Seattle got a big dump tonight (by Seattle standards), with drops between 5 inches to close to a foot. It also happened fast…in our 'hood, it was dropping two inches an hour of the fresh pow.
I took the Hunter/Gazz combo out for some street riding, and man did the Gazz just power through the deep stuff. I was expecting to slip around, but I didn’t. I was expecting to not make it up some of the steeper roads in our neighborhood, but I made it up fine.
Short of the higher end 4WD vehicles, I’ll take my 1X1 muni. It kicked ass in the snow tonight.
Sounds much better than my completly smooth CC tire!
After I got used to my trials tire though, it handled really nice too, sharp turns would cause a slide, and mounting would have me slip a lot at first. but once I got going, it was amazing.
I especially loved it when the snow would stick on the tire and come up under the frame, so when it came around int front of the frame, it looked like I was riding a giant, round, flat wheel of snow. It just looked kool. lol
I really want to get a muni out there in the snow, even though most of it is crunchy ice stuff now, but those things must power over it like nothing.
I really wish for a studded coker tire right now too. =p
I wish we had snow here (well at least where i lived). Even this year the snow was really crap in the best places around Australia (which are pretty crap anyway). I just want to try some snow muni some time!
Austrailian’s always seem to want snow… but if you lived in Canada, then you would hate snow.
The city trucks come put salt down on our roads, which makes our vehicles rust, and stupid out of town drivers slide all over the place because they don’t know how to let go of the brakes and lightly press on them again if their wheels lock up. Can’t walk around without being bombarded with snowballs by childish teenagers 15-20 age… people who don’t shovel their sidewalks… etc…
If you try letting out some of the air, plain cheap tires will work fairly will in the snow and ice. It got cold today so the traction is even better today. I rode part of the way to work today on worn plain street tire.
I live in Ontario Canada and I ski as much as I uni during the winter! Each day after skiing I get on my uni and ride at my ski club, after hours and after the tows close. I have ridden the 3" x 24 Gazz through ice, a foot of snow and up and down ski hills. It eats up snow and has always been sure footed in every snow condition I have tried it in, including pure flat glaring ice. Now mind you I have never ridden in snow that is any deeper then my pedals, so I don’t know how the tire would react to 2 feet of snow. But I bet the tire would react well even in those conditions.
Even going down and up the hills in fresh and groomed snow, the Gazz rocks! That said though, I have only ridden down ski hills that are rated X or less. I think that the tire and I would be overly challanged on XX slopes or on XX slopes with icy moguls! But I intend on finding out as my skill level increases!
To sum it all up: The Gazz rocks in the snow and on flat icy surfaces!
Oklahoma is having a rare snowstorm, but I’m hoping for some riding time tomorrow in the snow. I’ll be using a IRC Kujo 24x3 (thanks to Jagur) and I have no doubt that it is up to the challenge.
Anyone familiar with the history of the 3" Gazzaloddi? Nokian no longer has any background info on their web site since they sold off the bicycle tire business. And the new site has no history or background info.
I believe the original 3" Gazz was designed as a snow tire. Going from memory so I could be wrong.
Anyways, it’s a good tire in the snow. Singletrack muni trails in the snow with a Gazz are fun. The squarish profile of the Gazz gives it better float and better traction in the snow than other 3" tires.
The verdict is in - IRC Kujo is awesome in snow. Went to the post office and back (about a 3 mile round trip) with only a few UPDs. Only one due to loss of traction though and that was on a chunk of ice, and most of the rest due to my own lack of power to tractor through the deep stuff. Fun but still glad that these conditions are a rarity around here.
