Winter Cycling: Snirt Road Riding

What is snirt?

Some readers might have seen the term ‘snirt’ being thrown around on FaceBook, Strava, Instagram, and CNN. But what is it? Is it computer lingo? Is it some sort of marshmallow treat? Or is it a manner of blasting phlegm from your face? It’s none of these.

‘Snirt’ is a wombo, or, more fancily, a portmanteau. Thank you, Marty Kellen, for introducing me to the latter term. Portmanteau refers to the combination of two words to create a new term with specific meaning. In this case, ‘dirt’ and ‘snow’ are combined to create ‘snirt.’ This isn’t evolution in full flight, it’s gene splicing.

When dirt roads freeze and are covered in snow, a new surface is born: snirt. Snirt comes in many flavours, depending on the degree to which the dirt road is frozen, and the humidity and depth of the snow. Of course, ice cover also factors, as does the amount of sand that has been mixed into the amalgam. And sand is sort of the key to what defines snirt.

Those who ride bikes and scooters all year in municipalities like Ottawa are intimately attuned to the savage destruction salt inflicts on our machines. It accumulates, sits, festers, and destroys. Salt is at once brilliant and the stupidest thing ever. It is a paradox, a conundrum, a thorn in one’s side that holds in one’s blood. Dirt roads are not salted.

Hal. La. Lu. Ya.

Instead of salt, rural municipalities apply liberal doses of sand to add grip to the snow covering their dirt roads. Do they salt paved roads? Yes, but not always. Do we have to ride on them? Not really. Where dirt roads connect communities, prompt plowing is vital. What if a resident has to get to hospital, work, or Giant Tiger? Gotta plow them roads quick. In the La Peche region, around Wakefield, plowing is prompt. Plows are out there on the dirt roads getting it done, spewing their sandy goodness all over the place. Thank you, plowfolk.

Why ride the stuff?

Riding on snirt roads in the winter is….wait for it…awesome (the most epicly overused adjective of the 21st century?). There are a few specific things about riding snirt roads that make it great:

Snirt road surfaces are far smoother than the rest of the year, so you don’t get jack-hammered.
Traction on snirt roads tends to range from excellent to pretty good with the odd icy patch. Grip tends to be about the same as dirt road riding where you’ll see hardpacked to loose and everything in between.
Snirt roads have far less traffic on them than primary, paved roads.
Snirt roads often have more shape than paved roads, and are thus more interesting and beautiful.
Snirt roads might be more protected by trees than more open, paved roads.
No salt to mangle your bike.
Fenders are not required. In fact, they are detrimental on humid snow, which gets picked up and catches on the fenders, spraying the bike with snirt slurry.
Snirt road riding is exciting, scenic, challenging, and FUN.
Snirt road riding gives you an opportunity to explore roads you might not try in the other seasons.
Snirt road riding can help you smooth out your pedaling technique, because sometimes climbs are a little slippery.
Snirt road riding helps you refine your bike handling skills.

Riding outside on snirt, where suitable routes are available, is a great alternative to riding inside and/or fat biking. For folks who are cooped up working inside all week, doing weekend exercise inside might be a recipe for cabin fever and/or Seasonal Affective Disorder. It’s really difficult to get enough exposure to natural light through the week, which plays a role in our ability to experience quality sleep, If we look at winter riding in pure training terms - as many do - we might be tempted to choose the ‘most efficient’ approach to acquiring hours on the bike. This might be true, but, holistically, riding outside might be better for us. Natural light exposure is vital to our health, and there are bike handling benefits to be acquired too. This is true for both snirt and fat bike riding. Having both options - along with other outdoor sport options, like skiing, snowshoeing, sledding, skating, etc… it’s all good! - is, in practical terms, ideal. We have many days through winter when fat bike conditions are poor or even impossible, while snirt is great. Other days snirt would be poor, and fat biking would be great.

Since Iain Radford and I did our first snirt ride in February, 2013, I’ve learned a few things about when and when not to ride. We used to go out down and around -20 Celsius. Ultimately, that just wasn’t fun enough to be worth it. I created a rule of thumb that has worked well over the last few years: -15C is the threshold. If it’ll be colder than that, we fat bike or ride inside instead.

I’ve also learned to identify the sweet spot, temp-wise: around -5C. When the sun is out around zero, snow gets wet, and starts to cling to tires too much; it flings all over the place. Just above zero, it just doesn’t really work well, as fenders will either pack up or make snow spray all over the place. That temp is better for paved routes with fenders. -5 is easy, as the snow is cold enough to stay put, and our bikes are often almost spotless at the end of rides. Just try to avoid riding through a lot of salty wet areas, such as the roads through towns.

Where can you ride?

Really, any dirt roads that are maintained in the winter ought to serve well for riding. Here's what to look for in a route:

low traffic
good sight lines
mellow elevation change, but enough to keep things interesting
good tree cover to reduce exposure to wind
regular maintenance by municipality
a bit of civilization should things go wrong
a good start and end point where you can meet friends beforehand, enjoy hot drinks and food after, and get changed into dry clothes without freezing

The best snirt routes are those that take you through areas with topography and tree cover that will reduce gnarly wind exposure. If there’s elevation to work with, I strongly recommend avoiding long climbs and descents that will likely overheat, then chill you. Instead, focus on rolling terrain that lets you maintain a fairly consistent effort and avoid high-speed descending. Anything faster than 60kph for extended periods of time will be hard on you!

