Bet you were thinking about nuts and bolts. Sorry, we’re thinking about one of our resident cyclists.
Meet Brad. Brad would live on a bike if he could.
(His wife and new sweet baby girl would probably have an issue with that, so he doesn’t!).
He loves to mountain bike. It’s his favorite hobby. He loves the freedom. He loves the challenge. He loves the dirt!
And in the winter, he loves fat tire biking.
When temperatures drop and snow falls, a lot of people give up on doing the things they love to do outdoors. Not Brad. He puts the mountain bike away and gets out the fat tire bike instead. The thrill of riding a bike on snow is unlike anything else. The silence. The whiteness. The feeling of taking on nature in her winter cloak.
Fat tire bikes, with an off-road frame and oversized tires and rims, are designed for low ground pressure to allow riding on soft, unstable terrain, like snow, sand, bogs and mud. His fat bike gives Brad the opportunity to continue his favorite hobby in Central Wisconsin’s winter wonderland at Nine Mile Forest or the Underdown in Gleason (to name a few.) No amount of snow is going to stop him! He says it also teaches him better handling skills for summer mountain biking.
Within the Wausau area, his other favorite places to ride are the Big Eau Pleine in Mosinee, the Ringle Trails (obviously in Ringle) and the Prairie Dells, also in Gleason. All of these locations are groomed and are within a 30-mile radius of Wausau.
Fat tire biking is extremely popular for a lot of reasons, including that you can continue to enjoy the simplicity of just you and your bike through the winter season. Need another? You can burn up to 1,500 calories an hour in soft snow (what a great workout, and because it’s not weight-bearing you can recover a lot faster than some other traditional workouts.)
Brad may not be a bike nut after all.
So come into Shepherd & Schaller and talk to Brad and to our other bike nuts. Ask questions. Tell us your biking stories, the nuttier the better. And while you’re here check out our Scott and Raleigh bikes.
