(no subject)

It's officially "everything is fucking frozen over" season. I've got a fresh winter tyre at the back and two old but decently good tyres at the front, but I'm still taking every corner very gradually (either at well below 30km/h or treating myself as having a steering radius of 9+ m) because Essie truly steers like a cow on ice.

Mind, this isn't really her fault. She's got a surprisingly tight steering radius for something with a 1.5m wheelbase, and even though she's got a fairly high center of gravity, I can still corner pretty tight with her when it's dry. On ice, however, the back loses traction very easily because the geometry of the back tyre runs pretty flat overall.

Also, she's not exactly a dainty enduro bike I feel comfortable catching the weight of if I need to suddenly brake, I'm already having to use my weight a lot as a counterbalance just driving a straight line, and at low speeds I really need the torque from the back wheel to help right her if I suddenly start slipping. Anything past about 20 degrees lean is just gonna result with the back wheel chasing ahead, it's not an unremediable situation but it is very scary when it happens.

Then again, the weight is one of the things that makes her feel so planted while driving in bad conditions, so I can't complain too much. I'll get used to the Rear Wheel Wiggles soon enough, probably but for now I'm taking it pretty easy.

I saw northern lights on the drive home today :) it got cloudy after about 3km and stayed that way until I got home, but the one leg that had them also had a star-bright sky and a full moon.