Let the snow forecasts BEGIN!

bails87

A crystal clear, frosty morning here, just the odd patch of iced up puddles to watch out for as the sun rose.



Beeeeeautiful

Kieran_Burns

bails87 wrote:

A crystal clear, frosty morning here, just the odd patch of iced up puddles to watch out for as the sun rose.



Beeeeeautiful

Same here - I was very careful on the bends for some reason...

bails87

Kieran_Burns wrote:

bails87 wrote:

A crystal clear, frosty morning here, just the odd patch of iced up puddles to watch out for as the sun rose.



Beeeeeautiful

Same here - I was very careful on the bends for some reason...

So was I! I was watching out for every little bit of shiny tarmac!

mudcow007

there hasn't been any ice yet around these necks of the woods, i keeps hail stoning though

weirdly the clouds have just broken an there is a real cool winter sun

SimonAH

Yes!!!! forecast for tonight!!!! (I love snow me).

JuniorAH fizzing as she made me promise (back in the summer when she noticed her sledge in the garage) that on the first snowy day I have to tow her to school behind my bike :-D

meanredspider

Still snow here. On the MTB on Ice Spikers today (just because my CX is still busted). Loads noisier - more studs on a smaller dia wheel means more in contact at any one time. If the Marathon W***ers are Rice Crispies, Ice Spikers are arc welding or frying bacon.

Merc winter wheels & tyres have FINALLY arrived - 10 weeks of waiting!

rolf_f

Snow this morning in West Leeds. Didn't look too bad but I rolled out the Marathon Winter shod MTB for the first time this winter. Most of the ride was just a bit wet though - the snow wasn't much further East than my home.

Still, a good test run for the Orange and the forecast is for icy conditions for the next 3 days so the Marathons will earn their cost!

bails87

I think the Marathon Winters will be going on tonight, we're meant to get sleet/snow overnight, and it'll be around 0 degrees, so possibly a lot more ice to contend with. Plus if everyone goes mad like in the last lot of snow I'd rather be able to cruise past on my bike than be stuck in the traffic in the car.

The Rookie

Funny night last night, well below freezing at about 8pm when one of the MTB group I was out with had a comedy moment on a frozen bridge ending with the bike spinning through 90 degrees as the front wheel got caught in the railings and 12 people trying to stop on ice before they hit him......then warmish by this morning....West Midlands is forecast snow from midnight to 9am...

Simon

bails87

The Beginner wrote:

Funny night last night, well below freezing at about 8pm when one of the MTB group I was out with had a comedy moment on a frozen bridge ending with the bike spinning through 90 degrees as the front wheel got caught in the railings and 12 people trying to stop on ice before they hit him......then warmish by this morning....West Midlands is forecast snow from midnight to 9am...

Simon

Out of interest, who do you ride with? Godiva in Cov?

bails87

So it was supposedly no warmer overnight and this morning than it has been over the last couple of weeks. And there was meant to be sleet and snow overnight, so I put the Marathon Winters on.


Even the places that have had a constant thick frost for the last two weeks had thawed out :roll:

Oh well, somehow I rode at exactly the same speed as usual :?

Edit: Scratch that, according to Endomondo it was my fastest commute since the start of November

rolf_f

Trip home last night was hell! Conditions were OK but the wretched Avid Juicy 3 front kept binding - sending a buzz all through the frame so I had to jab the brake every 50 yards to try to minimise it (almost all of the commute is uphill.....).

Bad enough that I decided to stop at a bus shelter to loosen the caliper mount so it could float a bit only to discover that I had left the multitool at home.

The final gradual descent before the steep plunge saw me fail to make 20mph when normally I'd be pushing 30!

So, today, given a less scary forecast I am back on the tourer. In the mean time, I've been fighting with the poxy calipers to open them out a bit and in the meantime, I think some new brakes will need to be ordered - and they won't come from Avid.......

suzyb

@bails87 Perhaps because you weren't as worried about crashing?

bails87

Good thinking, but there are only two places where there has been ice/thick frost. One is on the mouth of a minor road at a T junction, so I'm going slow anyway, and the other is where I rejoin a main road, so again, I'm going slow.

My commute in is slightly downhill, work is 3-400 feet lower(over 15 miles) than home, so maybe it was gravity grabbing onto the extra weight and I'll struggle more on the way home. Either way, I was impressed with the smoother ride from fatter tyres (35mm winters vs 25mm Gatorskins).

andyrr

Rolf F wrote:

Trip home last night was hell! Conditions were OK but the wretched Avid Juicy 3 front kept binding - sending a buzz all through the frame so I had to jab the brake every 50 yards to try to minimise it (almost all of the commute is uphill.....).

Bad enough that I decided to stop at a bus shelter to loosen the caliper mount so it could float a bit only to discover that I had left the multitool at home.

The final gradual descent before the steep plunge saw me fail to make 20mph when normally I'd be pushing 30!

So, today, given a less scary forecast I am back on the tourer. In the mean time, I've been fighting with the poxy calipers to open them out a bit and in the meantime, I think some new brakes will need to be ordered - and they won't come from Avid.......

