Fat Jon’s Post:
I rode my Pugsley up and down the trails at Grand Beach today. Wow! It was fantastic on the sandy trails and had SO much control up and down the hills. The fatbike smoothed out the trails and conquered the rock gardens, what rock gardens ? ha ha 🙂
Wouldn’t be surprised to see it roaring up a hill at a local race?
After 40 KM of hitting every rock and boulder my 60 gram tubes (26X1.9/2.3) held up fine
Fat Tom K’s Post:
Was it just last week that it was still winter? I guess this was my last winter Fat Tire ride …
Fat Jon’s Post:
Thanks to the deer and a few of my friends the trail at Bur Oak is in good fatbiking condition. We were able to get a combined 11 laps of snow shoeing in…so it’s good to go! I am riding at Bur Oak Wednesday evening and Sunday morning.
Fat Tom K’s Post:
Last week’s MB Fat Bike Wed Nite Ride was a time not just for the Fatties to ‘Fit Fine’, but also ‘Film Fine’ (Global TV showed up to check it all out and interview ‘FatIan’ wrt the ‘Actif Epica’ connection). “Fatties Fit Fine” is labelled on most of Surley’s bikes (Karate Monkey 29-er, Pugsley Fat Bike, Moonlander Super Fat Bike …), as they are all fat tire friendly!
Here’s my little video salute:
‘Fatties Fit Fine’ – MB Fat Bike WNR 8-2-12
A great WNR in Assiniboine Forest. Start location was normal, but the routine was not, as our eager TV reporter had us ‘busy’ for a while.  That was all good, but slowed things down for a while and made for a cold start. Fortunately, “Muddy Guy” was up for some faster paced riding after the group split up. That gave both of us a good workout and some Fat Tire winter singletrack sweetness! 🙂
Fat Jon’s Post:
Photo by Jon Laterveer
Fat Tom K’s Post:
Here’s some motivation for your riding or racing in the Dark:
Yes, I filmed this before the xrays and casting caught up with my thumb! 🙂
Fat Dallas’ Post:
Riding is riding even though the white gold is scarce. He’s a few pictures of the Actif Epica course for your viewing pleasure.
Fat Dan’s Post:
re you looking for another opportunity to test out your winter riding setup? Lindsay is planning a ride on the La Salle river starting from La Barriere Park at 10am tomorrow morning (January 2). The plan is to head West along the river for about an hour and a half and then come back along the same route with a potential stop to get a bite to eat in La Salle on the way home.
All are welcome, so if you are interested in coming out, we will be meeting at the parking lot in La Barriere Park (@10am), just past the bridge, heading South on Waverley.
The last time I was riding out there with FatHal a couple of weeks ago the conditions were pretty fast with only a fine dusting of snow. I’m guessing not much has changed except the snow might have a hard crust on top of it due to warmer weather melt and then freezing again.
Hope to see you out there!
Fat Ian’s Post:
Phew. Â The last week has been busy. Â Last Wednesday was a well-attended info night for the Actif Epica bike challenge (here’s the record on twitter, and CycleChick reports here). Â More than 35 people attended, and Ernie, Hal and Lindsay shared their thoughts on winter survival and biking. Â The summary version would be: know your limits & be aware of what you are doing, test your equipment as much as you can, and ride your own ride/don’t give up too easily. Â Mixed in there somewhere was Ernie’s advice: talk to others who are doing what you want to do. To that end, feel free to drop a comment on this (or other) posts, or on the ManitobaFatBike blog.
On the weekend there were lots of things going on.
FatDan, FatDallas and I went and did a 100km fatbike ride (gravel road ride) in Grand Forks. Â If you think we don’t have much snow, you should see GF – they have none. Â It was a hard day in the wind, but we *did* reach climax.
…And that was good for at least 20km of risque jokes. Â Never mind that Dallas met the Mayor of Climax. Â Whatever that means.
And then on Sunday we had the “applied” portion of the info session: 9 riders showed up for an easy-paced group ride.
