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Video: Cyclist in Canada draws huge fat bike in the snow

The artwork has even been spotted by airline passengers flying overhead

As you may know, we like Strava artwork here at road.cc, but here's something a bit different that isn't on the social network and wasn't created on a ride - a huge fat bike sketched out in the snow by a cyclist in Canada.

Tom Kolesnik drew the massive bike on the Red River, which runs by his house in  Winnipeg, and which he pedals across every winter when it freezes over.

He told the CBC: “Every year I make a crossing on the Red River behind my house on Kingston Crescent.

 

“Rather than people cross the Elm Park Bridge, I build this crossing. This year, it’s in the shape of a fat bike laying on its side, as if it’s riding down the river. It’s a fun thing that I kind of got carried away with. It’s huge.”

The river is 180 metres wide at the spot where he made the bike, which has wheels that are 30 metres in diameter.

“I put ice screws in and used my old ice-climbing rope to measure out the sizes I wanted,” he said.

“Then I made the circles accurately and did the same thing to link the frame points, and made sure the lines were fairly straight.

"Once I had the shape, I did a bit of shovelling to confirm I was happy with it.”

While making the artwork, Kolesnik used a drone to grab aerial shots to ensure everything was going according to plan.

“For Christmas, my wife got me a DJI Mavic Pro drone," he explained. "I used it to get a bird’s-eye view. I made a few corrections and then broke out the snowblower and snowblowed the whole thing out.

"It took me about three and a half days — it was a lot of work,” he said.

Kolesnik, a keen fat biker himself, continued: “My neighbours are also outdoor enthusiasts, so they approve, and skiers and hikers coming by have taken notice, too,” he said of the attention his piece is getting in the community.

 

“I even heard a rumour that some airline passengers took note of it when they were flying into the Winnipeg airport looking down as they came in on Runway 31," he added.

Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.

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Kendalred | 6 years ago
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Good lord, how cold does it have to get before a 180 metre wide river freezes enough to cycle across? The mind boggles. And we come to a standstill whenever a couple of cm of snow falls.

Good to see that Mavic also make drones as well!

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