Assuming that the Avid calipers work just like car disc brakes (set me right here) then binding will just be the pistons/seals binding.
Just needs a good cleanup - remove pistons, remove seals, cleanup pistons and the caliper bore (gently so as not to score the surfaces) and reassemble - ideally with some rubber grease on the seals and pistons - hard to get hold of in the shops but normal grease can damage the rubber seals.

bails87

Removing the pistons is difficult and unneccessary, it needs a compressor apparently.

You can remove the wheel (or remove the caliper from the frame), and carefully pull the lever to push the pistons out (not all the way out, just more than they would if the disc was in place), then remove the pads, clean the pistons, apply a bit of brake fluid to them and then replace the pads and push the pistons back in. If you push the pistons out too far you'll struggle to get a crewdriver/tool in between the pistons to push them back in, so be careful.

rolf_f

andyrr wrote:

Assuming that the Avid calipers work just like car disc brakes (set me right here) then binding will just be the pistons/seals binding.
Just needs a good cleanup - remove pistons, remove seals, cleanup pistons and the caliper bore (gently so as not to score the surfaces) and reassemble - ideally with some rubber grease on the seals and pistons - hard to get hold of in the shops but normal grease can damage the rubber seals.

They do work in the same way and there is a replacement seal kit but that is £13 and I can get a new Deore lever and caliper set for €35 and that will be much nicer.

One of my local bike shops refuses to even touch Juicy 3s. Even if I did get them working again, it would only be a matter of time before they were guff again. What I will probably do is replace them and try to service the Avids after so I have a backup for desperate emergencies!

bails87

Turns out i was quick because of a tailwind. Which turned into a headwind on the way home, god, it was hard work!

meanredspider

Snowing really hard here this weekend -especially now. No sign of the hanger for the CX either so it'll be the Ice Spikers and the MTB tomorrow (if it's not too deep by then). Forecast is for much (much) milder weather from Wednesday

itboffin

Was easily the most beautiful day of the year here today, not warm mind you but flipping stunning - clear blue sky with a warming bright orange sun all day, i was out and about at a place called Everleigh nr Pewsey at the top of one of the local white horses were i had to just stop and take in the amazing views over Salisbury plains.

The perfect day.

That said later on i was putting my bike on the roof of the car and almost went base over apex on black ice.

mudcow007

well boys an girls it snowed here on Friday (bout an inch deep or so), unfortunately i wasn't in work so i didn't get a chance to add any footage to Kieran's thread

the snow was only down for a few hours until the rain came....booo i loves snow


althoguh quite funny i went to Asda when it was snowing an the whole world ground to a halt, it took me 45 mins to get out of the car park as people were frightened to drive over 4mph

roger_merriman

mudcow007 wrote:

well boys an girls it snowed here on Friday (bout an inch deep or so), unfortunately i wasn't in work so i didn't get a chance to add any footage to Kieran's thread

the snow was only down for a few hours until the rain came....booo i loves snow


althoguh quite funny i went to Asda when it was snowing an the whole world ground to a halt, it took me 45 mins to get out of the car park as people were frightened to drive over 4mph

Area around my folks place, the tops have had a dusting, see the view from the retail park.


some sheet ice in parts but for most part just pretty, views into the Black Mountains from my folks place was Tolkin like, with white capped Mountains and cloud, to fair does it every year but it's still a darn good show.

meanredspider

Snowy ride in here. Icy snow on top of black ice but no incidents. Makes you realise how cambered/crowned the roads are - especially the singletrack roads

roger_merriman

meanredspider wrote:

Snowy ride in here. Icy snow on top of black ice but no incidents. Makes you realise how cambered/crowned the roads are - especially the singletrack roads

Funnily enough most of the lanes nr my folks have very little crown to them, though one short Street in Hampton has a fair crown and even when just wet has a sheen to it, I always treat that road with care once we get sub zero.

meanredspider

roger merriman wrote:

Funnily enough most of the lanes nr my folks have very little crown to them, though one short Street in Hampton has a fair crown and even when just wet has a sheen to it, I always treat that road with care once we get sub zero.

I think some of the camber/crown is engineered in. Some though is either natural (road runs along a hillside) and some is "wear" - constant vehicle weight/wear/subsidence causes the centre to be high and edges to be lower.

roger_merriman

meanredspider wrote:

roger merriman wrote:

Funnily enough most of the lanes nr my folks have very little crown to them, though one short Street in Hampton has a fair crown and even when just wet has a sheen to it, I always treat that road with care once we get sub zero.

I think some of the camber/crown is engineered in. Some though is either natural (road runs along a hillside) and some is "wear" - constant vehicle weight/wear/subsidence causes the centre to be high and edges to be lower.

While my folks are in the Beacon Beacons it's not a touristy bit so traffic is very low, so the lanes get weathered more than worn, as such.

plus even for single track lanes they are steep and narrow just room for a van or landie.

Hence my folks have a wee bin lorry and the fire brigade test every few years how they'd get there. ie which lanes are wide enough and which aren't.

bails87

Oh dear, oh dear...

Do the weather forecasters used by the Daily Mail actually exist?

rick_chasey

The forecast in the OT was more or less the total opposite of what happened.

Kieran_Burns

Rick Chasey wrote:

The forecast in the OT was more or less the total opposite of what happened.

Yup - complete crap!

mudcow007

so come on, own up.....who shelled out on Winter Marathon tyres???