We headed out west on the Harte Trail, and then, via a detour that Serge spotted, headed further west on Wilkes to loop around via Hall Rd and the Grand Trunk trail. Â The detour involves turning left/south off of the Harte trail just at the edge of that clearing close to the perimeter (maybe 1km or so from the perimeter). Â Serge’s trail “zigs” south and east until it “zags” west again close to Wilkes. Â It’s a nice off-road section that adds some distance and variety. Â And it saves you from having to cross the perimeter if you go under the Wilkes overpass (yay, safety!).
Other rides this weekend included Guy checking out the Seine north of Windsor Park Golf Course (rideable) and Hal and Dan (and Lindsay, separately) riding the LaSalle between LaBarriere and the town and LaSalle (also rideable). Â These ride reports were as of Sunday afternoon. Â Keep in mind things (like ice) change, so pay attention unless you want wet feet (or worse).
Meanwhile FatAl was down in Tuscobia riding 75 miles. Â I know he finished, and that he may have inadvertently ridden a few extra miles, but we’ll wait for his full report. Â For now we can only speculate that it was awesome and that he rocked it.
LOOKING AHEAD:
This Wednesday, there will be the usual group ride at Assiniboine Forest at 7 p.m. Â Neither Hal nor I can make it, but hopefully some others can.
Christmas weekend/week after: it’d be great to get some rides in. Â If you’re heading out, why not drop a comment and find some buddies to ride with.
New Year’s Eve/Day: Jon L., FatSteve and others have mused about riding the Epinette loop at Spruce Woods Provincial Park (40km loop, with 3? cabins with woodstoves, hilly, fun). Â I personally can’t ride those days, but it sure sounds like a fun idea. Â If you’re interested, leave a comment or start your own thread for a New Years Ride (see also comments on the post below this one).
See ya out there.
Fat Tom’s Post:
Eight riders and a great night to join Fatties and Not So Fatties on a good early winter ride.
Check out some reports:
Andrea … a la Winnipeg Cycle Chick
FatTom … a la TrainingCoopTom
Fat Dan’s Post:
This past Sunday was another occasion to discover a time of day that I’m normally unfamiliar with. What better excuse to do that than for an Actif Epica recon ride. After stumbling down a few flights of stairs and stuffing everything in my car I met up with Dallas, Hal and Ian before setting off towards the floodway to investigate the route. Once the sun came up and the snow started to fly I remembered that my camera was handy so I’ll let the pictures do most of the talking.
As promised, the route was pretty open and it will definitely be interesting to see what happens when we get a little more snow out there. After around six hours of riding we made it back, good times!
Fat Tom K’s Post:
Finally got my butt (and my Mr. Pugsley) out to a WNR tonight. Met up with Ian, Hal and Serge (hey there ‘Chief’ [it’s a military thing] – it was good chatting with you on the trail).
Four Fatties …
We linked up at the Assiniboine Forest and Hal gave us the route plan:  Forest – Harte Trail to Perimeter – South to Wilkes-ish – ‘look’  for a good connection west to Hall Rd and then north back onto the Harte Trail to return. Giddy up …
Turns out all the narrow Forest paths and wider trails were hard packed snow and the Harte Trail was like a highway (for fatties that is). Conditions were pretty nice at -5C for a night winter ride and only the northern breeze out in the open made me glad I brought my ski goggles. The two hour pedal was just what I hoped for … a good blast with some fellow fat tire enthusiasts … with just an element of uncertainty …Four Fatties Foraging For Fun … in the Fields … Good Times 🙂
Fat Tom K’s MFB Post:
While I’ve been an avid winter rider for a number of years, it was not until this past spring that I got to ride a ‘Fat Bike’ for the first time. Thanks to Morgan at Olympia Cycle, I got to test ride his Pugsley and then make this video about my ride and offering to buy his bike … which I did! 🙂
Check it out (in HD if you wish):
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