Lots of reports of ice on twitter & FB. Also at Edinburgh Farmer's Market.
I did notice that MMW appeared to have been gritted yesterday.
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Lots of reports of ice on twitter & FB. Also at Edinburgh Farmer's Market.
I did notice that MMW appeared to have been gritted yesterday.
"I did notice that MMW appeared to have been gritted yesterday."
"
Currently nine Priority 1 pavement routes are pre-treated when freezing conditions are forecast.
"
And now two more!
http://www.citycyclingedinburgh.info/bbpress/topic.php?id=8986
so much wish the road to duddingston had been treated, came off late last night on sheet black stuff so slippery you could hardly stand, never mind ride. #ouchouchouchouch
Sympathies Ruggtomcat, hope you're feeling better soon.
Was very icy up my way this morning, definately time to dig out my spikes ready for next weeks commuting!
Hope it's not jiggered your juggling limbs, Rugg. My shoulder's been a git ever since my embarrassing off when out on t'Audax with DaveC.
Sorry to hear about the off. Ouch :-(
Fear of ice meant that I didn't dare venture into Marchmont or the Grange today, I stuck to the unpleasant QBC. Must look up that gritting map again to plot my off-QBC low temperature route. (I wonder if the council grits its "Family Network" routes?)
Aye there was black ice on Porty Prom this morning, plus a dusting of frost where the sun had yet to reach. We crunched over frozen puddles on the tandem. All the ice was gone after lunch mind you.
Sorry to hear you got hurt, ruggtomcat.
Perhaps the place to post about a conversation with cycling paramedic at Cycle 2012. Apparently their training includes 8 basic ways of falling off a bike/crashing, and how to instinctively adopt the right attitude to land with minimal 'damage'
Can think of front slide, rear slide, faceplant, T-Bone (rollover), rear shunt (control flight trajectory), sideswipe.
Anyone care to offer lessons?
The two times I have come off on ice, I had no time to react to anything.
I seem to bounce quite well. Don't know if it's instinctive or learned, or even if it's just that I land badly but am robust enought to come off with grazes only.
Not too many recently though, can only think of two in the last year, from which I have only one scar (but a good one).
I must be too much of a scaredy cat on ice, as all my offs have been in either dry or slightly damp.
@kirst, agree about the ice though - you get zero chance and its just luck how you land IMO. Sadly, its usually on something bony and sore - backs/hips/elbows.
I know everyone is talking about the studded tyres, saw uberuces last week, pretty cool - do they really help??
I cant be bothered with the fit / refit bit though - might just put some cross tyres on the old SS and use that at low pressures if it gets icy.
Nelly, I think the studded tyres really are that good. They're heavy and slow, and make an awful racket on tarmac, but you can cycle on surfaces that you'd find it tricky to walk on. I use a Schwalbe Ice Spiker on the front and a Schwalbe Marathon Winter on the back.
My demonstrative anecdote is the day last winter when it black ice conditions had been at their most deceptive and evil - rain all previous day, then sub-zero overnight, then a warmer wet air mass blew in before dawn and washed the frost away.
The clear glass of car windscreens and the mild feel of air told me the roads were merely wet, so I only used the rainy day bike handling style as opposed to the more cautious frost/ice variant.
It wasn't until I got off my bike at the office and almost faceplanted half a dozen times on the way across the carpark that I realised there had been any ice anywhere, and therefore was shown how good those tyres are.
I was recounting this anecdote to Joe in the Bike Works as we were discussing wintersaurus' recent back wheel repair, and he knew exactly the day I meant. He'd rode in blessing his Winters and then had an amazingly busy day fixing a zillion ice-damaged steeds carried in under the bleeding arms of smoothly tyred cyclists.
Arellcat and uberuce - thanks, great advice, seems conclusive then. Will get my lazy ass into gear next week.
The council are investing in a couple of mini gritters to do the paths, I was told. Only two so not sure how much they will be able to cover in the time necessary, if they start at about 6am. Better than nowt, and I suppose they might get more, and it is a start.
The council are investing in a couple of mini gritters
BUT WHAT ABOUT THE FLEET* OF MINI TRACTORS?! (I think we were down to 13 at the last count)
* their emphasis.
