Studded Up, Platformized and Bootiful

I honestly thought we were gonna get through winter in this town without having to worry about snow and ice. I really did. It just took so long to get here that I'd somehow convinced myself that we had moved through and past it. Apparently then, I was in error.

Don't get me wrong - I'm on record in multiple posts wishing, longing, praying for snow. No need to remind me. But it was the light, fluffy idealistic kind that I was dreaming about. Not this real shit.

In the course of the last coupla days, I've been slapped around a bit and forced to deal with reality. I've hit the deck more than once. I have impressive bruises to show for it in places that you don't want me to photograph. Now I remember.

But it's not a bad thing, where my head has adjusted to - it's just where it must be:  Stud season is here. I accept  it: Freeze, thaw, freeze, thaw. Meh. As of tonight I'm back to sporting carbide.

And also, in the never ending internal conflict of platforms vs clipless, my pendulum has swung way to the platform side over the last 3 days, after falling over on the fatbike a coupla times. Which I attribute to not being able to get clipped in or out fast enough.  Fair or not, I'm rolling with that excuse. So platforms it is on all my bikes for now and ever more!  Or until I change my mind.

These are the pedals John gifted to me one day when I was wishing out loud for something grippier for the pump track bike but which I never had the balls to use once I looked at the take-it-to-the-bone nature of those studs.  In winter, with multiple layers and the legitimate need for some grip, they don't scare me quite as bad.

Now that I am fully committed to flats, I needed boots with a stiff sole. Cheap bastard that I am, they couldn't cost an arm and a leg. Fortunately, they were on sale.

So this is now the sum of my bike plan about how to get through the rest of this winter.

Big and little.

It would appear that some kind of adventure must certainly lie in store.