I Hate Ice!

[longers]

Came off on Tuesday and again on Friday, pretty bruised and swollen hip, knee, arm, elbow and wrist

Ouch! Bad luck sir.

Still riding in next week?

 

[cyberknight]

Snowed here last night for the 1st time.

Not looking forward to my country lane commute on monday morning,with only 2 days left this year i may wimp out and take the petrolmobile.

 

[GrasB]

I have a set of 700c Nokian Hakkapeliitta W106 35mm with tungsten studs for winter. They are live savers on black ice but not much use on frozen soft snow the bike was all over the place last winter as the crust collapsed under the tyre. I saw loads of mountain bikes seemingly unaffected. Horses for courses I guess.

Right tool for the job; on the first falling of snow I find that road slicks are probably the best tyre out there. Given a few inches of snow then MTB knoblies come into their own. When it gets packed down into surface ice on un-grittted roads the Marathon Winters are the tyre of choice.

You see Marathon Winters are hard surface ice tyres really as they need to have a hardish surface to grip onto to work, they are designed as road tyres hence why they're not officially available in the UK. As a result on lightly traveled back roads where there was no gritting but enough traffic to pack the snow down to essentially ice where MTBers on knoblies are sliding all over the place I've got good grip. There are MTB tyres which are suitable for snow & ice, they work well however they are seriously hard work on hard 'flat' non-ice surfaces & wear out very quickly when used on them as well.

 

[palinurus]

I was caught out by ice today.

Main routes around Watford were fine when I left this morning, gritter's been past a few times. Followed the bus route as usual.

Roads got worse once I got closer to work, ended up sliding down a north-facing hill.

I'll try and use an A-road route for the way home. First time in 20+ years I've found ice right on the main carriageway on my regular commute route (excepting compacted snow). Partly poor bike choice, used the fixed road bike today- I'll use the 'cross bike tomorrow, gives me the option of better tyres and the possibility of descending with my thigh on the top tube and leg stuck out ready to dab the road. Plus I can cut down some tracks for a bit of a change.

Road-rashy elbow, mildly sore.

 

[bradleysmith]

I was very glad of bar ends when i fell off last year I personally think they aved me from quite a serious injury .

Really? I always thought bar ends looked lethal!

Very icy this morning. I took it slow and kept the bike vertical the whole way and was fine, even when riding over patches of very shiny clear ice. I know that if I'd tilted the bike then I'd have come off though. My journey is only 20 minutes so not too bad.

 

[Wolf04]

Right tool for the job; on the first falling of snow I find that road slicks are probably the best tyre out there. Given a few inches of snow then MTB knoblies come into their own. When it gets packed down into surface ice on un-grittted roads the Marathon Winters are the tyre of choice.

You see Marathon Winters are hard surface ice tyres really as they need to have a hardish surface to grip onto to work, they are designed as road tyres hence why they're not officially available in the UK. As a result on lightly traveled back roads where there was no gritting but enough traffic to pack the snow down to essentially ice where MTBers on knoblies are sliding all over the place I've got good grip. There are MTB tyres which are suitable for snow & ice, they work well however they are seriously hard work on hard 'flat' non-ice surfaces & wear out very quickly when used on them as well.

Perfect summation

 

[Armegatron]

Cycled into work this morning, must have been about -5c. Not a nice experience as bike and rider struggled. First off my SPD's had a build up of ice so had to go back into the house to "deice" them with warm water. Then set off and noticed the helmet light was dying but was too cold to stop and change the batteries. Then approaching a hill I noticed my gears wouldnt change as they must have frozen! Eventually got into work and thought I'd have a nice drink of water...nope... bottle had frozen .

So, after coming off on Friday and trying again today Im really not getting along with all the snow and ice!

 

[arallsopp]

Then approaching a hill I noticed my gears wouldnt change as they must have frozen!

Be careful out there mate. I had a similar situation last Feb whilst riding up a big big hill on the way to t'office. Got to the top, started rolling down, and found my brake cables had frozen!

Not great. Last night, I gave them a good squeeze every quarter mile or so, and came back the long way to avoid the hills.

As it happened, 90% of the route was under 7mph rolling anyway, due to weight of traffic.

 

[palinurus]

I was caught out by ice today.

Main routes around Watford were fine when I left this morning, gritter's been past a few times. Followed the bus route as usual.

Roads got worse once I got closer to work, ended up sliding down a north-facing hill.

I'll try and use an A-road route for the way home. First time in 20+ years I've found ice right on the main carriageway on my regular commute route (excepting compacted snow). Partly poor bike choice, used the fixed road bike today- I'll use the 'cross bike tomorrow, gives me the option of better tyres and the possibility of descending with my thigh on the top tube and leg stuck out ready to dab the road. Plus I can cut down some tracks for a bit of a change.

Road-rashy elbow, mildly sore.

Checked the hill today, may have been ice but there's a new traffic island where I came off and some new white lines, the paint is really, really thick. I think the front wheel was trying to climb the ridge caused by the white line and washed out because of that. I'd normally avoid features like that but it was covered in slush that day.

Just reported it.

 

[itboffin]

Ouch! Bad luck sir.

Still riding in next week?

Yep continuing to ride everyday, shame the trains having been running.

Bought myself some Conti Spike Claw 240, perfect on the ice and packed snow, useless on deep snow.