Having driven home in a minor blizzard last night, I looked out into the gloom this morning to see 4 or 5 inches of wet snow, with more falling. Or rather coming down sideways in a howling gale. I came to the obvious conclusion that these were perfect conditions for a little solo trail ride. Its so rare that we get the chance to ride on snow in these parts, and there was absolutely no way I was going to get any work done, so I togged up and set off for a little exploratory ride.
  As it turned out I'm very glad I did. Wet snow is apparently not that different from mud. On the roads it was soft and wet enough for the tyres to cut straight throught to the tarmac, although on some of the higher bits its was a bit more solid and slippery. The trails were brilliant, very scenic and quite challenging. Because of the covering I couldnt see what was underneath, but just goes to prove that you dont really need to see what your riding over - just point it where you want it to go and let it get on with it. Some of the snowy climbs were a bit more tricky than normal, and I was pretty careful on the descents, but I managed 30 miles and 15 or 20 lanes with out falling off once. The fact that the undelying mud was not frozen definately helps - snow on frozen ground is a different matter altogether.
  The only casualty of my little excursion was the chocolate KTM sidestand bolt, which snapped as I was opening a gate. Thats the 3rd one thats broken without provocation, and despite 5 minutes scraping around in the snow I couldnt find either of the springs which used to be attached to it.

 Apolgies for the quality of the picture - done on the phone.

-- Edited by Timus at 11:43, 2009-02-06

-- Edited by Timus at 12:02, 2009-02-06