Be careful on the roads

lincolndave

Just a quick warning
On Yesterday’s club ride two lads came off on black ice, luckily both were ok just a bit shook up, the roads look to be bad this morning as well
Take care

ballysmate

I had a similar mishap just before Xmas.Went over a canal bridge, hit a sheet of ice and down I went. Slid a fair way down the road.
I have always considered myself a middle aged bloke who rides a bike but as I lay in the road, I heard my mate asking if I was ok and all I could think about was hoping the bike was ok. Does this mean I have morphed into a cyclist?

johngti

Currently trying to decide whether to go for a quick spin. Black ice is what worries me - not been wet enough for full-on sheets of the stuff

pblakeney

A perfect turbo day. 😉

N0bodyOfTheGoat

Wunderground station temps have risen a bit since the -4C reported around Bishop's Waltham area at 0600ish, but still several reporting around -2C in that area at the rural southern base of the South Downs hill (~100 feet). There aren't any stations near Beacon or Old Winchester summits (~610/670 feet), but it's bound to be colder up there and I suspect rather hazardous on the tarmac.

Nice and bright in SO18, but loads of frost on roofs and cars, bit of visible danger on the road too with reported temps at 0/-1C from local stations.

Definitely a morning for at least winter slick tyres like 4Seasons, if not ice spike tyres.

I've got the Voodoo 29er front wheel indoors ready to fit a 38mm Gravdal, already got a 28mm 4Season on the rear, not sure if go out today or stay indoors on the turbo and wait until 0630 tomorrow to face the winter!

dabber

Yesterday 5 people of my acquaintance fell. Four of them at the same place as part of a larger group, the other as a solo ride. I left it until after lunch and took the mtb out where it was still pretty muddy.

ibr17xvii

I came a cropper big time on a descent yesterday on black ice. According to my Wahoo I went from 32.4mph to zero in the blink of an eye.

No broken bones but road rash galore & extremely sore today although I think TBH it could've been much worse.

Saw another 3 people within 100 yards come off as well although not as bad as me.

Be careful out there.

fenix

Just not worth it if it's icy.

pinno

dabber said:

Yesterday 5 people of my acquaintance fell. Four of them at the same place as part of a larger group, the other as a solo ride. I left it until after lunch and took the mtb out where it was still pretty muddy.

Don't you dare scratch that Wilier.

dabber

pinno said:

dabber said:

Yesterday 5 people of my acquaintance fell. Four of them at the same place as part of a larger group, the other as a solo ride. I left it until after lunch and took the mtb out where it was still pretty muddy.

Don't you dare scratch that Wilier.

Lol... the Mortirolo is primarily on the turbo now, the Cento Uno packed away for the winter, the Roubaix is my steed of choice for now but I've sort of gone over to the darkside for the last 4 months (and loving it) and the Bossnut is getting a nice muddy covering at the moment

Stevo_666

pinno said:

dabber said:

Yesterday 5 people of my acquaintance fell. Four of them at the same place as part of a larger group, the other as a solo ride. I left it until after lunch and took the mtb out where it was still pretty muddy.

Don't you dare scratch that Wilier.

Sounds a bit personal.

awavey

quite tricky conditions to read though I thought, I think we escaped most of the deep freeze here with sunny clear blue skies both days & quite low humidty as well so the roads didnt get damp. I didnt venture out till mid afternoon Sunday when the forecast said it was supposed to be nearer 7C and Id assumed it would have warmed up enough from the cold, but my Garmin recorded a pretty solid 2C-3C range the whole time, which would put me squarely in black ice temp forming ranges, even allowing for any big air temp/surface temp differences.

thistle_

Managed a fun two footed slide on a canal bridge yesterday- may have been icy but might just have been damp as it is just plain steel plate. Was holding onto the handrails at the time so no mishap.

Seems to be a water pipe leaking in the junction of the road, and all the water had frozen. If I report it today maybe it will get fixed by next winter...

N0bodyOfTheGoat

I briefly popped out for ~30mins just before sunset yesterday when it was supposed to ~7C, after fitting the Gravdal ice spike tyre to the Voodoo, local estate was fine but it felt much cooler.

