The befendered snow twenty rides again

I admit it. I never took the studded tires off the Raleigh Twenty this year. I put them on in December 2007 and put the bike away in april and did not ride it again until a couple of weeks ago. The acquisition of the Big Dummy has kind of relegated this one to winter commute duty only.

The twenty in front of historic fuller lodge


I had an original raleigh twenty rear fenders thanks to BillM(?) but could not shoe horn any metal or plastic fender between the replacement fork and the 20" marathon winter studded tire. I was able to use a plastic shorty fender, which is better than nothing. I may cut up a fender or two and make an interrupted fender around the crown some day, but it is pretty good now, my feet get wetter than they should, but the rest is fine.

I just got a lumotec LED light to replace the old generator light with and have to figure out a chain guard, and I am in business. I have one off a Bianchi Milano I am trying to shoe horn on there, but it is not going well. I did festoon the bike with reflectors from my great big box of reflectors that I collected from the unwanted reflector kits that came with 3000 dollar road bikes.

It is a great ice bike. I give the Marathon winters a B in performance. They do slide a bit on smooth ice, but I have not crashed with them yet. Me being me, I like really fat studded tires and these are pretty narrow, but they do roll decently. They are pretty good for commuting in the melt during the day, freeze at night time of year. They are lousy in slippery snow, slush or anything deep. However, they are, to my knowledge, the only 20" studded tires available, so they win handily in this scenario..