Stuff to Avoid in Winter Cycling
So, you wake up, draw back the curtains and everything is thick white snow outside. Does this mean the bike stays cuddled up next to the warm radiator? It should signal the chance to get out there and challenge convention and in some people’s eyes, wisdom! We always err in favour of a challenge, it’s the way we’re programmed.
Stay loose
Whatever style of bike you have, the over-riding thing which will help you get the most from riding in the snow this winter is to relax. Nothing unsettles the bike like tension in the riders body. It transmits right through the bike and into the tyres. It pays to be loose and limber when riding in the snow, from the finger tips in your gloves to the toes in your shoes and everywhere in between. The same is true for all mountain biking, but when the conditions are as sketchy as they often are when snow is on the ground, it’s even more important.
Road bikes
Snow is usually partnered by its sidekick, ice. Ice and the typically narrow, high-pressure, essentially treadless ‘slick’ road tyres, are not a great recipe for a relaxing ride. In the right dry European style, hard-packed graded snow, it’s certainly possibly to get a traditional road bike – equipped in dry tarmac spec – along a snow-covered road. Effecting safe consistent turns is the problem. The level of physical grip available from a 25c slick tyre, even when deflated to 50-60psi (near half the pressure you’d normally run on the road), is minimal. If you’re factoring ice into the equation, or worse, the evil sniper that is black ice, then all bets are off for a regular road bike. Remaining upright won’t come down to great handling skills, more pot-luck. Be careful.
Grippy tyres
You can do your bit to help your road bike cope better with the challenges of riding in snow. Buy wider, more heavily treaded tyres. Practice getting used to how they ride at significantly lower pressures. Low pressure 700c cyclo-cross or gravel riding/bike-packing tyres have treads in 35mm wide (or wider) will give you a chance to generate and traction on your road bike, over a wider set of conditions and circumstances. That said, when it comes to ice, there’s still no guarantees.
Raising the bar
If you run your stem low, slammed to the headset, then consider putting some spacers under the stems steerer clamp to raise the handlebar slightly. This can help transfer a little more weight rearwards, aiding traction for the rear tyre and stopping you from overweighting the front tyre’s contact patch which doesn’t want to be carrying too much energy from you in corners.
Mountain bikes
This, I think, is where the fun starts. Mountain bikes are specifically designed for use in low traction conditions. Significantly wider tyres and low tyre pressures allow the bike to find traction where narrower tyres can find it a bit harder. OK, snow is a different low traction condition from mud, or anything else. Snow has an under-tyre behaviour that’s as unique as the individual tiny flakes, which give it its structure. Use every opportunity to learn by riding whenever the white stuff arrives.
Practice makes perfect: There’s not much you can do to practice snow riding skills where there is none to ride on. The nearest you can get to an understanding of how the bike behaves in snow is to regularly ride in various depths and hardnesses of sand – the average beach is a good place to start.
For the landlocked, regular forays into the sloppy mud are useful. Both experiences will arm you with some idea of what happens to tyre traction when riding on unstable, dynamic surfaces. You’ll realise what happens when you lean on the front tyre in a turn, the washing out, or knifing into, and through the surface crust (if there is a crust) can lead to a stall or toppling over.
Similarly on mud you’ll feel a similar sensation of what happens if you jam power into the pedals. Often the rear tyre will just each a bunch of the mud (or snow) pack up the tread and also bog deeper into the surface. Practice pulling away in a slightly taller gear in the rear (to reduce the torque). Try using the least amount of power possible to make forward progress, this will help reduce the tendency of the bike to bog down.
Fit a grippy front tyre
Nice sharp edges to the tread blocks help make the front tyre feel more secure, especially when turning corners. Look for something with a fairly boxy cross section. A tyre which presents more of its tread to the trail when going in a straight line, is preferable. A boxy front tyre will have a definite set of edges. The edges help the tyre ‘bite’ into the snow and transmit a clear indication to you, the rider, about the level of grip and ‘where you are’ in relation to how much more you can push it.
Rear tyre
Rear tyres, with the extra weight they carry are better able to cope without sharp edged tread blocks. In fact, we’ve regularly run part-worn, wide spaced shallow treaded tyres on the rear in snow. They can benefit from the tyre not having the physical ability to carry compacted snow in their tread, effectively self-cleaning and presenting virtually clean rubber to the snow with each revolution. It’s a debatable point. Some swear by more blocky tread, some, like myself, by an intermediate level of smaller tread blocks, both can (and do) work. Each requires a slightly different riding style and application of power to operate optimally.
Avoiding wash day blues
The key skills with riding in snow are keeping the front wheel upright and turning. Leaning the front tyre onto its shoulders increases the tyre’s likihood of ‘pushing’ or ‘washing-out’ – basically this is the action of the front tyre’s contact patch, breaking traction and shearing the intermediate and edge tread blocks. This causes the front wheel to move away from you and opposite to the direction you tried leaning the wheel. Fast reactions are required to save a washing front wheel. Though it can very occasionally be done with a lightning quick jab of counter-steer and an even quicker weight transfer onto the outer-side of the handlebar (the same side as the front wheel is sliding), though there are no guarantees of success.
Mostly though, the trick to successful snow riding, is to be steady and even with the power delivery, and slow and deliberate with the steering.
On the subject of steering
To limit front end traction loss and tyre wash, don’t try to do too much with the bars. In snow, much less steering input through the headtube is required (or desired). Instead, try to instigate directional change (thinking about it in different terms from ‘steering’ helps) by using your body. Specifically, from the hips. It feels a bit wonky at first, but you’ll learn the nuances of saddle steering quickly and you’ll be pleasantly surprised by just how much effect it can have on which way your bike points. Practice twisting your hips in the direction of the turn you want to make, while also introducing different levels of added torso turn to fine tune the effect.
