Ice

lynseyf

I've been cycling to work for 6 years now on a mtb. Last year I bought a FS mtb and put some specialized nimbus road tyres on my old mtb which is now only used for commuting. All went well until after the Christmas holidays, The first day back I hit a huge patch of sheet ice and came off my bike, I didn't hurt myself though as I just skidded across the ice for about 10m. Last week I hit a smaller patch of ice which I hadn't seen at all, unfortunately as I was braking going downhill. I fell off my bike again but landed on my knee this time and haven't been able to do much with it for the last week.

How does everyone else cope with ice, I can cycle 90% of my commute on cycle paths but obviously they are not gritted. Should I put my old mtb tyres back on?????

redddraggon

lynseyf wrote:

Should I put my old mtb tyres back on?????

How would that help on sheet ice? With knobblies you lower the area of surface compared to a slick.

On solid ground, slicks are far better, knobblies are for mud etc. Slicks are better on wet roads aswell.

However if you hit a patch of ice, neither slicks or knobblies are really any good. You need studded tyres for ice.

redvee

If you're sliding on ince then no tyre is gonna help, you're f***ed!. I remember years ago commuting in the snow on slicks and looking up at the motorway and thinking how slow th traffic was moving then looked at the road and realised I was on the wrong side :oops:

prj45

lynseyf wrote:

How does everyone else cope with ice

Its a while since I had to cope with ice, but I did a couple of years back, just coming up from a canal and onto the road. I coped by losing my bike from under me in a millionth of a second and grazing both hands very badly, through my gloves.

I felt like a kid for a while, bottom lip was going and all I think I was in so much pain.

Good for the soul though.

fossyant

I catch the bus - had some nasty falls on ice in the past, and one fall can put you off the bike for longer than a few days on the bus/car/tube. My commute is busy, one fall might see me under a car.

fossyant

Heads Up - Ice forecast for Tues 22nd - morning - clear spells after all the rain overnight....watch out

neslon

Ice is horrible. Even going slowly in a straight line can put you off. And going flat out into a bend while thinking about work ten hitting ice can leave your nice new GoreWear stuff in tatters (No prizes for guessing who did this last week).

Adamskii

If the roads are gritted near you then why not consider riding on them? Just slow down on the bends and stay as upright as possible.

Belv

There's no easy answer. We don't live in a cold enough climate to use studded ice tyres (well not down here in the south), so you've just got to be careful. If you're bolt upright and not braking then you should just roll over small ice patches with no problems. Take extra time to slow down (when possible) and corner by steering instead of leaning. If there are parts of your journey prone to ice, leave early and walk them or take a detour.

BentMikey

There's simply no way you can corner without leaning, else you'd be defying the laws of physics. I suspect you mean go real slow around corners!

Belv

BentMikey wrote:

There's simply no way you can corner without leaning, else you'd be defying the laws of physics. I suspect you mean go real slow around corners!

I suspect you aren't going slow enough if you can't corner without leaning.

ChrisLS

...I will ride through most weather conditions...but not ice...two wheels and ice don't go together...

Shadowduck

The tricks I learned for dealing with ice or diesel from my motorcycling days...

Don't try to accelerate.
Don't try to decelerate. Brake hard before you hit the ice if you can, but make sure you're off the brakes before you hit it.
Try not to turn on the ice - turn more sharply before or after the ice so you can cross the ice in a straight line.
If you have to turn on ice, don't lean the bike - lean your body over and keep the bike as upright as possible.

Of course, the above is all irrelevant if you don't see the ice!

I've come off a motorcycle once on ice (had to emergency brake thanks to some berk in a car) and never on a bicycle so it must work to some extent - I've been commuting year round on two wheels for most of my working life.

Right, I'm off to sacrifice a chicken to the irony gods in an attempt to avoid the inevitable off now I've said that... :shock:

BentMikey

Belv wrote:

I suspect you aren't going slow enough if you can't corner without leaning.

Even when you're going very slow you still have to lean, just not very much.

Adamskii

It's all about counter balance. It is possible.

You wouldn't think skiing would be possible but it is!

BentMikey

Errr, NO. If you're turning, you're leaning. At slow speeds, it might not be very much, and that's easy to miss, but the lean is still there.

Adamskii

If you lean with the bike you will probably fall off.

If you keep the bike up right or even tilt it slightly outwards and shift your weight out of the saddle to the inside (not leaning) then you won't fall off.

Random Vince

i've found i can control the mountain bike on ice if its on its uber knobbley tyres (soft compound rubber) than when its on its road / dirt track tyres

wet zebra crossing and i'm off in half a seccond on the road bike!

used to spend days playing on ice on the mountain bike tho, so that might have something to do with it

lynseyf

Thanks for all the replies.

the reason I was asking about changing back to mtb tyres was because I have been cycling to work on them for 5 winters and never fallen off my bike, this is my first winter on the slick tires and I fell off twice in 3 days.

There was ice this morning, I got off and walked at some bits.

Going by roads is an option but the cycle path is so much nicer ( until the ice), no cars or buses trying to kill me.

I just wanted to see if people recommended a specific tyre for icy days or something like that, I also feel better knowing that lots of other people have fallen and sat there looking like a 5 year old wishing someone would go by to help them.

cee

lynseyf wrote:

How does everyone else cope with ice

tentatively

goo_mason

I came off 5 times on the same commute in December. Even off the bike it was all I could manage to stay upright on foot (ended up holding on to a hedge with one hand and the bike with the other).

Walked the last three miles as I'd broken off the rear light bracket and knackered the gears / bent the hanger by that point, so wasn't safe to cycle on the road either.

Managed a few very, very scary and nerve-wracking icy trips in to work safely since the start of the year, but I'm now erring on the side of caution as I know my luck won't hold much longer. It's the bus at the mo when there's a freeze - don't fancy the pain of falling off nor the pain to my bank balance replacing the broken bike bits all over again !

Belv

lynseyf wrote:

Thanks for all the replies.

the reason I was asking about changing back to mtb tyres was because I have been cycling to work on them for 5 winters and never fallen off my bike, this is my first winter on the slick tires and I fell off twice in 3 days.

If you feel more comfortable on knobblies, then use them. The confidence alone will help, but i think the message is not to assume that a knobbly tyre is going to stick on ice.

lynseyf wrote:

There was ice this morning, I got off and walked at some bits.

For this i recommend wearing some ice climbing spikes

bossman13

What I really need is a decent 'ice watch' site where I can pump in my postcode and it tells me if there is (black) ice around (well, a decent weather website which tells me current temperatures would do!)

My 'head out the bathroom window' strategy for anticipating an icey journey let me down badly last week!

redddraggon

bossman13 wrote:

What I really need is a decent 'ice watch' site where I can pump in my postcode and it tells me if there is (black) ice around (well, a decent weather website which tells me current temperatures would do!)

My 'head out the bathroom window' strategy for anticipating an icey journey let me down badly last week!

If I look outside and the cars have frost on their roof, there's chance of black ice - and I cycle anyway. If I look out outside and can't see any frost, it's probably safe.