...in the ice
Pretty scary. Even here in W1 the back roads are pretty snowy. And some fool drives towards you at 20mph whilst you're innocently crossing the road.
Normally pretty scary, but you can hear them coming. Until...
At lunchtime, I wandered out for my customary sandwich, and a cyclist headed towards me, shifting some. Over a patch of ice, and I watched him slide onto the tarmac at which point he recovered and shot off.
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Been walking a lot today and I find the roads are worse the pavements as the pavements still have a lot fo snow on them.
Was watching traffic at a junction and I really really wished I was a coppper. In just one minute so I saw so much dangerious driving people jumping red lights, people speeding up on amber on a road with lots of sluch on it.
Then there is also the idiots driving round with letterboxes for a window.
How anybody can ride a bike in this weather I will never know. I have to wear my massive wellies otherwise I slide all over the place.
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Tyres. Mit spikes. Apparently v. good on snow. Cycling fora have plenty of info. Have too much fear of hospital to try it myself.....
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I cycled in this morning. I bike everyday no matter what the weather.
It was quite easy, the chunky tyres gripped the crunchy snow and ice. I only had one wobbly bit turning left at a slow speed. In fact I was going as fast as the cars so everyone was taking it nice n steady. The biggest problem I had was I couldnt change gear - and the front v-brakes were frozen so wouldnt release properly. Bike could do with a good clean in the spring.
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...I bike everyday no matter what the weather...
We've not seen Bromptonaut for a few days.
Hope he's OK - that bike of his would be a handful on snow with its little wheels.
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Maybe he lost it on a bend and is hanging upside down dangling from his stabilisers.
Nasty!
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>>We've not seen Bromptonaut for a few days.
A few days?
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"Maybe he lost it on a bend and is hanging upside down dangling from his stabilisers."
Hope his pencil case didn't fall out of his basket.
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A week ago Sunday, my wife and I went out for a short 5 mile trip on the bikes - half of which was on cyclepath, the rest on normal roads. There was little ice/snow at that time, and copious amounts of grit had been slung around. About 200 yds before reaching home, my wife realised that her back tyre was flat and then a couple of days later when I came to fix it, I discovered that mine had gone flat as well.
It turned out that the punctures were due to sharp bits of road grit spread by the council. Although my bike is a brand new Specialized Crosstrail, I may have to prematurely replace the tyres with Schwalbe Marathon Pluses.
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I have Slime inner tubes. They've been pretty good for resisting punctures. Only had one flat in the past 5 years.
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Blimey, I've had three this summer.
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>> Was watching traffic at a junction and I really really wished I was a coppper
>> dangerious driving people jumping red lights, people speeding up on amber on a road with lots of sluch on it.
One shudders at the thought of Sheikh Rattolo complete with traffic cone on head leaping into the road in front of these PERFECTLY NORMAL AND RESPECTABLE DRIVERS TRYING TO GET A MOVE ON with an imperious hand held high and scant regard for the laws of physics...
'Mamma, mamma, what is that mess
That looks like strawberry jam?'
'Hush hush my dear, it's Rattleandroll
Run over by Armel Coussine, Zero, and a host of others pressed for time...'
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As is normal, I find running on snow safer than walking on it... Something about getting more quickly oover the icy bits.. or maybe it's the treads on my trail shoes?
Gotta wear running tights under my trackies tho, as it tends to be very very cold..in the mornings with a few frost pockets which are 2 C lower than anywhere else...
Last edited by: madf on Mon 20 Dec 10 at 21:26
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Bike actually works pretty well in this type of weather, and the usual speed differential is much reduced. Fixed works well as you have really sensitive control of your speed without recourse to brakes. Deep rutted frozen roads are the biggest problem, when your wheel gets stuck in a rut...
But even I bottled out in the -12 yesterday, and took the car.
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On the bike this morning it felt worse that yesterday. Slightly warner and a slight melt has made the snow less crunchy and grippy. May stick to the main roads next time instead of the side roads and estates.
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4.5 mile run to the station at 6.15 yesterday morning (about -8C I think) was ok, going in a straight line on flat pavements. But the nice firm ice/snow had turned to slush in many places by the time I came home, and as TMWNN said, that was a lot less grippy. Working at home today.
I can see the main roads are clear so could probably take the bike, but it's those patches of ice/slush that stick out from the kerb a bit more than the others that scare me.
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Life as a pedestrian... (or cyclist) - RattleandSmoke
