Festive 500
I took part in the Festive 500 cycling challenge asking you to ride a bit instead of just accumulating delicious christmas food. I do ride in the winter for commuting, errands, and the occasional helping friends move houses, but weekly distances of this kind are usually summer-only.
Background
I live and ride in Uppsala, a university city at 60°N and an adequate distance from Stockholm (capital of Sweden). Riding here is pretty flat, but winter temperatures can swing wildly around zero, with ensuring frozen slush on the roads. Darkness fall about 15 now. I ride mostly for transportation (a bike is often the only vehicle you need here) but also touring, brevets, and a bit of amateur road racing.
Setup
For most journeys i used my Optima Orca "highracer" recumbent bicycle. As far as I know, I have no physical defects - I'm just a somewhat lazy guy that like a comfortable ride. It could be the theme for my Festive 500 - can you ride 500 km comfortably in a not-always-that-inspiring Swedish winter week?
The bike is one of few recumbents I've tried that actually can handle winter somewhat OK - probably because of stable geometry, dual 26" wheels and the Nokia W240 studded tires. It's otherwise pretty basic - 3x8 Deore drivetrain, V-brakes and a simple coil rear damper. OK for 550€ paid ...
Wear
Wool underwear, including socks. An old pair of Diadora SPD shoes one size too large - space enough for double socks. No winter tights at the moment - using double undergarments instead. A simple softshell. Thumb gloves + woolen inner gloves and granny's home-made wrist warmers. A buff could be useful.
Navigation
Navigation is by a simple Android smartphone (Galaxy mini with an internal battery not too fond of cold), oruxmaps and Openstreetmap based maps and routing tools.
The phone also provides music to a 2x2W bluetooth speaker box. My idea is that speakers could provide some cheerful music without the earphone-associated risk of unexpected vehicle or creature encounters.
Music
Finnish tango and brass band marches for fighting the hills, some slightly-modernists like Eland von Koch and Bela Bartok for the distances alone. And what better, when the snow has stopped and the moon is shining brightly over crispy landscape, than Johann Strauss wiener-walzer like "Accelerationen" and "An der schönen blauen Donau"? (and well, yes, I do play the clarinet in the local symphony orchestra)
Lights / electronics
The bike has a built-in electrical system, powered by a 3W mid-range Shimano hub dynamo. Both front and rear lights are run from this system; front light is home-built with 3 * XP-G LED:s with a toggle switch on the handlebars for high/low beam. On the rear of the are bike AC / DC outlets for accessories - most used was my small switching regulator box providing two USB outlets for charging phone / speakers.
In addition, I had a couple of red blinkies (in steady-mode, mind you ...) on the bike (most of the time - note to self : find lights with more secure mounting clips). Extra front lights are two sets of Sigma Powerled EVO 900 lm headlights. Those lights have a nice and round beam, very good for MTB-ing around. Which also means you have to point them quite low indeed to avoid blinding traffic if you do, as I did, ride on the road.
Fuel
Mostly sports drink in an insulated camelback (fast sugars + carrot juice - do I still get hippie points for the latter?). Works fine for about 6 hours, even in -15C. After mentioned time and temperature, it becomes popsicle.
Also bananas, our classical cycling food, is, alas, rather unusable in a frozen state (see illustration - and imagine a sounding "clonk"). Chocolate bars, cookies and figs, luckily, stay edible.
Trips
21 December - prologue
- Bike
- Tandem
- Distance
- 110 km (not included in Festive 500 total)
- Weather
- light snow, -5C, wind 3 m/s from NE
Getting the long vehicle ready ...
24 December
- Bike
- DBS
- Distance
- 7 km
26 December - Journey in the dark
- Bike
- Optima Orca
- Distance
- 3.5km + 88.5km
- Weather
- rain, around 2C
The weather from your room ...
Rain in the winter
Road conditions
Still it was actually rideable, even enjoyable in some fashion. The bumpiness ended once outside the city, away from the bike paths. It was cold and raining, probably headwind too, but I was not shivering, and the legs were in working condition.
Fun on the ice
Left the main road 272 and went smaller roads to Östfora and the Siggefora bath and camping (the latter biding its time, waiting for summer). Then straight southwards through mostly forest.
Darkness falls
After some 60 km, I had approached the wonderful village of Järlåsa. I was sweating, but now had to admit that some more layers would indeed be appreciated. Looking for some warm place to change (having a thing for being comfortable, remember?) I found a nice local pizza place.