Although, I spent £80 on spiky tyres last year. Fitted them to spare wheels and apart from one run just for the hell of it to try them out, never used them once. When it ices and snows here in Fife, there's no movement out of the village. Do I plan on cycling 16 miles to Edinburgh on spiky tyres just to get to work to do things I can do on a remote connection from the sofa. Do I 'eck as like.
Since the 2 bad winters, our home working systems have far improved, to the point it's faster working at home as the network connections in our office are crippled by lunchtime leisure surfing!
If it comes down thick again, I'll only be cycling out in the snow for leisure purposes. I'll work from the comfort of home as Instography says. I might do it once for fun though. And just to prove to my colleagues it's faster on a bike than by car in the snow.
Of course I realise this isn't an option available to lots of people - I suppose if you don't get to use your ice/snow tyres, they won't wear out hanging up in the shed/garage/loft/wardrobe waiting for their chance to shine.
@Insto, @kaputnik, I wish I had the luxury!
Nope, getting in to work is a necessary evil here, and on early starts at that :-( I used the spikes most of last winter and while I felt a chump sometimes there were many mornings where they made the difference between riding out of my village as normal rather than pushing and missing the train.
I'll still look forward to spring and "normal" tyres though!
The last three weekends I have had big trouble from ice early in the morning, last Sunday even on the Lang Whang. on Saturday we waited until noon but even then there was bad ice on non-gritted back roads. If this was my commute then Inwould go for spikes. But the main roads do get ploughed and gritted so I am not sure I need them?
@Tulyar - the old Police IPMBA course which was the standard for cycle responders included a chunk of falling into mats. No silver bullet I'm afraid, just get low down over the top tube and keep hold of the bars. Take the impact with the bar ends (and conveniently massive rear pannier), then lower body to the ground.
The replacement PSC course which is now being used doesn't cover it, to the best of my knowledge.
In confirmation bias news I can confirm that the frosty weather over the weekend was causally linked to me being up in rural Tayside.
Plainly the ice as lying in wait until I separated from the studded bulls of the tyre herd, then lured me to my almost doom with a straining miniature Schnauzer.
Spikes for me weren't about snow, they are about all the ice that you don't know is there until you are on top of it. And given some of the injuries that happened last year when there was no snow in sight (particularly Kirst) I'll be putting spikes on again this year snow or not.
^what Min said!^
I'm quite of a mind to put my spikes on the monstrousbike for this winter. Less far to fall probably trumps winkling my way through stopped traffic.
I've never tried studded/spiked tyres, but I don't want to stop when things get icy.
The thing that concerns me is that if the tyres are on the bike full-time, the spikes would rapidly wear down and become less effective? Does it happen?
Mine don't sound as crackly as they did when new, but whether that indicates a loss of actual ice grip, I dunno.
Schwalbe seem happy enough to throw replacement studs at you, although admittedly not in enough numbers to re-do a whole tyre. I think - I only asked for a dozen and got twenty.
I had a first wee test of my ice tyres on Saturday popping down to Porty for breakfast rations. Wee side street was pretty slippery, I think the tyre was slipping/catching as I turned (still very gingerly, I've come off on ice badly a couple of times), but don't know if it was the aforementioned confirmation bias at work.
I have wondered about the fact my tyres are only studded at the outer edges, though the Continental site reckons this is fine - I'm still thinking about contacting them for some replacement studs and sticking a few in the holes that are there for the central run. Just peace of mind more than anything. Oh, and probably need to let a little air out of the tyres.
On the snow side the studs are obviously of no practical purpose, but (again according to Conti) these tyres are by their nature for winter, and so as well as the studs there's a tread pattern that's designed not to get clogged in snow, with a wide tyre that won't dig in, and knobbles of a specific shape and pattern to retain grip.
You guys seem to like the cycling model in the Netherlands, not a studded tyre in sight....
Can't see the vid as I'm on the road but maybe better treated surfaces? Friends from the Netherlands claim their climate is wetter but warmer than ours, noticeable the main supplier of studded tyres is from Germany which has quite a range of climate..
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