Tips for riding when it's frosty ?

briantrumpet

I miscalculated this morning - having watched the temperatures (only just got down to 0c by this morning according to the Met Office), and with the forecast being for wall-to-wall blue skies, I went out for 40 main-road miles at 9am. Fine for the first 17 miles, went round a gentle corner to find I was suddenly on sheet ice covering the width of the road, and for about 10 yards further on. No escape, and down I went. Grazed left hip, and ache in the lower back now, but the bike's OK, and I cycled home.

I think I'll be looking for at least a couple of degrees safety margin next time. Oh, for the Spring...

CarpetFitter

Take care out there - it's easy to be lulled into a false sense of security once the daytime temp creeps up (rain) but the night's are still cold (ice).

The lanes of Kent and Surrey were very icy this morning. I know of a few groups who went out and all had problems.

P_Tucker

The worst thing is that fraction of a second after you realise you are going down, but before you actually hit the ground. It's almost as bad as time trialling.

evil_breakfast

briantrumpet wrote:

I miscalculated this morning - having watched the temperatures (only just got down to 0c by this morning according to the Met Office), and with the forecast being for wall-to-wall blue skies, I went out for 40 main-road miles at 9am. Fine for the first 17 miles, went round a gentle corner to find I was suddenly on sheet ice covering the width of the road, and for about 10 yards further on. No escape, and down I went. Grazed left hip, and ache in the lower back now, but the bike's OK, and I cycled home.

I think I'll be looking for at least a couple of degrees safety margin next time. Oh, for the Spring...

I'm in Taunton, and this mornings conditions were deceptive as they were vicious.
Posted todays mishap on
http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtop ... 98b213231a

flynn160603

briantrumpet wrote:

I miscalculated this morning - having watched the temperatures (only just got down to 0c by this morning according to the Met Office), and with the forecast being for wall-to-wall blue skies, I went out for 40 main-road miles at 9am. Fine for the first 17 miles, went round a gentle corner to find I was suddenly on sheet ice covering the width of the road, and for about 10 yards further on. No escape, and down I went. Grazed left hip, and ache in the lower back now, but the bike's OK, and I cycled home.

I think I'll be looking for at least a couple of degrees safety margin next time. Oh, for the Spring...

Sounds familiar....went out this morning around the Somerset levels with 3 mates weather forecast looked good blue skies....we all came off at some point.....there was one big stack where we were all riding along a back lane at about 18 mph in a shaded part of the road, grazed legs, ripped tights, cracked helmets and a mates sram red shifter in bits............guy at the front came off and we all tumbled....walked the next mile as the road was covered in black ice.......expensive ride.....never riding the back roads again in conditions like that....we all managed just about to get back on the main roads

If its icy next week i'll either stick to the main roads (but thats dull) or i'll get the mountain bike up on the mendips......Its just not worth it

If you do want to get out in this weather i'd plan the route carefully and either go out and be super cautious or dust off your mountain bike or get in the garage on the turbo or go to the gym

briantrumpet

evil_breakfast wrote:

I'm in Taunton, and this mornings conditions were deceptive as they were vicious.
Posted todays mishap on
http://www.bikeradar.com/forums/viewtop ... 98b213231a

Quite few accidents around the place, it seems.

I've since found a weather website for a location near me that shows it went down to -2 at 8.30 this morning. I've added it to my regular sites to check - I wouldn't have gone out at 9am this morning if I'd seen that first.

briantrumpet

flynn160603 wrote:

If its icy next week i'll either stick to the main roads (but thats dull) [...]
If you do want to get out in this weather i'd plan the route carefully

The annoying thing was that I had planned the route carefully to stick to the main roads - it was an A-road (thankfully a quiet one) where I came off.

To rub salt into the wound (haha), the gritting lorry was in action as I cycled home, though a bit of grit wouldn't have made any difference to the patch of ice I hit.

P_Tucker

briantrumpet wrote:

To rub salt into the wound (haha), the gritting lorry was in action as I cycled home, though a bit of grit wouldn't have made any difference to the patch of ice I hit.

Might have if it was salted before it froze

briantrumpet

P_Tucker wrote:

briantrumpet wrote:

To rub salt into the wound (haha), the gritting lorry was in action as I cycled home, though a bit of grit wouldn't have made any difference to the patch of ice I hit.

Might have if it was salted before it froze

Possibly, though it looks to be one of those corners where water trickles continuously, so generally a risky one, as salt will get washed away, even if they had salted in the night.

Helpfully Devon County Council do publish a map of roads they regularly salt when it's cold. Apparently this amounts to about 2000 miles of roads (out of Devon's 8000 miles), though this was reduced in the recent cold spell. And that they salt up to four times a day in the coldest weather, makes you realise it's quite a feat.

