Ice - down in milliseconds

Steelride

Took the day off, put two pairs of socks on and hat instead of headband, 3 miles in, slight incline and down I went. Small bruise on leg, scuffs on bar and rear mech.

The bike just disappeared from under me astonishingly quickly. Slid for roughly 8 yards from 15mph.

Nobody saw me. :shock:

popette

Sorry to hear about your fall. Where abouts in the country are you steelride?
The roads of been icy round these parts (Cheshire - just south of Manc) so I've been rollering for a week now.
Fingers crossed for some warmer weather soon.

Steelride

Popette,

Agree about ice on Cheshire roads. Happened near Appleton, carried on though, on the bigger roads.

Steelride.

jamespiggot

Cycling on Saturday near Oxford had two near misses, as mentioned above the rear wheel just went really quickly but as luck would have it managed just to stay upright both times. Is it more slippy this winter for some reason? Can't remember this happening last year, this year worse because of some combination of frost, leaves on the roads?

Or has it something to do with tyres, did read of someone complaining that their Continental Gatorskins were causing them to skid a lot. I was riding on my winter bike with Continental Grand Prix Four Seasons which you would think were suited to the weather but maybe that's not the case?

ddraver

Its bad enough on rocky but icy trails on an MTB where one has a rewasnoble size contact patch - on a road bike, where you have about a square cm of contacvt its no surprise you go down so fast

Sucks doesnt it!! - although Its tyhe only time i ve ever felt like a TdF rider with the whole sliding down the road thing! :P

STEFANOS4784

I take same route from Midsomer Norton to Bath evey day, today whilst going down Dunkerton hill noticed a whiter than usual shiny gleam, and after slipping sideways whilst hardly moving and hitting the deck in a car park i got the fear :shock:
held the brakes real gently and hoped i wouldn't get 30mph rash, however on the way up the other side i noticed the same thing put my foot down and realised i was just paranoid(better safe than sorry) However tomorrow i'm guna try my luck (no emoticon for it but i will be tense and scared)

morite

I tried to get out yesterday and ride to work. Got ready and went to get my bike from the shed, stepped outside, ended up on by backisde. :oops:

went back in and got thetrain :?

Sorting out my turbos at the weekend

OffTheBackAdam

You're imagining in!
Global Warming means there's no ice anymore.

Alain Quay

Yes I hit ice then the road yesterday , my first fall in years.

Now I know what it must feel like to be a professional rugby player waking up
on Sunday morning.

Feltup

I nearly didn't make it up a 1:10 hill the other day because it was so slippery. Normally it is no problem. No ice about but I think the combination of salt and damp plus a fairly smooth bit of tarmac made it really slippy.

Ken Night

On Monday, I had to give out some Bikeability certificates at a local school in which I'd trained some pupils. Choosing to ride, naturally, arrived safely in spite of the icy condtions.

……..on the way home, I saw and picked up a wallet and chequebook in the road, tucked it in my pocket to hand in at the bank.

The sun was shining, the temperature cool,if not actually comfortable, I felt justified in taking a swooping corner on a quiet lane at 30mph, and as I got to the bottom of the dip, I lost both wheels at once. OP, you're right, down in milliseconds.

Hitting the deck hard I ruined my brand NEW jacket, and NEW Ronhills, my right knee, elbow, shoulder (not so new), and scratching the shifters badly, ovalising the rear wheel

You'd have thought at least I had good karma!

Examining the road afterwards, which looked dry enough while I was on the bike, there were no crystals, but a patch of hard glassy stuff which showed no signs of melting

I'd hit the deck so hard, I couldn't get up for a few minutes, and I was passed by a car, which slowed enough to take a good look at me, lying apart from the bike, in the road and didn't stop....WTF?

Headhuunter

No slips or falls myself. I think the roads in London are well salted or so well used that ice doesn't have the chance to form. However went to get the commuter bike from the garden shed yesterday morning and the lock had iced up. Had to boil some water to defrost the lock before I could get at the bike....

madeincumbria

I now have the "might be ice on the road" thousand mile stare. :shock: Didn't go down (just) but have significantly scarred myself enough to buy a turbo trainer.

Roll on spring!

jamespiggot

Further thoughts were tyre pressure, should use lower pressure to make more contact with the road, maybe down from 120 psi to 100 psi. And does anyone know whethe using a turbo does anything to the rear tyre, like making smoother and therefore more slippery?

Or is this all just ice and mud and leaves on the road making them dangerous, maybe it just hasn't really been cold enough in the past few years and we are all getting soft!

iain_j

I think i've had more icy-road moments so far this winter than last year, and we're only just into it. Yesterday morning there was sheet ice on the road from my house- the traffic was stop-start all the way along and every time i started off, the back wheel spun even pushing lightly in bottom gear. I carried on though, it's only half a mile to the main road which as i expected was clear thanks to all the traffic. Don't think they bother with the gritters anymore round here.

ddraver

jamespiggot wrote:

Further thoughts were tyre pressure, should use lower pressure to make more contact with the road, maybe down from 120 psi to 100 psi. And does anyone know whethe using a turbo does anything to the rear tyre, like making smoother and therefore more slippery?

Or is this all just ice and mud and leaves on the road making them dangerous, maybe it just hasn't really been cold enough in the past few years and we are all getting soft!

i don't thinkit would make any difference dude - yes it would be "better" but I doubt you'd ever notice - maybe 2 millieseconds as opposed to 1

winoneday

I went down this evening in a supermarket car park (thankfully on my old beat-up bike) which the management had decided didn't need gritting as "cars won't be going fast enough to have any problems". Consequently the whole place was like an ice rink with me on the ground and shoppers slipping and sliding all over the place. Definitely a good idea from the management.

pedylan

Ice - the only thing that's as much fun as a diesel spill.

It is amazing how quickly you go down and how quickly you realise that it hurt so much that you're not going to jump straight back up.

pedylan

jamespiggot wrote:

Further thoughts were tyre pressure, should use lower pressure to make more contact with the road, maybe down from 120 psi to 100 psi. And does anyone know whethe using a turbo does anything to the rear tyre, like making smoother and therefore more slippery?

Or is this all just ice and mud and leaves on the road making them dangerous, maybe it just hasn't really been cold enough in the past few years and we are all getting soft!

Using a bike on a turbo definitely affects road holding of rear tyres. I use my winter hack on a Tacx ergo. A couple of times I've taken it off and straight onto the road, downhill from the house. I would say it mimics a greasy road near perfectly. The effect is short lived though as the road surface takes away the slick surface worn in by the turbo. Definitely an effect but doesn't last, just watch it at the off.

stabilised

Yesterday's heavy snow (we had about five inches) actually saw the temperature rise here - above freezing for the first time in nearly a week. I haven't been out at all as all I can do is slog up and down the main road, and even that is a bit iffy, as all my usual routes take in minor single-track roads with lots of gradient and they are just impossible. Last year I fell off three times in half a mile and ended up walking so far I ruined my shoe plates.

There's nothing to be done with ice - excpet avoid it if at all possible.

Geoffroid

For the mountain bike Nokian Mount and Ground ice tyres are mint. As long as it is icy.