Hit the Deck-ember

walkingbootweather

Managed to survive last month's spate of tumbles but took a fall this morning before I even got on the bike. It's like an ice rink out there. Discretion being the better part of valour, and with a somewhat sore hip, I put the bike back and drove in this morning. Be careful peeps.

veronese68

Did you not get the memo? Rubber side down-ember is what we're aimimng for.

asprilla

Sorted out bike parts and tools in the garage last night which means I can actually get round to building up the CX this week. Looks like I've got until the weekend before I need to.

anti_podean

Veronese68 wrote:

Did you not get the memo? Rubber side down-ember is what we're aimimng for.

Alternatively known as shiny side up-ember among some parts of the motorcycling fraternity...

mudcow007

nearly came off 3 times this morning

doing power slides in the ice on your bike doesn't half wake you up pronto in the morning

Kieran_Burns

There's a tiny little climb on the way in:

East Leake

I put some pressure on the pedals to push up the hill and the back wheel span out (GP 4 Seasons) repeatedly.

This Junction was a flaming ice rink; I had to unclip and almost walk the bike around it. There was a guy in a jag waiting to pull out as I was turning right and he was clearly sympathetic. This was where I came a cropper last Winter.

That was less of a commute and more of a survival course. I'm not looking forward to this evening.

the_fuggler

Once it gets really greasy and icy, I don't think many tyres will help - particularly when deploying 'teh power awesum' uphill.

bushu

Suppose my GP 4 purchase was wasted then.. should've stumped up for the Marathon winters?

Black ice everywhere but the main ringroad, which luckily enough is most of my route 8)
Super nervous clipping in before reaching the ringroad, might revert to the chunky mongoose to prevent early natural selection

nation

No ice for me this morning, though visible frost in a few places.

Still having to tiptoe around junctions and especially roundabout because any damp road seems to be greasy as hell lately.

Ordered a Schwalbe Durano to stick on the front and dropped my tyre pressures a bit, which seems to be helping.

richk

I went down on ice yesterday morning. Would have been a nothing crash but for it aggrevating my collar bone (broken in 2 places 18 months ago). As with the OP, took the car this morning (mainly to placate MrsK). I'd forgotten how slow commuting by car is :?

Kieran_Burns

Well, I was right to worry.

Stiff headwind kept my speed down and a justified degree of nervousness kept me from trying ANYTHING like pushing. I got to the stretch from this morning and was riding gingerly down the road when the bike decided it wanted to investigate the hedge.

We had a short discussion, I won but there was some serious grumbling and several further attempts to look VERY closely at the hedge from the bike but I stopped this by riding right-down-the-fecking-middle-of-the-fecking-road-and-you-can-bollocks-bike.

(in English: there were STILL standing pools of water from the floods, cars had splashed the water all over the road and it had turned to black ice. I won't say I was THAT scared but you could've unclipped me, removed my hands from the bars and I would've still lifted the bike off the ground if picked up.)

Initialised

I hit the deck descenging this trail earlier, thankfully the snow broke my fall.

sufferingpete

Hit the deck yesterday at 20 MPH. On a country lane the temperature was +4 when I set off so I thought it would be OK. Obviously not. Lots of bruising and some road rash. Damaged both rear lights. Bought one new light on way home and covered the other with clingfilm.

Hit the deck to day this time at 29 MPH. The road wore a hole though the plaster from yesterday and caused more road rash. At least no bones broken so should heal ok. Knee may scar but that was scared from last year. I really though I could take enough care even though I knew it would be icy. New rear light ok cling film worn away.

Car tomorrow for weekly shop.

gbsahne001

Coming through the centre of Reading, woman texting steps out straight in front of me; we both go down and I'm left with road rash on a leg and a bruised cheek from where my head hit the ground.

Woman in question appeared to be OK as she seemed to move away from the scene PDQ. Don't know if the bike has any issues but it seemed to ride the last 8 miles OK.

itboffin

So this woman ....was she good looking or not? :roll:

dunnnooo

Sorry- think I carried the bad luck over. Went into the back of a car on the 1st, going round elephant and castle. Body's fine, but need a new commuter, dammit. This is the wrong month to make expensive purchases.

herb71

First fall in a number of years this morning, (ignoring clip in comedy falls). It was pretty icy, so we were being careful, but coming off the brakes at the bottom of a hill bike went from under me. Hit the ground with a bit of a clout. We were about an hour into a 3 hour ride, bike was okay and I was okay bar a couple of bruises on hip and elbow so I finished the ride. All ok now, but I must have jarred my neck, it's pretty sore.

Be careful out there.

gbsahne001

itboffin wrote:

So this woman ....was she good looking or not? :roll:

fail.... wasn't checking!

Bike doesn't seem too bad, RH grip scratched up, as is the SPD and the rear mech but it still seems to shift fine so hopefully hanger is undamaged. What I can't figure out though, is that all the minor damage is on the RH side but the bang on the side of my face is on the LH side and the helmet is completely scratch free.

itboffin

So basically what you're saying is helmets are useless

gbsahne001

not entirely, it seems that whilst it appears scratch free, the force of impact was sufficient to break the plastic inner of the helmet. Specialized used to do a crash replacement service (50% discount) so I might contact them in the morning.... was getting a bit smelly anyway.

itboffin

Smelly helmet yuck

gbsahne001

itboffin wrote:

Smelly helmet yuck

20,000 miles (approx) worth of yuck

gbsahne001

nuts, rear hanger is bent, affecting gears at the bottom of the range

the_fuggler

Bad times. Reading is still the scene of my most embarrassing off, as I toppled in slow motion when unable to unclip and ended up on my back amongst the pedestrians of Friar Street.

gbsahne001

The Fuggler wrote:

Bad times. Reading is still the scene of my most embarrassing off, as I toppled in slow motion when unable to unclip and ended up on my back amongst the pedestrians of Friar Street.

this was down at the bottom of Bridge Street, where "the riverside" starts

the_fuggler

gbsahne wrote:

The Fuggler wrote:

Bad times. Reading is still the scene of my most embarrassing off, as I toppled in slow motion when unable to unclip and ended up on my back amongst the pedestrians of Friar Street.

this was down at the bottom of Bridge Street, where "the riverside" starts

Home of the crazy pedestrians, taxis and Oracle drivers. Not my favourite part of town.