Well, even if the back is still sore now, the tear in the bib tights are repaired - I'm quite pleased with my handiwork.

flynn160603

briantrumpet wrote:

P_Tucker wrote:

briantrumpet wrote:

To rub salt into the wound (haha), the gritting lorry was in action as I cycled home, though a bit of grit wouldn't have made any difference to the patch of ice I hit.

Might have if it was salted before it froze

Possibly, though it looks to be one of those corners where water trickles continuously, so generally a risky one, as salt will get washed away, even if they had salted in the night.

Helpfully Devon County Council do publish a map of roads they regularly salt when it's cold. Apparently this amounts to about 2000 miles of roads (out of Devon's 8000 miles), though this was reduced in the recent cold spell. And that they salt up to four times a day in the coldest weather, makes you realise it's quite a feat.

Well, even if the back is still sore now, the tear in the bib tights are repaired - I'm quite pleased with my handiwork.

I wonder if Somerset publish a list of salted roads.....could be useful......

briantrumpet

Incidentally , here's what the temperature did this morning near me, courtesy of Rockbeare Weather



Quite a dip.

Stone Glider

A bit contra-intuitive but head for the gravelly part of the corner as the grit will project through th ice and give you a scrap of grip. However, as many have already said; by the time you notice that you are in trouble....... it is too late Today I was trying to keep out of the frost affected parts of the road (shaded by hedges) only to be overtaken by intrepid MTB types who's chunky treaded tyres seemed unaffected :oops:

fastercyclist

My tip is ride near the middle of the road. The camber of the road means that most of the water that freezes/frosts whatever...is on the left hand side and it can reach out in tenacles. I had my back tyre slip about 4-5 times today, but didn't fall off. I think some of this is just plain old balance. Sometimes the ice freezes only in crevices (particualry relevant if only cycling in the middle of the road) so everytime you see a small dent in the road, avoid it.

briantrumpet wrote:

Incidentally , here's what the temperature did this morning near me, courtesy of Rockbeare Weather

Quite a dip.

Were you riding today in a group of 3? I think I might of passed you both on sat+sun.

cyco2

The best thing to do when its really icey is go out and get some practice This is important because most riders fall off in icey conditions because they didn't practice first.
From the posts you'll see that hips, thighs, calfs, hands, elbows and heads get knocked or grazed. Pad these up really well with 1" sponge or gets those pads that skate boarders wear. Ride as if there is no ice otherwise you willn't be able to practice the falls. In time you should become quite competent at falling off. So, you can then move on to the next stage because you must have realised that no matter how much you practice you will never get to the point when you can take off all the padding. That is to ask a friend to drive very carefully behind you so that when you come off they know you are just practising and willn't run you over. I know this all sounds a bit daft but why would you want to ride in icey conditions.

potters1863

Checked on temperatures this morning and waited until midday to give the roads a chance to clear a bit. Still took it easy on the corners and picked the dry areas in the sun where possible.

Saw a lot of ice on a pavement, which was in a shaded area. Very difficult conditions but I won't go out early in these low temperatures as there is extra ice on the roads in the early morning, leave until PM if possible.

briantrumpet

fastercyclist wrote:

Were you riding today in a group of 3? I think I might of passed you both on sat+sun.

Nope - group of one (as normal), plus I was working yesterday so didn't get out.

My route today was going to be Topsham-Bickleigh-Crediton-Tedburn-Topsham, but Bickleigh ended up being the turning point. I decided that the Bickeligh-Crediton Road was going to be even riskier, and knew that my returning along my outward route was likely to be OK. The skating rink was on the turning onto the A3072, by the Fisherman's Cott.

cyco2 wrote:

why would you want to ride in icey conditions.

Why does an alcoholic want his next drink?

Boy Lard

Well after this morning's effort, my new tip for riding in icy conditions is DON'T DO IT. I now have a double fracture in right ankle and will be out of action for at least 8 weeks apparently.

In all fairness, it was raining pretty hard this morning so I thought the road bike would be safe enough. I was safe all the way to work, the roads seemed fine. The car park at work was not.

I really wish I hadn't have broken the forks on my mountain bike at the weekend. Or I wish I'd have put my flat pedals on my road bike. Ah well, live and learn.

chalford

turbo simples

Monty Dog

Conditions yesterday in these parts were near impossible in places - no amount of skills / practise can give you any ability to ride on a surface coated in ice and then with a film of water. We had 2 big spills on our group ride - the second one must have wrecked over £500 worth of Assos and Castelli tights, never mind the bend Record rear mech and Time VXR frame. I headed back on my own, and even dismounted in a couple of places where puddles had been splashed across the already frozen road. On reflection, it was definitely a day to go off-road - I'm usually pretty good when grip is marginal, but yesterday it was just plain luck I didn't end up on my ar$e.

