Lewey Mo Conditions-Friday 12/18/20

Greg-O

Greg-O

Member
Just attempted to ride Lewey Mo from Sunrise Lake lot. Stay home, don’t waste your time. Snow is too high, and needs to be groomed to make it rideable. I have a Salsa Beargrease fatbike, with 4.6” Dunder and Flowbeist snow tires, running 6 psi, and the snow was just too deep. Tried to ride in another guys tracks, but it was futile. Rode up the race course start from The gazebo, and rode that little connector trail to the left, after you pass the Rt. hand turn for the race course. Rode that out to the access road and turned around and came back. Need a snowmobile with a grooming sled to make it rideable.
 
Greg-O said:
Just attempted to ride Lewey Mo from Sunrise Lake lot. Stay home, don’t waste your time. Snow is too high, and needs to be groomed to make it rideable. I have a Salsa Beargrease fatbike, with 4.6” Dunder and Flowbeist snow tires, running 6 psi, and the snow was just too deep. Tried to ride in another guys tracks, but it was futile. Rode up the race course start from The gazebo, and rode that little connector trail to the left, after you pass the Rt. hand turn for the race course. Rode that out to the access road and turned around and came back. Need a snowmobile with a grooming sled to make it rideable.
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LewMo is so hilly that it very well could be unrideable with this depth of snow. Climbing is really tough in deep snow. On the other hand, the next time you try snow riding, you might drop a lot more air from your tires (assuming a tubeless setup). As an example, I normally ride 1 psi in the front, and 1.5-2 psi in the rear. Makes a big difference in traction and float.
 
FitmanNJ said:
LewMo is so hilly that it very well could be unrideable with this depth of snow. Climbing is really tough in deep snow. On the other hand, the next time you try snow riding, you might drop a lot more air from your tires (assuming a tubeless setup). As an example, I normally ride 1 psi in the front, and 1.5-2 psi in the rear. Makes a big difference in traction and float.
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Yeah I’m not so sure you should ever go that low on psi though. I don’t think it would matter after say 5-6” of snow, as fatbike trails really need to be groomed
 
FitmanNJ said:
LewMo is so hilly that it very well could be unrideable with this depth of snow. Climbing is really tough in deep snow. On the other hand, the next time you try snow riding, you might drop a lot more air from your tires (assuming a tubeless setup). As an example, I normally ride 1 psi in the front, and 1.5-2 psi in the rear. Makes a big difference in traction and float.
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I’m not even sure how you measure accurately such a low tire pressure. I tend to overinflate my tires, I guess being overweight makes me afraid of damaging the rims (which btw are holding up great so far, thank you again). Definitely doesn’t work well in the snow though.
 
Greg-O said:
Yeah I’m not so sure you should ever go that low on psi though. I don’t think it would matter after say 5-6” of snow, as fatbike trails really need to be groomed
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This is very incorrect. I'd say 6psi might be the highest PSI you'd ever run on a fat bike, the lowest would be Zero. Also, if you need Groomed Trails to ride I'd suggest selling your Fat Bike and sticking to Zwift 😘
 
Greg-O said:
Where is Tourne?
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It's a small park bordering Denville, Boonton, and Mountain Lakes. It's very popular with hikers and dog walkers, and more importantly, snowshoers and XC skiers in Winter. The trails currently look like they were groomed for biking and it's 100% rideable.

www.trailforks.com

Tourne County Park on Trailforks

Tourne County Park Mountain Bike, Horse, Hike, Trail Running trails near Denville, New Jersey. 33 trails with 48 photos
www.trailforks.com www.trailforks.com
 
serviceguy said:
I’m not even sure how you measure accurately such a low tire pressure. I tend to overinflate my tires, I guess being overweight makes me afraid of damaging the rims (which btw are holding up great so far, thank you again). Definitely doesn’t work well in the snow though.
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Unless he’s changed, @jimvreeland measures his tire inflation by hand pressure (it’s a learned art form) — and obviously, it works. I recall him mentioning that he’s “adjusted his tire pressure” on more than one occasion by simply removing the valve cores.o_O

Being compulsive about total accuracy, I’ve used the Meiser 0-15psi Accu-Gage that @Sven Migot mentioned— it’s relatively inexpensive and works well. I dropped mine, though — several of them, actually — and they were never the same after. In the past few years I’ve used the Kappius Components Digital Pressure Gauge, which is ridiculously expensive, but is accurate to +/-1% at uber low pressures. The cost is a little more justified since I typically use it before every ride, year-around.
 
