Fat Tire Snow Biking Hartman Creek State Park Green Loop – December 28th, 2022

Fat tire snow biking in Wisconsin is unpredictable where we live. Trail conditions need to be monitored very closely. If it is too warm, the groomed trails can be ruined for the remainder of the winter. The temperatures this winter are unusually warm which makes for only a few good days to ride. The volunteers and trail stewards are doing an excellent job grooming and keeping the trails in excellent condition. Hartman Creek State Park is a great place to snow bike and you can check current conditions by going to the Cronies Trail Crew Facebook Page.

Snow biking the green loop at Hartman Creek State Park – December 28th, 2022

If you would like to see more Cykelstrom Bicycle Power Meter App videos, please visit @Cykelstrom on YouTube and remember to “Like” and “Subscribe” to our channel.

The Fat Tire Snow Bike For This Ride

fat tire snow biking
Fat tire snow bike endearingly named Snowball

Built from many components from other bikes, the fat tire snow bike, named snowball, is a single speed. The tires are four inches wide and depending on snow conditions I use between 4 to 8 psi of pressure. The softer the snow conditions the lower the tire pressure used. If tire pressure is too low, the rolling resistance becomes unbearable and you can burn a lot of energy going nowhere.

The Cykelstrom Bicycle Power Meter App has a setting called “Fat Tire Mode” under the settings portion of the options menu. Fat tire mode modifies the power estimate calculation to account for the higher rolling resistance of the four inch tires. To learn more about how to configure settings, see the article Customizing Cykelstrom Through Settings.

Strava Activity

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Elapsed Time Moving Time Distance Average Speed Max Speed Elevation Gain Calories Burned
00:46:24
hours
00:42:08
hours
4.83
mi.
6.88
mph
11.78
mph
175.52
ft.
291
kcal
Green loop at Hartman Creek State Park.

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The Cykelstrom Snow Bike Power Meter App Is Available Exclusively On Google Play

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Hartman Creek State Park Mountain Biking Green, Blue and Black Loops – November 2nd, 2022

I ride Hartman Creek State Park mountain biking green, blue and black trails, possibly for the last time before snow. It was very difficult to see the trail in some places due to all the fallen leaves. I ride here enough that I could do it blind folded, but the leaves covering some of the roots and rocks made for some interesting moments.

Hartman Creek State Park Green, Blue and Black Loop Single Track Mountain Bike Trails – November 2nd, 2022

If you would like to see more Cykelstrom Bicycle Power Meter App videos, please visit @Cykelstrom on YouTube and remember to “Like” and “Subscribe” to our channel.

The Mountain Bike For This Ride

Trek Top Fuel 8, Hartman Creek State Park Mountain Biking
Chuck’s Trek Top Fuel 8

I rode a Trek Top Fuel 8 as a full suspension mountain bike for this ride equipped with a 4iiii Precision Pro left sided power meter on a Shimano SLX 11-speed group set. Cykelstrom collected cadence information from the power meter. Cykelstrom collected speed information using a Wahoo Bluetooth speed sensor. A Polar H7 chest strap sensor collected heart rate information. The smartphone was a MotorolaG6 running Android Oreo and Cykelstrom version 1.36. All of the power meter and sensor data was collected, saved locally, and automatically uploaded to Strava with the Cykelstrom Bicycle Power Meter App.

Mountain Biking App Accuracy For This Ride

The best accuracy is highlighted in bold.

SensorsCrank Power Meter (Watts avg.)Cykelstrom (Watts avg.)Difference (Watts)Margin of Error (Watts)
External Speed and Cadence112.73101.08-11.64+/- 2.19
GPS Speed and External Cadence112.7394.33-18.40+/- 2.25
External Speed Only114.06120.436.38+/- 2.62
GPS Speed Only114.06113.41-0.65+/- 2.71
Table created using Bland-Altman Analysis using a 4iiii Precision Pro left sided crank power meter as the standard with 95% confidence level.

Hartman Creek State Park Mountain Biking Results

The smallest bias but highest margin of error occurred when no additional sensors were used. The only sensors involved are internal to the Motorola G6 smartphone that was used during this test ride. The average difference between the power meter and the Cykelstrom App was only -0.65 +/- 2.71 watts. This represents a difference in the averages of only 0.5%. Getting good results like this are dependent on riding style in that I did not coast much during the ride. If you are the type of rider that pedals constantly, the need for a cadence sensor is minimal.

The smallest margin of error is represented when an external speed and cadence sensor were used. The average bias was -11.64 +/- 2.19 watts. If you are the type of rider who likes to coast a lot, then I recommend using a cadence sensor.

In all cases, for this ride, Cykelstrom was within 16.3% on average of the crank power meter. This is acceptable for most recreational mountain bike riders using a full suspension mountain bike on typical single track terrain and conditions.

If you would like to learn more about setting Cykelstrom up for a ride like this visit the article “Customizing Cykelstrom Through Settings.”

Strava Activity

Click on the map to visit this activity in Strava.

Elapsed Time Moving Time Distance Average Speed Max Speed Elevation Gain Calories Burned
01:23:02
hours
01:19:39
hours
10.50
mi.
7.91
mph
14.50
mph
558.73
ft.
653
kcal
What a leafy day. The ride was made interesting by leaves obscuring the trail, roots, rocks, sand traps and drops. Fortunately, I remember just about every feature, so I could ride with only a few surprises. I did have a couple of angular roots jump out and try to toss my rear wheel off of the trail which made for some exciting moments.

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The Cykelstrom Mountain Bike Power Meter App Is Available Exclusively On Google Play

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Cykelstrom Bicycle Power Meter App Download
cykelstrom scan QR code
Scan to go to Cykelstrom on Google Play