Got out for 7 miles of riding in the freshies. Not a ton of new snow, but enough to make it interesting/difficult. Very few fresh tracks, since I didn't get out til after noon, but I did have the pleasure of passing through Nordby's crash site. :-)

Lesson of the day: tire pressure can seriously affect traction in winter conditions. Started at a supposed 20/20psi, ended up at 16 rear and 12 front. Way, way more traction with lower pressures. This is with Nokian 2.1" studded tires (I think Extreme 294's or something like that). I was all over the place with the higher pressure. Once I dropped things down, performance drastically improved for both climbing and descending.

Oh yeah, temps were cold (17F), but I was very toasty due to effort level and complete lack of wind.

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