Thursday 25 November 2010

Part Two: How does winter treat you?

Part one created an interesting response, the most popular post so far in the history of flatmatters, some people are forced to brave the winter conditions whatever it may throw at them, some have indoor spots, some simply can't ride, some ride in a typically wet outdoor spot, the photo below of Adam Kun's bike, may be a typical scenario for you for example, it's a topic currently very fresh in peoples minds as its freezing outside right now here. Winter somehow has always been a good time for progression, you knuckle down to keep warm, sessions are more intense I find...
So I asked a few more riders the following question...

How do you deal with the winter? Indoor spot, only ride when it's dry or brave the elements and ride in the rain?




Adam Kun:
Winter is really hard period for me, because in the last few years I don't have indoor spot. Riding outside in winter is not possible in Hungary because it’s usually snowing from December to the end of February -10 degree.etc in the Last 3 years I couldn't touch my bike all winter,which is fucking bad for the Riding.I got injured at circle cow, because before the contest I couldn’t ride so this year I have to find something which gonna be big mission! I will Let you know if I find a spot and winter is hard I know, but don't give up because flat is awesome!


Dane Beardsley:
Winter sucks! I hate it. I grew up in Michigan where the winters are real long and painful. When I was younger I would brave the Michigan winters and ride in parking decks and covered spots. But I grew up and realized the easiest way to deal with the winter is to move somewhere where there is no winter. The world is real big and you can live anywhere you want.


Cory Strat:
I have been back in Saskatchewan for just over a year now. Last winter was real hard, because I wasn't used to the extreme way below sub zero temperatures here any longer,but I was lucky due to there being a heated 2 car garage in the back yard. At first, it was real hard to get motivated because of how shitty the floor is/ was- but then I saw Wilhelm’s video where he coked the floor and tried it only to find it works real good. The only thing was it was taking me an hour to prep the floor each time which really cut into my riding time.
One day I had no more soda pop left, so I improvised and dumped sugar in the water only to find it was better on the tires- but it still took an hour to do. Not much longer I purchased a spray bottle for $1.00 and put the sugar into this diffusion spray of mist onto the floor after it was clean that I must say is absolutely perfect. It is grippy but not too tacky and it takes so much time off the application process meaning more for riding.For me it's the time in which I have all to myself. There's no one around; the i-Pod takes over and I can just focus. It's a time to invent and re-invent. Now that I am finding how to attain this, my time is better.



Aleksi Ritsila:
Here it's sub zero temperatures (celsius) and snow at least from November to March, so guess no matter how brave you are, you need an indoor spot. I have been lucky enough to have a decent one for the past years. It takes though a lot planning, since I can pretty much only ride there during weekdays around noon, not the easiest time to arrange...

Related links:

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Last winter me and some other riders managed to find an abandoned warehouse, it was a dream come true! It was warm, dry and smooth and was rediculously big, we built ramps in there and managed to have the best winter of riding ive ever had. Sadly the place got knocked down shorty after the winter :(

flatmatters said...

Great stuff dave! Any riding is a bonus this time of year, do what you gotta do! I'm pretty lucky to have an indoor spot five times a week, it's Baltic outside right now. I'm counting days till Cali trip! Hope snow doesn't lay too much, certainly feels like it's on the way.

Chris Carter said...

I'm going all out to find a regular slot at an indoor space in Brighton this year. We have an indoor carpark which isn't bad but the secuirty think we're just there to cause a nuisance and chuck us out almost every time.

For my bithday my girlfriend just got me a t-shirt printed that says 'This is Serious' in big letters.

I'll let you know if that helps!

bmxism said...

^Ha!

flatmatters said...

Carter I wonder if you took the time to make a small DVD to give the car park attendant, they make take you more seriously. Normally if you just chat to these people in a sensible manner they do listen, I used to ride a local waitrose underground car park here in Southsea for years and it got to the point where I was on name to name basis with the attendants. And they looked at it as a positive I was there (preventing car crime, etc).
Always a way round it, good luck Carter! Let us know how you get you on..

Chris Carter said...

I've tried reasoning before, but I never thought of doing a DVD!

In fact, I've never made an edit - I should do that!

flatmatters said...

May help in the fact, there have something to look at visually, if they have any common sense at all, they would see your not messing around. Good luck!