Richmond park.....lots of cyclists falling off this morning

jibberish

I'm not sure if it was ice or oil in Richmond park this morning.

In the space of 5 minutes I was one of 8 cyclists who hit the deck going from Roehampton Gate to Richmond Gate. The dodgy spot was about 300m before the ascent of Sawyer's Hill.

Worth being cautions

veronese68

Sounds like they didn't grit as the park is mentioned in the SCR thread for that too. Bushy Park was very icy and I saw a guy come off on a bit they would normally grit. I saw one of the park works vans and told the guy and he said they were attending to it as they had been told, hopefully the same would apply in RP. Although the sun should have burnt it off by now.
Hope you are all ok and no damage to yourselves or bikes.

spasypaddy

i also fell off in highbury this morning. thankfully i fell onto my left not my right.

just some bruising. but scratched my STI and my sunglasses. grr

kevess

I hit the deck coming in at Ham Gate. Approaching the gate I could see a car coming so touched the brakes and turned slightly left to hold it while he came through, next thing the front wheel goes and I'm down!

I'd left a bit late so was there about 9am and what with the sunshine I was lulled me into being a little bit less cautious.

Lesson - musn't let the spidy senses slip.

thefilbertfox

Two twitches of the back wheel just after Roehampton was enough to make me turn round and go back out of the park. On my way out the front wheel twitched which really made my rear squeak.
Most nervous I have been on the bike for a while

timothyw

Definitely ice and a lack of grit - I very nearly went down in the first mile of my commute in north London and crawled along until I hit the busier roads.

Certainly caught me off guard, after the rainy day yesterday didn't expect it to get so cold overnight. Still, beautifully sunny now.

jibberish

I'm still amazed as it's been a lot colder recently than it was this morning and I haven't had any issues in the park (I decided not to bother going to work on that snowy day a couple of weeks ago). Guess I won't be bombing it down Broomfield this evening :-)

rower63

Relatively higher temperatures last few days means the salters and gritters haven't been out, and at least 2 bouts of heavy rain in that period had washed all the salt away. Cue another fall of fresh water last evening and a brief temperature plunge and we're all playing skittles.
I entered Rich Park around 0755, there was one guy down at Kingston Gate, I noticed all the way through the Park there was significant ice along the road edges, so I tried to stick to the wettest bits where car tyres go. Didn't fancy Broomfield's adverse camber, nor the Pen Ponds route so went the CW way round to Roe Gate via Rich Gate. Noticed a large pile of white slush (recently dumped salt, I guess) as I was descending Sawyers.
No "moments" for me, I guess I was lucky.

jibberish

Yeah - I think you're right on this. Guess I need to be more careful in these situations. The nice sunshine tricked me.

jibberish

and it turns out the fall broke my mech hanger...rubbish cycling week this week - doh

itboffin

its already below zero here in Windshire, looks like tomorrow will be much the same. Take it easy out there folks

veronese68

Chilly in Bushy Park again this morning. But because it was dry yesterday and overnight nowhere near as much ice just a few frozen puddles left in the usual places. After yesterday all the junctions and intersections were gritted anyway so it wasn't a problem.