First off

skins2

Riding along the main road then turned off onto a back country road, my usual route, and a sheet of thin ice hit me hard on the thigh (b'stard). Considering I'm 17 stone I think I got off lightly, with only a bruise and no ripped clothing. I think the bike's OK. My only other choice is braving a busy, derestricted A-road which I'm not overly happy about - along with most of the motorists which use it.

I walked back home and drove in, how dull.

How do others riding on un-gritted roads gauge if it's going to be safe to ride?

TheWildHaggis

Feel for you,

I had a similar one this morning on a cycle track, small 's' bend with some black ice ,resulted in cheese grated thigh and torn trousers.

At least I will remeber the spot and be more carefull in future.

Wooliferkins

Glad you're OK.
It's hard. All the places I thought would be lethal as I rode home last night were fine but one corner was a sheet of ice, fortunately v thin. Streets in town were the worst strangely. Gritting? Come on it was only forecast yesterday morning you don't think a local authority mandarin was going to green light gritting until the rush hour was in full flow and then only where it will cause traffic chaos on major roads.

biondino

Another reason I am glad to live and cycle in London!

fossyant

Bad luck.

No grit near me. Walked to main road and stuck to it. No chance on minor roads. Fortunately, the surface was dry, so not too much chance of ice - frosted side roads though.

Wet and icy, then I take the car.

Bikerbaboon

biondino wrote:

Another reason I am glad to live and cycle in London!

you do know us hicks in other towns have girtters

jonginge

Bikerbaboon wrote:

biondino wrote:

Another reason I am glad to live and cycle in London!

you do know us hicks in other towns have girtters

kinky

always_tyred

biondino wrote:

Another reason I am glad to live and cycle in London!

Oh come on now. It was only -5 here last night. Cycling on ice helps bike handling skills.

stetay77

Happened to me too this morning. Slowed at T junction and saw a guy picking himself and his bike up from the floor. I went to stop to see if he was OK and as I dabbed the brake I was off aswell.Really bad black ice this morning. Still .....must have given the car drivers a laugh watching 2 cyclists go off in quick succession...

squired

My commute to work now involves quite a few unlit country lanes and I have to admit that I am extremely worried about the risk of ice. I've been carefully watching for every spot where there is standing water after rain in the hope that knowledge will come in useful on colder days, but it hasn't helped to reduce my concerns. Any tips would be useful.

Also glad to hear you are ok by the way. Whenever I think of someone going down on their side it always reminds me of Joseba Beloki in the TDF a few years back, and the terrible injuries he sustained.

ride_whenever

for ice, run your tyres a bit softer, and learn to handle a bike pretty well. I've had one ice related incident, no damage done. I've had a lot of hairy moments though with plenty of sideways action.

I'm also a mountainbiker though, so i'm practised at going sideways suddenly and drifting corners.

commuterconvert

i had my first ever brush with ice 2 or 3 days after going clipless....
Somehow I managed to unclip & stay uprirght and did a kind of splits thing with my leg while drifting sideways. I think it was more wrenching feet out than unclipping though. Luckily I was on the lightest float setting possible. Must have been an amusing sight.

I consider that a really lucky escape though as it was on the run up south lambeth road to vauxhall cross in London and i was in the bus lane with bus behind.

+1 biondino on the liking London for it's relative warmth, plus my commute is main roads & relatively late so usually traffic de-iced by then.

This year if there's any snow at all I'm leaving the bike behind. Any amount of rain ok but snow is a nogo.

Good tip about the tyre pressure though, may do that for the really cold days where there's an ice risk.

ride_whenever

Snow is fine, relatively speaking, just try to stay in the fresh stuff rather than following the car tracks which tend to be compacted into ice.

commuterconvert

hmm, ok, interesting, i'll maybe give it a try round the block next time & see how I go.
i'd just abandoned the idea completely especially after I had the skid i was talking about.

skins2

It happened so fast I didn't have time to even think about unclipping. Sorry to be selfish but I'm glad I'm not the only one getting caught out.

Considering getting those spiked tyres but wonder how well they'll wear on tarmac.

roger_merriman

biondino wrote:

Another reason I am glad to live and cycle in London!

judging how woefully london coped with snow last year i'm not sure i'd be too happy. as note while I'm outer london edge I see sheet ice on the smaller roads around here.

skins2

I've ordered a pair of 700c Schwalbe Marathon Winter tyres from dotbike which are on back order. Maybe overkill, but the 240 studs should help with the ice. I hope they turn up before next summer.

cyberknight

Had a lorry force me off the road this morning on the way to work.Luckily there was a slip road to go into or i would have been mush.

Roll on lighter morning (sunrise after i get to work atm )and evenings so i can use the safer back roads ,unfortunately that route is about 6 miles of unlit country lanes so unless i winthe lottery i haven't got the cash to splash on a decent light.

And as for ice took the MTB hyrbrid on tuesday as it was about -5 and slippy :shock:

the_hundredth_idiot

Bikerbaboon wrote:

biondino wrote:

Another reason I am glad to live and cycle in London!

you do know us hicks in other towns have girtters

Yeah - but you don't have such a "heat island" effect that means it rarely gets below freezing. Can you not remember the hysteria last February when us Londoners had a couple of inches of snow - the first such snowfall since I've been living in London (some 17 years now).