Freezing Saddles: Winter Bike Challenge (sign up open)

[rcannon100]

@hozn 40895 wrote:

I also recommend (as I’m sure many do) the Panaracer T-Serv tires. I have the reflective sidewall 28s for commuting; the 25s are nice too. I’ve heard good things about the Armadillos too, but the T-Servs are cheaper (online) and lighter.

Oh! Oh! I bought some Michelon tires at REI. I think they are a little mushy and not sure I would recommend them. But I love the reflective sidewalls!! Major plus for commuters.

[vtben]

@GuyContinental 40872 wrote:

I’m already down… all week…

The plague is awful even WITH a flu shot. Ugh. Sorry ‘Ochos…

Me too. I seem to have caught whatever cold/flu/plague has been going around my office.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@rcannon100 40897 wrote:

Oh! Oh! I bought some Michelon tires at REI. I think they are a little mushy and not sure I would recommend them. But I love the reflective sidewalls!! Major plus for commuters.

What do you mean by mushy? I have these on my commuter and I haven’t really noticed anything. I’m not saying you’re wrong and that they’re awesome tires (I’d rate them as “meh”, they’re cheap and I too like the sidewalls), I’m just wondering if I should expect that mine are going to get “mushy” or if there’s an issue with yours that made them mushy when they shouldn’t be.

[rcannon100]

Quick scan, I could not find the reviews that said things that made since to me. I thought that I had read reviews about the sidewalls being mushy, making cornering difficult and resulting in sidewall blow outs. Ah, these might be them.

Certainly my experience moving from my last tires to these is that I dont feel as comfortable cornering. When I hit my edges, it just seems…. well… mushy. Going straight and flat – fine – including taking a beating on bad surfaces. But I have never felt over confident with these on a tight turn.

As far as the sidewalls blowing out – I have had no trouble and like the tires – and wonder if people are not over inflating these. I think these are rated to something like 84 lbs.

[Steve]

@hozn 40895 wrote:

I also recommend (as I’m sure many do) the Panaracer T-Serv tires. I have the reflective sidewall 28s for commuting; the 25s are nice too. I’ve heard good things about the Armadillos too, but the T-Servs are cheaper (online) and lighter.

Thanks! Any idea if anyone locally sells them? Looking to avoid shipping time.

[hozn]

@Steve 40919 wrote:

Thanks! Any idea if anyone locally sells them? Looking to avoid shipping time.

Sure. I think The Bike Lane carries these (they definitely used to), but not sure which exact models/sizes they stock. It probably will be similar cost to the specialized tires from lbs.

[ejwillis62]

chickened out all week because of the cold rain. I feel guilty team 6. I will be better next week.

LIZ W.

[consularrider]

@rcannon100 40897 wrote:

Oh! Oh! I bought some Michelon tires at REI. I think they are a little mushy and not sure I would recommend them. But I love the reflective sidewalls!! Major plus for commuters.

My past two sets of tires for my commuter hybrid were Michelin Pilots , the Sport (700 x 32, but seemed more like a 35) which lasted for 6300 miles and now the Tracker (700 x 35) which have 2300 miles on them with no signs of wear. Both have reflective sidewalls. I’ve had no sidewall issues at all with these. The narrowest Sport comes in a 700 x 28 while the narrowest Tracker is 700 x 35.

[bikenurse]

@ejwillis62 41013 wrote:

chickened out all week because of the cold rain. I feel guilty team 6. I will be better next week.

LIZ W.

Hey Liz – no worries. I haven’t had a great week either, but just getting my 10 points in per day…. We’ll make it up! And we’re still doing great — Laurie

[Amalitza]

Apparently, I have volunteered myself for pointless prize coordinator. I guess my first duty ought to be writing my job description. So…. my job is keeping track of all proposed pointless prizes, who if anyone is in charge of awarding the prize, making sure we don’t have duplicated efforts/prizes, any descriptions or explanations necessary (for example, if “most sleaze rides just for the 10 points” is a prize, the definition of “sleaze ride” would be included). Also, for any proposed prizes that require winners to be nominated or in some way voted on, I can keep the list of nominees. Any prize that requires any sort of data mining of strava or other stuff, ronwalf, hozn, or someone else who is not me will handle that– I can keep track of whether or not they’ve indicated it can (and will) be done, if they let me know.

So, for example, we are going to have the prize for First Place Team, which rcannon100 is in charge of. Self-explanatory (i think) and ronwalf has already done the necessary programming for determining the winner.

And, we have suggested a prize for “Least Freezing” Freezing Saddle Ride, description is the ride (or most rides, possibly, if we get further nominees down the line) taking place somewhere it’s summer, no one is yet in charge of this prize, currently vvill is nominated.

I know there have been some earlier posts on this thread discussing possible pointless prizes, but dudes, this thread is 49 pages long, I am not going to go back and search through it all! So I will start a new thread specifically for pointless prize proposals. I’ll maintain a list based on suggestions offered on the new thread. I’ll only designate anyone as “in charge” if you’ve specifically offered to be responsible. Any ideas that are just thrown out there will go on the list with no one in charge. If no one ever volunteers, they may not get awarded, depending on how big Tim’s bag o’ goodies is. I kind of expect we’ll have a gazillion ideas that will need to be thinned out just to be manageable and fun rather than tedious, but first let’s see what everyone comes up with.

The beginnings of a list:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0Al002fC5vM70dGRLZWoxNGwwc0c1ejFpTWRPOW50MWc#gid=0

New thread
http://bikearlingtonforum.com/showthread.php?3750-Freezing-Saddles-Pointless-Prizes&p=41036#post41036

[rcannon100]

“Kudos” to everyone who rode today!!!

[KLizotte]

We are wusses. This just in from my department’s intranet:

Steve [name withheld], in Helena, Montana, bravely completed the Montana Runners 50K (31 mile) run on January 12, a competition he has participated in since 1997.

An avid trail runner, Steve first started doing the Montana Runners 50K to make up for all the overindulgence of the holiday season.

This year, the run started around 9:00 a.m. with the temperature at -2 degrees and ended around 3:00 p.m., when the temperature had risen to a balmy +6 degrees. The coldest temperature during the run was -7 degrees.

But despite these grueling conditions, 14 out of the 15 runners finished the entire 50K, many with smiles on their faces.

In order to stay hydrated during the run, Steve used a 70 oz. water bladder. After each sip, he would blow air back through the water tube so that the water wouldn’t freeze inside the tube and then tuck the spigot end of the tube inside his GoreTex jacket. This worked until the last seven miles of the run, which took about an hour, when the group ran into a headwind and his spigot froze.

He also kept a packet of energy gel in the palm of each hand, which he would eat and replace every hour.

When asked how he stayed warm, he said, “The key is to put enough layers of clothing on to keep warm, but have storage just in case you need to peel some layers off.”

Congratulations, Steve, for your unique accomplishment!

[Greenbelt]

Looks like team Five Guys is only about a hundred and change points ahead of those badass bandito girlz (and boyz) and three other teams — nobody’s really running away with this contest are they?

[TwoWheelsDC]

Apologies to my team, but I had to drive today (vomit) because I have a large load of stuff I have to bring home from my office…

[ShawnoftheDread]

@TwoWheelsDC 41373 wrote:

Apologies to my team, but I had to drive today (vomit) because I have a large load of stuff I have to bring home from my office…

All those bikes and no cargo bike or trailer? For shame.

[Author]

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