First Frozen Ride

davis

Kieran_Burns wrote:

and you get added joy of Rice Crispies ALL the way to work.

You mean frying bacon you dangerous veggie.

arthur_scrimshaw

Do you also change pedals to flats as well, I have ice spike tyres for my mtb which has flat pedals, I use this instead of the cx in icy weather, a sort of double indemnity?

bompington

Arthur Scrimshaw wrote:

Do you also change pedals to flats as well, I have ice spike tyres for my mtb which has flat pedals, I use this instead of the cx in icy weather, a sort of double indemnity?

I would argue that if you're going down, you're going down - being able to get your feet off the pedals 0.3 of a second quicker won't make much difference.

itboffin

A bit of this

Kieran_Burns

davis wrote:

Kieran_Burns wrote:

and you get added joy of Rice Crispies ALL the way to work.

You mean frying bacon you dangerous veggie.

It's that you remember that worries me the most.... :shock:

davis

Kieran_Burns wrote:

davis wrote:

Kieran_Burns wrote:

and you get added joy of Rice Crispies ALL the way to work.

You mean frying bacon you dangerous veggie.

It's that you remember that worries me the most.... :shock:

I'm stalking the stalker.

(runs away, giggling; I guessed about the veggie bit)

rubertoe

I mentioned this last year.... If you keep bikes indoors and it is snowing - go and look at your bike 20 minutes after you have parked it....

and hide it from the wife if it is on the carpet....

qube

Aye... slippy out in The Garioch again this morning... roads were like a bottle in places. Nearly came a cropper on a few bends. Back wheel skittering about.

Plenty of snow in The Cairngorms for some climbing this weekend though!!

CitizenLee

Ok, so it's hit the city now (first pic doesn't show it as much)





Was actually a really nice ride in.

I can see me enjoying the coming months commuting

The Rookie

My ride in is usually well gritted so apart from 100m of my own road i don't worry, but in 2012 we had one night when it rained and then froze, I dropped it twice on the one commute, that said I suffered less issues than the circa 15% of car drivers at work who had various 'incidences' on the way to work, ranging from scuffed alloys to 2 write offs.

I always try and land on the side of my elbow to cushion the fall while not transferring direct to the collarbone and then taking enough energy out that the collarbone survives landing on my shoulder, clearly my old American football training has held up!

slowbike

bompington wrote:

msmancunia wrote:

Never tried spiked tires - do they actually work? Torn between that or pimping up the MTB.

Yes. And MTBs don't: by which I mean that knobbly tyres don't really help on ice.
I've had Nokian A10s for a while - they're the narrowest studded tyre you can get so better for clearance on road bikes. Plenty of other choices if you're happy to go wider.

I picked up some 30mm studded tyres in Norway last year - heavy going, but cheap and worth it for the few times a year that I need them


The run up to Christmas is when I get to do this:


and if it snows ....

(my friend is on the trike)

qube

Much easier.

slowbike

I've just told the wife I need one of these .... N+1

seajays

Slowbike wrote:

I've just told the wife I need one of these .... N+1

Apparently it's a kit you can get for your MTB!:

http://www.ktrak.es/indexeng.htm

Big_Paul

Not quite cold enough for ice in Belfast, but I put the spikes on when the clocks go back, for the simple reason the spikes are fantastic for going through wet leaves. I don't think the ice is far away though, think it'll be a bad winter too.

roger_merriman

Seajays wrote:

Slowbike wrote:

I've just told the wife I need one of these .... N+1

Apparently it's a kit you can get for your MTB!:

http://www.ktrak.es/indexeng.htm

great for James Bond impressions, digging about, Fat Bikes are far more capable snow bikes. and with out studs would if anything be less good on ice.

i've had very good results with decent MTB tyres, as long as the ice isn't too thick, off road the load will crack the ice, and grip, it's mostly fine on road as well as long as it's not sheet ice, which is studs only.

I've found with good tyres that while it's slow, as long as the snow doesn't stop you peddling, it's possible even if it doesn't look promising! and the snow will keep the bike upright for photo's if you stop to throw snowballs for the dog.

pblakeney

Not sure that I could be bothered spinning that gear. :shock:

roger_merriman

PBlakeney wrote:

Not sure that I could be bothered spinning that gear. :shock:

Unpacked snow does need a few cogs, once it's packed down you can roll along quite well. But that mountain is off the beaten track as you where.

meanredspider

Personally I don't understand the excitement of snow on a bike - it's crap. Had plenty of it (one epic 2-hour commute some of which I simply had to push the bike). The only upside to really cold days is that it tends to be still. Ice Spiker Pros are magnificent on ice (not so good in snow) and infinitely better than Marathon W***ers - the Spikers are lighter and the studs stay attached. One of my very few "offs" on a bike was on W***ers whereas I've never had the slightest slip on the Pros. In fact, one of the biggest problem with the Pros is that before now I've cycled across surfaces that I can't stand on in my cycle shoes if I stop! :shock:

UndercoverElephant

Popped the spiked tyres onto the MTB today. First few flakes of the year too.

Brr.

bendertherobot

I adore snow riding. It feels wonderful.

This was my Xmas eve ride a few years back. It was sublime.

Initialised

bendertherobot wrote:

Seajays wrote:

…and I don't mean the disney movie.

First time properly below zero today at -2°C coming in to work.

Unfortunately that meant when I got to work the bike locker keyhole was frozen locked. With some determined friction induced heat I managed to get it open though.

Let it go. 8)

I'm one with the wind and snow.

bendertherobot

Cold never bothered me anyway.

roger_merriman

meanredspider wrote:

Personally I don't understand the excitement of snow on a bike - it's crap. Had plenty of it (one epic 2-hour commute some of which I simply had to push the bike). The only upside to really cold days is that it tends to be still. Ice Spiker Pros are magnificent on ice (not so good in snow) and infinitely better than Marathon W***ers - the Spikers are lighter and the studs stay attached. One of my very few "offs" on a bike was on W***ers whereas I've never had the slightest slip on the Pros. In fact, one of the biggest problem with the Pros is that before now I've cycled across surfaces that I can't stand on in my cycle shoes if I stop! :shock:

put simply it's fun, with decent kit.

On the commute it's less fun, but for a ride, it makes areas more interesting to ride though not unpassable by any means, the limit off road is the depth of snow as long as you can keep turning the pedals the bike will keep going. this is with big wide softcompound tyres they will reach their limit on sheet ice, but fresh snow/compacted snow/ice ruts etc fine.