I want a fatty but my 29’er is still fun on the snow-packed singletrack

I last blogged about my experience of riding my skinny-tired 29’er in the snow back in late February of 2012. It was a very poor winter for snow lovers here in southern Minnesota and that day at Murphy-Hanrehan was one of the only times I got to ride my bike on snowy area singletrack trails.

Last winter was much snowier and once I purchased a set of Maxxis Ardent 2.4″ knobby tires, I got out a several times at Leb, mostly at night. 

So I was pretty pleased to get out to Leb a week or so ago after a 2″ snowfall got packed down by the fatties.  The beginner, intermediate and X trails were perfect (left photo); the XX loop had not been ridden enough to widen the track (right photo) so it was a bit tougher to stay on line.

I attempted and failed to clean these snow-covered rocks.  I was able to get over the one on the left but couldn’t get enough traction to pedal away from it. On the bridge rock, I’m still not sure what the problem was. I thought I had enough speed on my second attempt but my front suspension seemed sluggish at -5 F. Maybe it was just me being sluggish. Watch my video and you be the judge:

httpv://vimeo.com/81348050