R
FitmanNJ said:
Unless he’s changed, @jimvreeland measures his tire inflation by hand pressure (it’s a learned art form) — and obviously, it works. I recall him mentioning that he’s “adjusted his tire pressure” on more than one occasion by simply removing the valve cores.o_O

Being compulsive about total accuracy, I’ve used the Meiser 0-15psi Accu-Gage that @Sven Migot mentioned— it’s relatively inexpensive and works well. I dropped mine, though — several of them, actually — and they were never the same after. In the past few years I’ve used the Kappius Components Digital Pressure Gauge, which is ridiculously expensive, but is accurate to +/-1% at uber low pressures. The cost is a little more justified since I typically use it before every ride, year-around.
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Thanks for the feedback. I went out again today after lowering the tire pressure again and tried the same trail that gave me so much troubles yesterday...I was able to clear most of the areas where I HT ad to push the bike yesterday, I could tell because no one has been there since. I just seem to be completely incapable sto stay in an existing track( in this case my own), after a few feet I start wandering away!?!?
 
FitmanNJ said:
Unless he’s changed, @jimvreeland measures his tire inflation by hand pressure (it’s a learned art form) — and obviously, it works. I recall him mentioning that he’s “adjusted his tire pressure” on more than one occasion by simply removing the valve cores.o_O

Being compulsive about total accuracy, I’ve used the Meiser 0-15psi Accu-Gage that @Sven Migot mentioned— it’s relatively inexpensive and works well. I dropped mine, though — several of them, actually — and they were never the same after. In the past few years I’ve used the Kappius Components Digital Pressure Gauge, which is ridiculously expensive, but is accurate to +/-1% at uber low pressures. The cost is a little more justified since I typically use it before every ride, year-around.
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These are facts. I don't check my psi with a gauge, always by feel. I carry a pump and use it often. Even on Thursday I pulled my cores and was running no psi. You can see it pretty good in this pic.

20201217_151524_resized.jpg


This of course bit me in the butt as I didn't have my pump and the one at the stand in the lot was frozen. Luckily I had an 8 mile walk home to remember that mistake.
 
serviceguy said:
R

Thanks for the feedback. I went out again today after lowering the tire pressure again and tried the same trail that gave me so much troubles yesterday...I was able to clear most of the areas where I HT ad to push the bike yesterday, I could tell because no one has been there since. I just seem to be completely incapable sto stay in an existing track( in this case my own), after a few feet I start wandering away!?!?
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I call that “The Jamaican Bobsled Effect.” See that a lot myself...
 
serviceguy said:
R

Thanks for the feedback. I went out again today after lowering the tire pressure again and tried the same trail that gave me so much troubles yesterday...I was able to clear most of the areas where I HT ad to push the bike yesterday, I could tell because no one has been there since. I just seem to be completely incapable sto stay in an existing track( in this case my own), after a few feet I start wandering away!?!?
Click to expand...
Don't look down at your tire in the track. Look as far ahead as possible at the track. Your arms will follow. Same for riding skinnies.
Takes practice, but it works. Practicing on the lines at sports fields is good.
 
Sven Migot said:
Don't look down at your tire in the track. Look as far ahead as possible at the track. Your arms will follow. Same for riding skinnies.
Takes practice, but it works. Practicing on the lines at sports fields is good.
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Makes sense, kind of along the lines of ‘don’t look at the tree or you will crash right into it...’ which I learned the hard way. Multiple times.I’m also making the mistake (even when riding in normal circumstances) not to lean forward enough and flex my elbows. I am correcting that every time I realize I’m doing it but for some reasonI can’t make it second nature. I guess you can’t teach an old dog new tricks...
 
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