First Fat-Bike Weekend

While the previous weekend was spent single-speeding, last weekend was all about exploring the first snow on my fat-bike. What both weekends had in common was a short drive to get me closer to the Chasseral. From home, this favorite peak of mine is now a 7-hour loop away. While that's doable, I can currently not be away from home for such a long time. For the two single-speed rides, I started in Frinvillier on Saturday and just above Biel on Sunday. For the two fat-bike rides, my point of departure was Les Prés d'Orvin.

On Saturday's fat-bike ride, I was blown away by the amount of snow. The ground was frozen and fully covered in snow. Trees were white like in the deepest of winter. I stayed mostly off-trail to make my way to the Petit Chasseral, which I made my turnaround point. The legs felt good enough for more, but I didn't want to be out for even more time. I enjoyed the sunny weather and made my way back across the Place Centrale.

Sunday's fat-bike loop followed my traces left the day before for the most part. Due to the reduced amount of snow, I looped around the Petit Chasseral differently by climbing along the northern slope where the sun wasn't able to melt away the snow. Because I had started my ride past noon, I kept it shorter. All the slopes facing to the south were brown again and quite muddy, too. By the time I got to the car, the tires of my fatty were loaded up with a thick layer of mud. Thankfully, my 44 Snakedriver always travels in bike jackets. They got a bit dirty, but my car didn't.

It was sweet to rediscover my Snakedriver after it's been sitting in the basement since the end of last winter. That bike puts a huge grin on my face. This will be the next bike to undergo a few upgrades. Now that Chris King is bringing gold back for 2021, it'll be time to replace the black T47 bottom bracket with a golden one. I would also love to replace the SRAM cranks with gold anodized Cane Creek titanium cranks. If they'd be available in 175mm length, I would have set things in motion already. Now I'm thinking of waiting until the bottom bracket is available to have a set of titanium cranks color-matched as well as possible.