deep snow riding and tires 101

qclabrat

qclabrat

Well-Known Member
In attempts to fix anything I come across I have some Qs on tires and deep snow riding, the trail breaking stuff
I've bulleted some questions below

- where is it more important to have a wider tire front or rear?

- many run Bud/Lou combos and others run the Dilly5s on both, is there a big difference in having different tread patterns for front and rear in deep snow?

- when breaking trail, I notice the front digging in too much causing the bike to slow and at times stop, taking weight off the front helps by sitting back and pulling up on bars, but that can get tiring. What I'm I doing wrong?

- anyone try adding a skiboard, snowskate, or very small snowboard to the front wheel, just for trail breaking purposes on flats like the canal path? hoping snow sticks around this weekend as this looks to be somewhat fun and easy to remove to go back to 2 wheels
bikeboards.JPG
 
I run equal width (4.6) tires. I find I need the width on both F and R for flotation. F to avoid washing out off track, R to support the majority of where my weight sits. That said, I do find riding in snow is a constant game of moving one's weight fore and aft depending on where you are getting bogged down. Additionally, I have found that a slight bounce to your forward progress helps when breaking deeper snow. Similar to how skiers handle deep powder...they dont just ski downhill, they pump..they load a turn then unload to transition to the next turn. With a bike in deeper untracked snow, the "load/unload" movement is more up/down (via pedal stroke) rather than a skier's left/right motion). I haven't tried a board under the front wheel. If the snow is too deep to bike, I strap a board to my feet instead, dig deeply into my wallet 🙁, and head to the slopes.😀
 
I like my fattest tire up front. I feel it packs the snow just enough for the rear to have better conditions to grab traction, and gives the rear tire a wider line to follow. Just my theory, right or wrong.
 
Kaleidopete said:
I like my fattest tire up front. I feel it packs the snow just enough for the rear to have better conditions to grab traction, and gives the rear tire a wider line to follow. Just my theory, right or wrong.
Click to expand...
yeah, I recall you have the 2XL monster upfront, how much additional height do you get over the rear? guess it must look like the 96rs folks tried to retrofit a few years back on 26rs with 29 tires upfront
 
thoughts on whether a baldish front tire would help with front 'float'? would suck terribly in turns, but we're talking about breaking fresh flat trails here
 
As wide as you can up front and as knobbie as you can put out back.

It's like using one of those balance boards. Constant weight shifting, loading and unloading. It's constant frustration until... Hey, I got it. 🙂
 
qclabrat said:
yeah, I recall you have the 2XL monster upfront, how much additional height do you get over the rear? guess it must look like the 96rs folks tried to retrofit a few years back on 26rs with 29 tires upfront
Click to expand...
Yeah, the 2XL up front works great for me, and the rear is a Lou, I rode Saturday and loved the combination. That 2XL seems to roll through and over anything as it growls along, crushing ruts and messed up tracks. It was quite good on ice too, but I rode like a baby on icy spots not trusting it and getting used to it. I started out at 3psi and dropped it way down during the ride, but I never rechecked the psi, I just watched the tire bow out on the bottom and rode it that way.
 
I run Bud/Lou. I find air
pressure to be the best determining factor on smooth snow. Frozen foot treads are a different matter. Once on top and moving I try to even my pedal stroke and be smooth as possible. Any mashing or strong spots will have you break through the crust. I have put a Snowshoe 4.5 and a 3.8 Nate on Pats bike. She has had success with the above mentioned technique. YMMV.
Ed and Pat
 
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