Stay loose
Whatever style of bike you have, the over-riding thing which will help you get the most from riding in the snow this winter is to relax. Nothing unsettles the bike like tension in the riders body. It transmits right through the bike and into the tyres. It pays to be loose and limber when riding in the snow, from the finger tips in your gloves to the toes in your shoes and everywhere in between. The same is true for all mountain biking, but when the conditions are as sketchy as they often are when snow is on the ground, it’s even more important.
Road bikes
Snow is usually partnered by its sidekick, ice. Ice and the typically narrow, high-pressure, essentially treadless ‘slick’ road tyres, are not a great recipe for a relaxing ride. In the right dry European style, hard-packed graded snow, it’s certainly possibly to get a traditional road bike – equipped in dry tarmac spec – along a snow-covered road. Effecting safe consistent turns is the problem. The level of physical grip available from a 25c slick tyre, even when deflated to 50-60psi (near half the pressure you’d normally run on the road), is minimal. If you’re factoring ice into the equation, or worse, the evil sniper that is black ice, then all bets are off for a regular road bike. Remaining upright won’t come down to great handling skills, more pot-luck. Be careful.
Grippy tyres
You can do your bit to help your road bike cope better with the challenges of riding in snow. Buy wider, more heavily treaded tyres. Practice getting used to how they ride at significantly lower pressures. Low pressure 700c cyclo-cross or gravel riding/bike-packing tyres have treads in 35mm wide (or wider) will give you a chance to generate and traction on your road bike, over a wider set of conditions and circumstances. That said, when it comes to ice, there’s still no guarantees.
Raising the bar
If you run your stem low, slammed to the headset, then consider putting some spacers under the stems steerer clamp to raise the handlebar slightly. This can help transfer a little more weight rearwards, aiding traction for the rear tyre and stopping you from overweighting the front tyre’s contact patch which doesn’t want to be carrying too much energy from you in corners.
Mountain bikes
This, I think, is where the fun starts. Mountain bikes are specifically designed for use in low traction conditions. Significantly wider tyres and low tyre pressures allow the bike to find traction where narrower tyres can find it a bit harder. OK, snow is a different low traction condition from mud, or anything else. Snow has an under-tyre behaviour that’s as unique as the individual tiny flakes, which give it its structure. Use every opportunity to learn by riding whenever the white stuff arrives.
Practice makes perfect: There’s not much you can do to practice snow riding skills where there is none to ride on. The nearest you can get to an understanding of how the bike behaves in snow is to regularly ride in various depths and hardnesses of sand – the average beach is a good place to start.
For the landlocked, regular forays into the sloppy mud are useful. Both experiences will arm you with some idea of what happens to tyre traction when riding on unstable, dynamic surfaces. You’ll realise what happens when you lean on the front tyre in a turn, the washing out, or knifing into, and through the surface crust (if there is a crust) can lead to a stall or toppling over.
Similarly on mud you’ll feel a similar sensation of what happens if you jam power into the pedals. Often the rear tyre will just each a bunch of the mud (or snow) pack up the tread and also bog deeper into the surface. Practice pulling away in a slightly taller gear in the rear (to reduce the torque). Try using the least amount of power possible to make forward progress, this will help reduce the tendency of the bike to bog down.
Fit a grippy front tyre
Nice sharp edges to the tread blocks help make the front tyre feel more secure, especially when turning corners. Look for something with a fairly boxy cross section. A tyre which presents more of its tread to the trail when going in a straight line, is preferable. A boxy front tyre will have a definite set of edges. The edges help the tyre ‘bite’ into the snow and transmit a clear indication to you, the rider, about the level of grip and ‘where you are’ in relation to how much more you can push it.
Rear tyre
Rear tyres, with the extra weight they carry are better able to cope without sharp edged tread blocks. In fact, we’ve regularly run part-worn, wide spaced shallow treaded tyres on the rear in snow. They can benefit from the tyre not having the physical ability to carry compacted snow in their tread, effectively self-cleaning and presenting virtually clean rubber to the snow with each revolution. It’s a debatable point. Some swear by more blocky tread, some, like myself, by an intermediate level of smaller tread blocks, both can (and do) work. Each requires a slightly different riding style and application of power to operate optimally.
Avoiding wash day blues
The key skills with riding in snow are keeping the front wheel upright and turning. Leaning the front tyre onto its shoulders increases the tyre’s likihood of ‘pushing’ or ‘washing-out’ – basically this is the action of the front tyre’s contact patch, breaking traction and shearing the intermediate and edge tread blocks. This causes the front wheel to move away from you and opposite to the direction you tried leaning the wheel. Fast reactions are required to save a washing front wheel. Though it can very occasionally be done with a lightning quick jab of counter-steer and an even quicker weight transfer onto the outer-side of the handlebar (the same side as the front wheel is sliding), though there are no guarantees of success.
Mostly though, the trick to successful snow riding, is to be steady and even with the power delivery, and slow and deliberate with the steering.
On the subject of steering
To limit front end traction loss and tyre wash, don’t try to do too much with the bars. In snow, much less steering input through the headtube is required (or desired). Instead, try to instigate directional change (thinking about it in different terms from ‘steering’ helps) by using your body. Specifically, from the hips. It feels a bit wonky at first, but you’ll learn the nuances of saddle steering quickly and you’ll be pleasantly surprised by just how much effect it can have on which way your bike points. Practice twisting your hips in the direction of the turn you want to make, while also introducing different levels of added torso turn to fine tune the effect.
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