First time riding fat bike on winter trails in Lapland? It surely is a must do experience for every outdoor loving person. We wrote down a few tips on how to make the winter biking experience successful.
1. Check the weather forecast. Don’t plan to do your biking trip after a heavy snowfall If possible. Trails will be soft and exhausting to pedal for a few days after a blizzard. Riding a bike on a soft (even if groomed) trail requires the widest possible tire and really low tire pressure which makes pedalling heavier. We will check the right tire pressure for our customers before heading to trails. Note that lower tire pressure also means lower battery capacity for ebikes as it takes more battery power to ride soft tires. The coldest day isn't the best day for an e-fatbike ride neither. -20c is a good limit when taking into account the battery capacity and human toes freezing limit:)
2. What to wear? Toes get easily cold on the pedals, so wear the warmest winter boots you got. Shoes should be loose enough to fit extra woolen sock easily. Too tight shoe is not warm. Wear winter clothes according to weather and wear layers. Layers make it easier to adjust if needed. Roughly said wear a bit thicker clothing than in xc-skiing but a bit less than in downhill skiing. Mittens are warmer than gloves, but this is more individual. If your fingers are easily cold wear warm mittens rather than gloves.
3. Plan your route!
-Ylläs winter trail map helps you to plan your day out on the trails. You can buy the map from grocery stores, shops and rental shops in the Ylläs area.
-Check trail tips from Ylläs web pages Trail finder and the latest information of trail grooming from facebook: https://www.facebook.com/yllasbiketrails
-and last but most important: Buy map for 10€/season to see real time maintenance status for all winter trails. Funds are used for trail maintenance. https://www.yllas.fi/en/online-shop/map
When planning a ride on e-assisted fatbike, note that battery range varies a lot! As being said, soft conditions, low temperatures, riders weight, all effects on battery range. One could roughly say that in winter conditions the range varies between 15 to 40km.
Few trail tips to get you started:
-To Kotamaja wilderness cafe and back
If all this was a bit too much to handle book a guided tour with us and just follow the guide!
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