MattC59

I was supposed to be out yesterday morning. I opened the curtains to be greated by wall to wall sunshine and blue skies......... -2C and beautiful sparkly roads. After an hour of sunshine the roads still sparkled, so I thought better of it, put my feet up and settled into a day of films

rozzer32

I'm another one who hit the deck yesterday

Just a bit of road rash on my leg and a bruised shoulder but nothing too serious, the bike needs a new rear mech hanger and hopefully that should be here mid week.

I'm busy for the next 2 weekends so hopefully will give it some time to heal. I will still do my usual mid week turbo sessions.

But while I was in the hospital (didn't have any anti-septic or dressings at home) there were 2 other cyclists waiting, one of them thinks he ripped the muscles off his shoulder like he has done before. The other cyclist was waiting for a friend who came off, landed on his head and broke his neck. Really puts it into perspective how lucky I was.

sagalout

It was sheet black ice everywhere here yesterday, so after getting up at 7am I ended up watching the 1989 Tour De France instead - beofre the mrs and kids woke up:) , and just did an hour on the turbo in the afternoon.

I did a few icy rides last year and whilst I didn't fall off, I did end up walking a few roads - basically the risk isn't worth it, although I am getting the MTB serviced so that will be an option next weekend

leedsmjh

I bought a 2nd hand MTB yesterday thinking it'd be a better bet than the road bike when really cold .... and promptly crashed it on sheet ice on my first excursion out on it.

sagalout

Yeah, but nice trails tend not to get icy, as long as it's not so cold it's frozen solid

Fat-Boy-Roubaix

I set off on my first commute yesterday morning on my slicks, set off from Croydon area, was fine maybe even balmy for this time of year as I crossed the north downs Redhill, it became very cold and most puddles were icey, took it easy. Got to work and nipped out inthe car to get a drink and went sideways in the first corner, reckon it was more luck than skill and judgement that I didn't end up on my arris on the bike in the morning!

topdude

Another demise
Looked like a nice sunny day Sunday for a ride in the New Forest.
All going well until----what looked like a wet road, was actually water on top of ice.
Never knew what happened, upright one second, lying on road the next.
Bad thing - landed on hip, badly bruised and cannot walk or drive.
Good thing - no bones broken and was not riding my best bike. Phew !!

Sometimes better if you don't have time to prepare for a fall so you don't tense up or stick out an arm

Casbar

Fat-Boy-Roubaix wrote:

I set off on my first commute yesterday morning on my slicks, set off from Croydon area, was fine maybe even balmy for this time of year as I crossed the north downs Redhill, it became very cold and most puddles were icey, took it easy. Got to work and nipped out inthe car to get a drink and went sideways in the first corner, reckon it was more luck than skill and judgement that I didn't end up on my arris on the bike in the morning!

You ride to work , but take a car at work to nip out to get a drink ? :shock:

rozzer32

Casbar wrote:

Fat-Boy-Roubaix wrote:

I set off on my first commute yesterday morning on my slicks, set off from Croydon area, was fine maybe even balmy for this time of year as I crossed the north downs Redhill, it became very cold and most puddles were icey, took it easy. Got to work and nipped out inthe car to get a drink and went sideways in the first corner, reckon it was more luck than skill and judgement that I didn't end up on my arris on the bike in the morning!

You ride to work , but take a car at work to nip out to get a drink ? :shock:

Depends who you work for. I work for a car company so we have lots of department cars that we can take if we need to go get something.

And I commute to work and back on the bike if the weather is good.

Fat-Boy-Roubaix

lol perhaps I should have explained, my commute is 14.74 (corrected from 16:-) ) miles and as my user name suggests not the fittest person in the world and it is a little hilly, so I look to make 6 runs a week, so I go in to work to collect the Bike Sunday leaving the car behind and ride home and then in, drive home etc.

It means I get 6+ hours of excercise and 90 odd miles a week. And if I am really honest it means the following morning I have no option but to cycle, no matter the weather or how much I convince myself I can't be bothered. I have found no matter how good intentioned I am when the car and bike were an option in the morning, if it was peeing down of I was hungover the car won!

Bar Shaker

If the roads are frosty, I leave the roadie at home and take out the mtb.

On Sunday morning 5 mates went out on their road bikes, 3 of them having quite bad offs. Having been out once on it and unclipping at every slight bend, I now feel much safer of a frozen, bumpy bridleway.