Not looking great out there, my street seems to have a covering of light snow/ice - with a small gritted strip up the middle. Anyone been out onto the main roads or into town? Are they passable on regular tyres?
CityCyclingEdinburgh Forum » Commuting
"Severe weather warning"
(7355 posts)-
Posted 5 years ago #
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@jdanielp i bailed and took the car this morning (yesterday commute was quite stressful and I hit 1000km in Jan yesterday). The towpath was silver-white last night at 11pm.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@bill sensible! I'm 'committed' to the plus bike this morning so will see how it handles the conditions, cautiously.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Locked by Björn Krantz, on FlickrToday (Sweden)
Posted 5 years ago # -
Frosty rather than icy in Gilmerton. Pavements generally aren't slippy, except where puddles have frozen.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Eight years ago (Edinburgh)
I cycled in today. Roslin and environs were very heavy frost but seemed grippy enough. Roads in town are fine. Haven't tried the footway.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Main roads are usually fine, but today was one of the worst I can remember. Inside lane round Gogar coming into town was a sheet of ice, I very nearly came down there. Quite a few other sketchy moments as well.
Take care out there.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Gorgie to Haymarket and Livingston North to office both sets of roads fine (even our side road which still had snow on it was OK). No more snow in Livingston than Edinburgh, unusually.
Posted 5 years ago # -
What @cyclecommute said. Main roads not particularly great. Not convinced they had a full gritting service last night.
The snow has filled in the gaps in the rough surface...
Take care all.
Posted 5 years ago # -
came in nice and gently and slightly later to allow the motor vehicles to do their duty. The two lanes at kingsnowe are normally an indicator of what has been gritted. The gritter cannot get in to the inside lane as full of parked cars but even at Canal Bus Stop where the drivers exchange, where the lanes are clear to be ploughed/gritted, there was snow. My theory is it snowed shortly before we got out of bed? A light flurry?
I have cycled in worse. Chap overtook me wearing shorts, I was crawling along, but i caught him at all traffic lights from New Printworks to New Street. So I surmise that sometimes going slower does not lose you any time??
Posted 5 years ago # -
Gilmerton Road was fine, but I walked along the side streets to get there.
There are a frightening number of people who expect me to cycle in the frosty, icy cycle lanes though.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Cycled in from Haymarket to Saughton House between 7.30 and 8 this morning, the roads/paths were frosty but not particularly slippy when taken with a bit of care. I was wondering if it had dusted some snow as in a few places the the white seemed like more than heavy frost.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Bruntsfield Links shared paths had not seen grit :(
Posted 5 years ago # -
The canal towpath was very frosty with occasional frozen puddles, but quite navigable if taken carefully (and very easily navigable for a wider-tyred bike, although I did feel a hint of slippage at times on Slateford Aqueduct as the tyres adjusted themselves around the prouder cobbles as I cycled slowly behind someone pushing a bike).
Cycling via Craiglockhart Woods and Pond prior to that was particularly satisfying with crunchy frost on frozen ground.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@jdanielp Glad you made it OK -- good work! :)
Last night I noticed some ice developing on the infamous Wester Hailes S-bend, hope it wasn't too bad.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@bill I don't remember seeing ice there. The worst patches that I did notice were just to the west of the two bridges just west of the Scott Russell Aqueduct, positioned such that anyone heading into town might find it difficult to brake to a halt safely before going under, if necessary.
Posted 5 years ago # -
There was a very short (less than 10 minutes) but quite heavy snow shower which hit the airport at about 04:45 and disappeared off to the east. I think it was very localised which explains the variety of commuting experiences this morning.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Thanks @Stiltskin, that explains it. Up at 3a.m. looked out bathroom window, just frost. (quite a bit all over the road) so as I hypothsised the gritter must then have come around (or the salt started to work) but then it snowed after I was back in the land of nod.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Freezing fog. Joy...
Posted 5 years ago # -
Coldest morning of this winter, saw it dip to -9.5C on the garmin. Roads were pretty dry though, but I was on the mtb so stuck to paths a lot of the way. Beautiful ride in :)
Posted 5 years ago # -
The towpath is generally a bit better today than it was yesterday and the Slateford Aqueduct is fine. The metal ends of the Scott Russell Aqueduct are treacherous though; I felt my wide tyres lose traction briefly as I rolled over them without pedalling. Really dangerous design.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@jdanielp Thanks for the towpath update. Bichael and I got a lift this morning and will be cycling back this arvo. On Tuesday night I tried to stay out of the towpath as much as I could and used it only between Ratho and Wester Hailes. I am planning to do the same today.
I noticed the metal bits on the Scott Russell Aqueduct tend to get rather slippy -- will take extra caution.
Posted 5 years ago # -
Gorgeous train trip back from Aberdeen this morning - Dee mostly frozen (@Iwrats appalled at my failure to know which Aberdonian river the train was crossing) and the trip home alternated between glorious sunshine over a hoar-frosted & snow-skiffed north eastern coastline and a perfect white disc of sun suspended in thick freezing fog.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@Iwrats appalled at my failure to know which Aberdonian river the train was crossing
The station is pretty much on top of the mouth of the Denburn, the actual river the city is named for. But you weren't to know that.
Posted 5 years ago # -
My ride in this morning included a stunning crossing of the FRB just as the sun burnt off the clouds.
Unfortunately I then lost power heading out of Rosyth. It turned out my jockey wheels had frozen solid, I managed to get the chain into a gear and rode the final climb with the chain skipping on the jockeys. By lunchtime the local shop had sorted me out and I'm ready for the ride home.
Posted 5 years ago # -
After Tuesday's power failure in the torpedo, today it experienced a failure in the remote headlamp aim adjustment system. Shouldn't have been weather-related, even though it was about absolute zero when I left the house this morning, but need to take a proper look.
Posted 5 years ago # -
The front brake on my Brompton froze solid this morning. If I accidentally pulled it on I had to stop and manually pull the caliper apart to allow me to make forward progress. Apart from that the journey to work was cold but uneventful.
Posted 5 years ago # -
The path along the Water of Leith from Juniper Green to the canal was finally frozen, as I had hoped it would be the two previous times I tried this winter but ended up getting variably muddy... My inadequate front light kept me down to a relatively sensible speed though.
Posted 5 years ago # -
@greenroofer, they was happening with my rear brake. Moisture in the cable. New outer and inner seems to have cured it.
Posted 5 years ago # -
but need to take a proper look.
Turned out it's not the actuator or the mount but the cable itself. It was working at hometime yesterday but had seized again this morning. Bah.
Posted 5 years ago #
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