A riddle wrapped inside an enigma

It's 35F. On side streets, there's a layer of melty hardpack on top of a shifting layer of ice. On arterials, there's a film of slushy gunk and big berms of snow pushed to the edge of the narrow lanes. There's still too many patches of ice and snow for me to feel comfortable riding a bike with slick tires. Probably tomorrow the arterials will be clear enough.

But today, I have two bike choices: the single speed mountain bike with studs and full fenders. Or the Rawland, with gears and honking knobbies, but only a clip on rear fender and no front fender. I rode the Rawland to a meeting last night in a hurry on the wet slushy arterials and the front of my jeans were fairly soaked upon arrival.

Front porch shot: disregard the lingering Santa.
See the snow? It's melting dangerously!

This time of year I prefer to ride on non-arterials to get to work. It's more enjoyable. But out of my 8 mile round trip, I usually spend at least 1 mile on arterials. So I will get wet. I guess I could get all nerded out with the full-leg Rain Mates (same idea as Rain Legs, but hopefully will last longer AND there's an extra-nerd feature that allows you to clip on sections from knee to ankle).

The single speed full-fendered bike is rad. I like the single speedness of it and I really love the full fenders (with flap). No spray at all. But two issues do bug me: the relatively narrow studded tires sink into the shifty/soft semi-firm hard pack. And studs really slow you down on wet corners. Or they should anyway, cause studs don't corner well on wet pavement.

The real answer here of course is to get another bike! A fully fendered, geared, fat-knobbied bike. Hmmm. Uhhh. Thinking. Pondering. Wondering....uh, the Troll?