(Remember: click on the pictures for a bigger version)
Due to some misplaced keys she missed her bus this morning and so decided to take the bike. Luckily, I had given it a brief spring tune up on the weekend (though I’m sure there will be complaints when she gets home and I’ll be out doing a proper tune up on the weekend again)…
Keira was so pumped to see her mom on a bike she chanted “MOM! BIKE! GO! MOM! BIKE! GO! MOM! BIKE GO!” for at least five minutes after she had rolled out of sight!
No steel studded tires?
ReplyDeleteI finally obtained a steel-studded front tire last winter, which was a life-saver (or at least a broken-arm-saver). It was costly, but worth it.
I found I didn't really need one for the rear.
By the time she starts riding in the spring most of the ice is gone. Amanda's a bit more of a fair weather rider. When she did ride in the winter she definitely did use studded tires.
ReplyDeleteI've used them. I've not used them. I have about the same number of crashes each year whether I have them or not. I find they give some people a false sense of security and they end up pushing the limits of what is sensible on icy surfaces.
I have a pair of nice 700c Continental studded tires for my get-a-round bike but, as you say, I usually only bother to put one on the front.
Good point (about the false sense of security provided by studded tires on ice). I haven't got too comfortable with them yet but I can recall a few moments where I was near losing control on ice.
ReplyDeleteWe are fortunate enough in Cow-Town to get chinooks that _usually_ melt the snow periodically through the winter which greatly eases winter riding.
Last winter was an exception with above average snow fall, which kept turning into ice after each chinook, and a snow removal program that relies on chinooks rather than equipment. Thus the purchase of studded tires.