Snow bikes

[RememberSchiff]

Back in the day, my patrol attempted to modify our middleweight Columbia and Schwinn bikes for riding in snow.  Our idea was  to wrap manila rope around tires to improve grip in snow. This did not interfere with the rear Bendix brake which operated by back pedaling. The fenders had to be removed for clearance and rope diameter was limited by the forks. Our swing chains could not clear forks.

In scouting, we learn from our failures - knot tying, fire building, Klondike sled building, and so it was with our bike snow tires. Plan B, wait for snow to melt. 😄

And this morning, I found this!  This is the way.

 

The Leatherstocking Council received a grant from the Edwin J. Wadas Foundation to purchase a dozen new snow bikes, three dozen mountain bikes and safety equipment for Scouts visiting Camp Kingsley.

The snow bikes or “fat tire” bikes will be used year-round so Scouts can navigate snowy ground and rough terrain ideally suited to these types of bikes. The bikes are instrumental to helping the Scouts to complete their biking merit badges and for exercise with their units when they camp for the weekend.

...

More at Source:

https://romesentinel.com/stories/grant-helps-scouts-make-tracks-all-year-long-leatherstocking-bsa,130441

 

Edited March 5, 2022 by RememberSchiff

[SiouxRanger]

Just have to put in a plug for the Ashley Book Of Knots.  Known as "ABOK" to those fascinated with knots.

If you don't own a copy, copyrighted in 1944, and revised in 1991± (or maybe 1993), or have not seen or heard of it, you have truly missed something.  It is available online as a .pdf, and on eBay in hardcopy.  Get the revised 1991 (or maybe 1993) edition.  (No one seems officially to know which knots were revised in 1993±, though there are various lists available but they do not agree.)

About 4,000 knots, hitches, and bends. All drawn in pen and ink by a master artist.  Each knot is numbered, along with a discussion of the knot, a bit of history…

Then there are also plat sinnets, splices, block and tackle configurations, ship rigging, button knots.  (Remember those long plastic buttons that slid through loops on your Robert Hall coat with the faux fur collar? They had faint lines embossed on them mimicking the leather lace used to tie them from when folks KNEW how to tie them.)

Decorative knots, knots usable as tricks, how to make a boatswain's chair, how to tie it to a rope so you can hang from a steeple to repair the roofing, and how to tie a hammer to a rope so you can raise it safely to work on the steeple.  How to truss up an elephant to load it into the hold of a ship, or tilt a ship on shore to expose its hull to scrape barnacles.  Marlinspike seamanship. How to make standing rigging:  "Worm and service with the lay, turn and parcel the other way."

It is a Masterpiece.

Anyway, back to bicycles, there are a number of "running hitches" shown in ABOK.  They are typically used to secure a sail to the boom after a day of sailing.  However, they are also particularly suited to repairing a bicycle tire where the tread has separated from the bead due to the rubber being rotted. A series of running hitches draws the tread back to the rim, which covers and protects the inner tube. It will get you home.  World like a charm on a Troop bicycle trip.

The great advantage of running hitches is that one does not need to laboriously snake the whole rope through the spokes and around the tire.  One is only passing a short loop through the spokes.  Easy on, easy off.

And, from the previous post, we learn that running hitches may make suitable bicycle snow tires.

Edited March 5, 2022 by SiouxRanger
1991 not 1993. Well, different sites give different dates so maybe 1991 or 1993.