What bike do you need?

You might not need another specialized bike to ride snirt roads! In fact, anything you ride on rough dirt roads will likely work great on snirt roads. We initially rode fat bikes on snirt, thinking they would help us stay warm by making it harder to go fast. They felt like total overkill, so we wound up working our way down to cyclocross / gravel bikes. It can be pretty windy out there in the winter, so I like my gravel body position on the bike more than my more upright cyclocross position; this helps me cheat the wind a bit more.

Braking is a concern riders might have. If you ride long descents and brake a lot (i.e., drag your brakes), you could encounter issues with the rim heating, melting snow, then that melt-water freezing onto the rim. I’ve encountered this problem while mountain biking in the winter with v-brakes. My old cyclocross bike has v-brakes mounted, and I have very little braking to do on the roads we ride, so I don’t have issues with it. Disc brakes are better, but unless you only have access to really gnarly terrain, you will probably be fine with rim brakes if that’s what you have. Honestly, snirt isn’t really demanding on equipment around here, as the riding tends to be pretty clean, conservative, and undertaken on well-known routes (winter is not the time for exploring unknown roads, ATMO).

As always, it’s best to control your speed into a descent, so that you don’t have to decelerate as much on the actual hill. Gearing is the same as always: depends on what your terrain is. I leave my single ring (38 - 42t) on my cyclocross bike, with an 11-32 cassette. Mountain bike pedals are your best bet. I’d suggest you never attempt to use Speedplay road pedals in the winter. Shimano, Look, etc, ok, if necessary.

Have I mentioned no fenders? No fenders. Yes, you may have seen photos of my old cyclocross bike with fenders mounted on snirt the odd time. That’s an expert-only move, based on my intelligence collecting on snow temps and the fact that I sometimes ride to the ride on pavement (which is generally wet).

Tires?

You do not want to use slick tires. Does this mean full knobbies are the ticket? No. The same rule of thumb that applies to cyclocross racing applies to snirt roading: when there’s snow and ice, you need as many biting edges on the ground as possible. For cyclocross, this means file treads. For snirt roading, this also means file treads. Alternatively, a true ‘winter’ tread, such as Continental’s Top Contact Winter, would be a great approach. The only downside to the Conti is that it’s built for commuting, and thus puncture resistance, not snirt roading. So the casing is stiffer than required, meaning it cannot conform to the imperfections in the snow as well as a more compliant cyclocross file tread. However, the difference might be academic….I’ve yet to test the Conti on snirt roads, just in the city (where they are great on the back, I prefer studs up front).

TIre volume is good, but not a lot is required, as you tend to want your tire to penetrate down to the firm base on the road. 34-35mm tends to work great. I have most of my snirt hours on the Continental Cyclocross speed (34mm) and the Clement LAS (36mm), and both work very well. Tire wear will be minimal, so don’t shy away from using a good quality casing, like the 120TPI Clement. There’s typically little chance of smashing a wheel and flatting while riding snirt, let alone riding over anything sharp, so using cyclocross tubulars that would otherwise sit around could be great. I used tubulars off and on over the last 5 years, and never once had an issue. I’ve also used tires like the Specialized Tracer off and on, and they work fine. Just avoid mud treads, which will do you no favours.

Since this article was first composed, climate change has manifested in the form of some pretty wild and wacky winter weather in the Ottawa-Gatineau region. We’ve had a lot more freezing rain and freeze-thaw cycles than we used to. Thus, if one wants to ride snirt regularly in an area that tends to see volatile weather, it might be wise to invest in one or two studded tires, for reliable grip. The 45Nrth Gravdal in 700c x 38mm would be my top choice.

What to wear?

This question and answer deserves a post of its own! A piece on this topic will go live later this week.

A preface: remember that in the winter it's important to try to keep your effort consistent so you don't overheat, sweat too much, then freeze. This is especially true if you’ve not figured out your kit yet and/or are riding long climbs and descents. I’ll get into this more in the piece to follow, but if you want to dig in now, start with the pieces on Castelli’s winter kit, which can be found in my winter collection. You’ll find my fresh post on Lake’s new MXZ304 winter boots there as well, which will be relevant to those into fat biking, snirt, both, and/or anything else cold on bikes.

Getting Rolling

We’re building our first Ride Guide feature now, but if you’re in the Ottawa-Gatineau region and would like to crack into snirt asap, here's our favourite winter loop, which we tend to ride every Sunday. It's the upper loop from our (now retired) Ride of the Damned, and is actually quite hilly. We've ridden this route for more than 5 years now, and have come to do the loop counter-clockwise on mild days. On colder days, especially if windy and there’s some ice out, we do an out and back to the Paugan Dam instead of looping, sticking to the east side of the Gatineau River, where the road conditions are always better. Ignore the little extra tendril bit, that was an ‘exploration.’ ;)

Tangential Podcast Listening: OLOGIES - Chronobiology (CIRCADIAN RHYTHMS) with Katherine Hatcher