One minute after getting my hippie veggie-garlic-greek-pizza served, all power went out in the whole village. Our dear pizza guys scrambled their inventory of candles, making it quite a nice place for me and the families celebrating now-something-different-than-christmas-food-please.
A candlelit pizza dinner
Once rolling again (and again going the smaller roads), the rain had turned to snow and then stopped. The world was covered in white and fluffy. So was the roads, and the threes above. The trees were actually covered in white and heavy, and I heard a couple of them fall in the forest during the otherwise silent ride of winter landscape beauty back. (Some had fallen over the road, too)
Where no one had ventured before (in a while at least)
27 December - Intermezzo
- Bike
- Radon Stage 6.0 hardtail
- Distance
- 8.5km + 2km
My sister with the Stage Diva
28 December - Roslagen in the cold
- Bike
- Optima Orca
- Distance
- 3.5km + 142 km
- Weather
- clear skies, -10 to -15C, strong winds from N
Next major trip went to the east. I drew a trip along some smaller roads in the coastal region "Roslagen" to the east. Going up to Gåvsta, then first checkpoint in Almunge. Next control in Rimbo, and then back trying winter riding along a small road that is fun in a roller-coaster way during summer.
Start of the ride
To Jälla (10 km east of city centre) I went along a surprisingly OK cycle lane. After Jälla, I continued along road 288. From this place it turns into a middle-barrier-road - it's what we cyclists get get when the road authorities in the name of safety (for a select subset of road users) rebuild normal ways with shoulders to shoulder-less 3-lane roads with middle barrier. No actual problems anyway (riding like a predictable vehicle and being lit like a small truck perhaps helps ...)
Pretty OK
From Gåvsta I took smaller and much more picturesque roads towards Länna. Probably unpaved, but hard to know. Banana break in Almunge, and taking a short glance at sleeping rolling stock of the preserved steam-powered railway "Lännakatten".
A cold day
Left half paved for bikes, right unpaved for horses. Works if traffic is not too intense ...
From the lovely little village of Rånäs i followed our narrow-gauge heritage again. From here to Rimbo (which is about 10 km), the railway bed has been turned into a combined cycleway and bridleway. Somewhat surprisingly, it was cleared of snow.
Arriving in Rimbo, it was time for pizza break (notice the expensive-bike-watching friendly parking + seating). I was almost looking for my brevet card - this is a checkpoint on the local 200km brevet. No problem keeping warm during riding, but got quite frozen during the break. A bit tired?
A bit too technical for road riding
The small roller-coaster road was a bit to adventurous in road conditions to really be able to appreciate the rolling curves of the road. Also, now I had headwind again.
On the long way back home, things (but not limbs, except my feet) started getting frozen here and there. My phone battery didn't like being charged in many degrees minus. Put it in an inner pocket, and keep the charge wire going into the jacket. The camelback started acting up - put it inside the jacket too. I probably looked a bit cyborg-ish with wires under the jacket, but the road wasn't exactly crowded with people that care about such. Still, arrived in Uppsala before midnight, riding at "minimum brevet pace".
Animals observed : Several rabbits, a silent deer, and a not very shy young fox, just close to Uppsala. Obviosly curious about the strange creature, but alas scared of the camera.
29 December
- Bike
- Optima Orca
- Distance
- 3.5 km
The apples still hang on one three, frozen in place.
30 December - an expected journey
- Bike
- Optima Orca
- Distance
- 64 + 77 km
- Weather
- light snow, 0C, strong wind from S
On the other hand, a warm (everything is relative) tailwind in the darkness home. Almost felt like a hint of spring.
Could have been useful in Prague 1968. Or at Tiananmen Square ...
The Stäket bridge - entrance to Stockholm
Just me, the road, calm lights of the bike, meditative pedalling and some nice symphony
31 December - to Almunge and back again
- Bike
- Optima Orca
- Distance
- 100 km
- Weather
- light rain to moderate sleet, around 2C, medium wind from S
The telephone battery died at km 96 (at least it managed to save so far), so I added the finish point manually to the GPX file.
The long and not so winding road to Hallstavik
Making a sprint for the hill
31 December - epilogue
- Bike
- Brompton folder
- Distance
- 5.5km
- Weather
- dense fog, freezing
I was actually riding a bike, yes.
Last km; wish there were studded 349mm tires.