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--
Ivan Reid, School of Engineering & Design, _____________ CMS Collaboration,
Brunel University. Ivan.Reid@[brunel.ac.uk|cern.ch] Room 40-1-B12, CERN
GSX600F, RG250WD "You Porsche. Me pass!" DoD #484 JKLO#003, 005
WP7# 3000 LC Unit #2368 (tinlc) UKMC#00009 BOTAFOT#16 UKRMMA#7 (Hon)
KotPT -- "for stupidity above and beyond the call of duty".

 

Yup. Day after day of learning not to fall off on what was; in the end,
a narrow two lane road covered in solid ice.
Anyone who think studs mean you won't slide about would be in for a
shock. They make it possible but not easy.
Thrills, fear, relief and elation every few yards.

It's the most demanding riding I've ever done in my life.
I enjoyed the company immensely and I'm quite proud of what we did out
there.

 

Beer?!

 

Some of us drank beer, others drank anything alcoholic that was put in
front of them.

 

Hooray for alcohol!

 

Everything to excess. it's the only way forward.

 

all hail the ale.

 

Read it, well done all involved.

 

Nice.

So "Nådde ikke målet" is Norwegian for "Mad English Fuckers"?

 

Nige was guest of honour with a fantastically interesting story?

 

[hyooge snip]

Well done all of you.

There's no way on Earth I'd do it, being far too nesh, but you did it
so I didn't have to.

 

This one is interesting, I wondered whether a few studs would help or if it
had to be the fully monty. Obviously the latter.

In part perhaps because you are augumenting a tyre designed for other than
ice/snow? I don't suppose a motorcycle snow tyre exists as such.

 

The perfect long distance adventure tourer's becomming a bit of a holy
grail for me. Nobody makes anything that even comes close imo. My
'want' list in no particular order is along the lines of:

A low enough seat height to give normal people a chance of catching a
well loaded toppling bike.
V-twin with carbs & easily accessible air filter.
Split-rims, 21" on the front.
Twin-shock to leave space under the seat for a big, low fuel tank &
give a bit of redundancy.
Handlebars heated by a separate coolant circuit.
Low-mounted twin batteries.
No unnecessary electrics (clutch, sidestand, tip-over switches etc).
Crashbars that protect *everything*.
Easily adjustable pre-load & headlight aim.
Fully enclosed or near as damnit chain.
A comfortable, single seat.
Adjustable height front mudguard.
Flip-down screen (to give either weather protection or cooling air).
And in an ideal world, a lightweight hub-mounted electric motor to
drive the front wheel for short bursts when needed.

All of which could be fettled relatively easily with the exceptions of
the split rims & electric hub, but it'd be nice to not have to.

 

I didn't have one per block - I had this arrangement on the rear which
worked well:
http://www.sweller.co.uk/NorwayBound2011/#IMAG0073.jpg

On the front I left the centre blocks free and just had the outer blocks
studded. Alex studded his rear to medieval levels because the rear kept
spinning up.

Trelleborgs are Swedish army tyres designed for Scandinavia - and as such
low temps but don't carry the snowflake symbol.

Heidenau do make motorcycle snow tyres but according to some Norwegians
we met the Trelleborgs are the tyre of choice.
http://www.tyres-pneus-online.co.uk/motorcycle-tyres/HEIDENAU/K60,SNOW/

 

That isn't a snow tyre in anything but name - not a hint of siping.

 

No I don't suppose any of us have ridden distance in -20 to -30c. I'm
unlikely to be the only one that has skied and snowmobiled in those
temperatures and on skis the problem was goggles icing up inside (Canada).
Despite being Scott double glazed "these won't ice up" types. I'd have to
stop every few minutes to clear them and rub them with antifreeze. Hopeless.
On snowmobiles, with rented kit, heated helmets appeared to be standard (I
thought Andy had made one for the trip). Heated clothing too and they don't
use leather. It was a few year ago but IIRC it was heated glove inners with
mitt type outers.

My Doomreay commute was about 18 miles and "normal" winter temperatures -5
to -10. The only thing I ever found which helped (pre electric) was made by
IIRC Bob Heath and Heath Robinson it was. A visor insert made in tempered
glass/plastic sandwich like a car windscreen material. You needed a helmet
with a flat visor (Arai) and an old visor which was cut out and acted as the
carrier/mount. It was stupidly heavy and in the end (of course) it cracked.

It sounds like a great trip and considering the location and distance the
mishaps didn't seem horrendous (excepting the frostbite). I got weary of
falling on rutted ice but you guys seem to have managed multiple spills
without notable bike or personal damage. Do you think it's unavoidable or
would more/larger studs have made a difference?

 

That's kinda what I meant. It's a mud tyre really. Loose snow, fine, ice -
forget it. Proper michelin trials tyres were as good as I ever found, run
at low pressure. But you wouldn't want to go far or above 40mph!

 

Not just ruts but bloody great potholes in the ice, 2" high steps
sometimes.
Basically you had to ride faster than seemed sensible so that you sort
of 'vibrated' over the irregularities without being knocked off course
too much.
Takes a bit of nerve to do this round bends you were sharing with other
4 wheel traffic (some of it a bit bigger than you). More nerve than I
possessed frequently.
Throttling off was a 'bad thing'

I think you would have to accept some spills as part of the deal and
plan for them in terms of repair material and tools.

 

I don't think you *have* to have one per block but it wouldn't hurt
either.
I wish I'd gone for the longer studs that Simon chose.
I don't think I had any problems with the front but the back end did
slide about quite a bit; even with 70 odd studs

Trelleborg stayed nice and soft and was surprisingly good even with no
studs.
I don't know of a bike tyre with car type snow tech'.
When I asked about tyres and studs when we were getting Steves chain
swapped they just said the don't ride on the road in the winter and
mentioned Finnish tyres with 7mm spikes that were *not* road legal