# East Tennessee Mountains Christmas snow ride



## tellico climber (Aug 14, 2006)

We had about 5 inches of snow here today and decided to get a little outdoor exercise after about an hour on the indoor rollers after opening christmas presents. My photo skills are lacking compared to some around this forum but I hope you enjoy them. The last shot is my home in the mountains of East Tennessee which is an area that I am somewhat partial to.


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## commutenow (Sep 26, 2004)

Nice photos!


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## singlecross (Nov 1, 2006)

Glad to see you enjoyed a white christmas! Snow is fun!

singlecross


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## MB1 (Jan 27, 2004)

Oh man that looks great (and the photography is fine).

A tip though, to impress us all when you shoot your handlebars and speedo heading down the road-lift the front wheel off the ground and spin it like mad so the speedo shows that you are flying. 

Not that I would ever do anything like that. :blush2:


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## indysteel (Jul 21, 2006)

Beautiful home in a beautiful setting. I love Eastern TN.


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## tellico climber (Aug 14, 2006)

MB1 said:


> Oh man that looks great (and the photography is fine).
> 
> A tip though, to impress us all when you shoot your handlebars and speedo heading down the road-lift the front wheel off the ground and spin it like mad so the speedo shows that you are flying.
> 
> Not that I would ever do anything like that. :blush2:


I thought about attempting a moving shot but I am not quite adept enough of a bike handler to pull it off in those conditions. I had promised my wife that I would come home without any broken limbs. She already thought my mental judgement was broken for riding outdoors today. By the way, I have really enjoyed looking at your recent photos of riding around the backroads of Florida. They have my wife pining for some warmer weather riding, she hates riding in sub 40 degree temperatures and that is all we have had for the last month or so. I have to admit that as much as I like winter riding the persistant below normal temperatures have me occasionally dreaming of a warm 60 to 70 degree day of riding.


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## tellico climber (Aug 14, 2006)

indysteel said:


> Beautiful home in a beautiful setting. I love Eastern TN.



Thanks, I could not ask for anything more in a place to live. My wife and I contracted our house and put a lot of personal labor into it so it is very special to us. Tellico is a relatively unknown area of East Tennessee. We have so many mountain back roads with a mixture of newer log home getaways and old Appalachia. The people here are the most considerate drivers toward cyclists that I have ever encountered. I used to live about an hour away from here which was totally different in their attitude towards cyclists. This area has choices of riding rolling mountain back roads or a demanding 4500 ft climb up to the crest of the Unicoi range.


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## seeborough (Feb 3, 2004)

MB1 said:


> Oh man that looks great (and the photography is fine).
> 
> A tip though, to impress us all when you shoot your handlebars and speedo heading down the road-lift the front wheel off the ground and spin it like mad so the speedo shows that you are flying.
> 
> Not that I would ever do anything like that. :blush2:


Everybody knows that the top speed with that method can only be around 12-14 mph. One must install a second magnet for the proper effect.

Not that I would ever do anything like that, of course...


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## Pablo (Jul 7, 2004)

Lovely home, great shots. (I get intimidated as well, but it generally hasn't stopped me.)

Was it icy and you just ran a low psi, or was it warm, wet snow? 

By the way ... the Frogs, good gawd, I hated those pedals!


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## tellico climber (Aug 14, 2006)

Pablo said:


> Lovely home, great shots. (I get intimidated as well, but it generally hasn't stopped me.)
> 
> Was it icy and you just ran a low psi, or was it warm, wet snow?
> 
> By the way ... the Frogs, good gawd, I hated those pedals!


Temperature was around 35 degrees, wet and slippery, 40 psi. Yeah, I hate the frogs but I have not got around to replacing them yet. I have had several unplanned disengagements with these pedals in which one of them sent me over the handlebars during an aggessive out of the saddle climb last spring. I spend the vast majority of my time riding my road bike with occasional jaunts on the cross bike on dirt forest service roads. What do you think is a good cross pedal. I need lots of float to match my speedplay road pedals. I have left knee pain with Shimano or any other pedal that doesnt have free float. With the speedplays I have no issues. I have no engagement issues with the road speedplays, just the frogs


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## Pablo (Jul 7, 2004)

tellico climber said:


> Temperature was around 35 degrees, wet and slippery, 40 psi. Yeah, I hate the frogs but I have not got around to replacing them yet. I have had several unplanned disengagements with these pedals in which one of them sent me over the handlebars during an aggessive out of the saddle climb last spring. I spend the vast majority of my time riding my road bike with occasional jaunts on the cross bike on dirt forest service roads. What do you think is a good cross pedal. I need lots of float to match my speedplay road pedals. I have left knee pain with Shimano or any other pedal that doesnt have free float. With the speedplays I have no issues. I have no engagement issues with the road speedplays, just the frogs


It was a balmy 45 degrees and dry as a bone here in Colorado. I had the Frogs a few years during whichI rarely mountain biked. I'd curse them to high heaven for never really being in the pedal, but then not replace them because I hardly ever rode that bike. I eventually sold them for $5 on craiglist, though I'd have given someone $20 for taking them off my hands. I have Campy pedals on my road bikes (one of which is a "dirt" road bike, almost a cross bike), though I've thought about getting a more "cross" type pedals. I have low end Shimanos on my 29er and am pretty satisfied. It might be worth checking the cross forum.


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## jd3 (Oct 8, 2004)

The whole state had a white Christmas except for Memphis. Glad you got to enjoy it.


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## KenS (Jan 28, 2004)

Beautiful shots. I grew up in East TN and know that general area fairly well (some biking, lots of fishing). Were you using an special tires or just low PSI? I would be pretty intimidated navigating down hill turns.

Ken


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## Goodbarsix (Aug 5, 2009)

Oh MY! Gorgeous home and wonderful pictures. Well done sir.


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## tellico climber (Aug 14, 2006)

Goodbarsix said:


> Oh MY! Gorgeous home and wonderful pictures. Well done sir.



Thank you.


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## kykr13 (Apr 12, 2008)

I have a friend that lives near there - beautiful area. Oh, and brrrrr....


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## weltyed (Feb 6, 2004)

sweet house. looks like vacation!

as far as pedals, i use crank brothers egg beaters or candies. two float choices. it feels like the cleat goes earlier than other cleats, but im still fine.


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