Looking forward to 0C feels like -1C for the commute in shortly... Mummy!

bompington

N0bodyOfTheGoat said:

There aren't any stations near Beacon or Old Winchester summits (~610/670 feet), but it's bound to be colder up there

Probably not, actually - still clear weather usually means much milder higher up, with cold air sinking into the frost hollows.
When I worked in Perth and commuted through the hills, there were places - one hill in particular - where hard frost at the bottom would often give way to palpably milder air about half way up, with the frost disappearing completely.

Round here we've had, so far, a disappointingly mild winter: there has definitely been black ice on quite a few occasions for my morning commute though. Lowest yet is -5°, although if you go a bit further north through the hills to Braemar it's been -10° quite regularly.

I have a new computer which shows the temp, and the evidence seems to suggest that it is accurate enough. It was reading 3.5° the other morning for long stretches as I rode along sparkly white roads. Frost can be unpredictable.

Studded tyres help a lot: just remember that anything calling itself a winter tyre that doesn't have studs is completely useless.

Longshot

Went out yesterday at 11.30am and was surprised how icy and slushy it was in places. It did occur to me that GP5000s may not be the best choice for the circumstances. Still, I took it easy and survived.

step83

Don't think there was an ideal tyre yesterday bar spikes, even then only useful on some patches. I was out on some G-Ones had a couple of squeaky bum moments where the back broke away, rest were on a mix of slicks and marathons.

Did noticed at about 4PM where the sun hadn't gotten to there was still frost on the ground, combination of low sun an the frost/ice and low sun is not always the best when riding.

homers_double

Most of yesterdays ride was either flat or gentle uphill with one noticeable descent which was east facing so we bargained that by 11ish when we hit it it would have been in the sun for a bit.

We bargained right and survived!

awavey

just to show it can be as dangerous off road though, Matt Neal a British touring car driver was mountain biking at the weekend and crashed into a tree, result, broken collar bone, multiple shoulder fractures, broken rib which punctured a lung, which then collapsed.

cruff

I'll never understand why people go out when it's icy - specifically on hills and lanes. Club ride on Saturday, five went down 300 yards into the ride after turning off a perfectly fine main road onto a lane with hedges either side of it which was never likely to be free of ice all day.

N0bodyOfTheGoat

cruff said:

I'll never understand why people go out when it's icy - specifically on hills and lanes. Club ride on Saturday, five went down 300 yards into the ride after turning off a perfectly fine main road onto a lane with hedges either side of it which was never likely to be free of ice all day.

Cyclopaths, eh?

Xmas 2017, I felt the need to visit Old Winchester Hill, despite the near freezing conditions. Absolutely fine getting there and climbing up (the odd ice puddle was easy to spot) on the Voodoo, but I reached the plateau and suddenly came really really close to a big off twice within ~20secs of each other... Black ice everywhere. Dismounted, gingerly walked ~100m the way I came and then very cautiously rode back the same route, it was a very slow return leg with my eyes on stalks!

As much as I wanted to head out this weekend, the above experience made me play it safe, now I've had the turbo for just over two years.

It also made me buy my first pair of ice spike tyres, they might be draggy as something very draggy, but those Gravdals are rock solid to commute on mornings at near freezing temps.

cruff

N0bodyOfTheGoat said:

cruff said:

I'll never understand why people go out when it's icy - specifically on hills and lanes. Club ride on Saturday, five went down 300 yards into the ride after turning off a perfectly fine main road onto a lane with hedges either side of it which was never likely to be free of ice all day.

Cyclopaths, eh?

Xmas 2017, I felt the need to visit Old Winchester Hill, despite the near freezing conditions. Absolutely fine getting there and climbing up (the odd ice puddle was easy to spot) on the Voodoo, but I reached the plateau and suddenly came really really close to a big off twice within ~20secs of each other... Black ice everywhere. Dismounted, gingerly walked ~100m the way I came and then very cautiously rode back the same route, it was a very slow return leg with my eyes on stalks!

As much as I wanted to head out this weekend, the above experience made me play it safe, now I've had the turbo for just over two years.

It also made me buy my first pair of ice spike tyres, they might be draggy as something very draggy, but those Gravdals are rock solid to commute on mornings at near freezing temps.

I did two base rides of 60 miles this weekend and didn't see ice once by sticking to main roads. Might not be as enjoyable, but they're gritted, wide enough that any cover from hedges etc is far enough away that any ice had melted by 9. If you've got to get out, sticking to main roads is the only safe option in those conditions.