Rider down (my mate)

Kieran_Burns

Drove in today (lack of preparation and stuffed head combo) and just after leaving my village I see my cycling buddy walking towards me. Well, limping more like and not looking good.

Turns out he lost it on a bend which was still covered in ice. Completely stacked it, wrecked his rack and the pannier and busted his hand up. A few cuts and bruises as well.

Obviously I offered to help him out but his g/f was on her way and was going to get him home / hospital and was limping back to shorten the distance and keep himself warm.

The worst bit is that he had his Endomondo tracking on and you can see the exact moment is he lost it, and him actually sliding across the road.

I was going the same way as well and the bend he lost it on was still in the shade and there was a lot of ice on it, so be careful out there folks - the cold snap has already claimed a victim

He was running GP4000s on the bike and didn't someone say that these weren't a good choice in the Winter? (I did say to him that I wasn't sure it was a good choice. Not today obviously! but a few weeks back)

pangolin

Ouch sorry to hear that!

I don't think any tyres would work on sheet ice around a bend, short of studs.

meanredspider

Bad news - glad he's not too seriously hurt.

As for tyres, only studded tyres are really going to help on ice and, as I found with Marathon Winters, only if there's enough studs. Hence I just use Ice Spiker Pros though I suspect I contend with more ice than most.

Hoopdriver

pangolin wrote:

Ouch sorry to hear that!

I don't think any tyres would work on sheet ice around a bend, short of studs.

My condolences to your mate. Scary stuff. I am glad to hear he got off (physically) as lightly as he did. That could have been truly, truly nasty.

But I agree with Pangolin. Short of studs - and as meanredspider says, plenty of studs - the brand of tyres wouldn't have made any difference.

veronese68

Hope he's not bad once checked out and cleaned up and heals fast. More importantly, was he wearing bunny ears when he lost it?

Kieran_Burns

Veronese68 wrote:

Hope he's not bad once checked out and cleaned up and heals fast. More importantly, was he wearing bunny ears when he lost it?

He'd taken those off as the batteries had gone flat. If only he'd been wearing them, it would've made for a great comedy 'road kill' moment

As it is: I have a spare rack and a very good pannier he can use / have. He'll not be able to sort the bike out (which he'd just rebuilt by the way) so I'll get it back to mine and sort it for him.

mudcow007

i was wheel spinning on a few parts of my commute this morning

i though it was just down to me being awesome, turns out its was icey....really icey

running marthon's 28 an 25

bompington

I've had a few hairy moments on ice the last week or so, sorry to your pal for his bad luck.
GP4000s are, in my experience, better than most (definitely better by a long way then the aksions I have at the mo) on cold, wet, winter roads - but, as mentioned above, nothing but studs will work on ice.

fossyant

No tyre helps on ice other than studs.

Ouch. Hope it's not too bad. Problem with ice is you come off so fast and hard.

Kieran_Burns

It really is slightly freaky seeing the Endo-track of his accident: entered bend at 14 and a sudden drop off to 4mph

He'd been really motoring as well until that point.