Winter, snow, ice cycling

[fd3]

Cycled home with real trepidation this pm.  I felt that I would have been more.aecure on the recumbent trike - but does experience back this up?

[Kim]

You're unlikely to fall off a recumbent trike.  I believe Auntie Helen has form for pirouetting on sheet ice.

Where the trike loses out is re-frozen rutted snow slush, which can defeat small wheels in exactly the same way that dried rutted mud can.  And all those expensive fiddly bits that don't react well to road salt.

Upwrong with studded tyres makes for warmer feet, fewer headlights in your eyes and less to clean.  Trike with normal tyres rolls better than bike with studs if it's only marginally icy.  There's no One True Solution.

[Auntie Helen]

I rode all through Essex winters with my trike.

It’s fine cycling on ice unless it’s very hilly, but you can easily have drive wheel traction issues.

My former husband and I were doing doughnuts on an icy road once for fun and he rolled his QNT!

If the snow is more than 1cm deep then it’s really hard going pushing 3 different wheels through it.

In my Velomobiles which are heavier you can ride in thicker snow as there is more weight on the drive wheel and I run super-skinny front tyres in my Milan but there you have the problem that snow is scooped up through the foot holes.

I cycled to work on Wednesday with a half centimeter layer of snow on the ground. This was because I am really unused to driving a car in snow and my current car, an SLK, has rear wheel drive, fat all-weather tyres and a big engine. So I decided my lack of experience driving in sno meant cycling was safer. If I only had two wheels I would have taken the car. I was the only person who went to work by bike that day - normally there are 7 of us. Three wheels good.

[Andy W]

An interesting and timely thread. In the '70 as a teenage paperboy and master of my Elswick Hopper bike, i was happy to ride fast on both snow and ice. I fell off quite a lot at first but i wasnt bothered very much. The adrenalin rush overode common sense. My bike handling skills improved rapidly and i learned that speed in a straight line was fine and i also knew where icy corners were and treated with caution. Front wheel braking was off limits. These days ill use an MTB and bomb along bridleways. Im happy that as i approach my mid 60s the child in me hasnt gone.
Stay safe everyone and good luck

[Lightning Phil]

Mountain bikes in their usual a tyre are like Velcro with snow. Not so much with ice.

[Wobbly John]

You're unlikely to fall off a recumbent trike.  I believe Auntie Helen has form for pirouetting on sheet ice.

Yes, a few metres in front of us on a YACF ride (Warty?).

A few metres later a couple of upwrong riders (myself and rower40?) found ourselves suddenly on the icy ground.
It was at that point we all decided to get off and walk up the rest of the slope that water had been flowing down and frozen.

[Auntie Helen]

Oh yes, I'd forgotten about that occasion.

It's fun in a trike until you find yourself sliding down a hill towards a dustcart with no apparently way of stopping (DAHIKT)

[Asterix, the former Gaul.]

It amazes me how many times I have tumbled off due to ice and just bounced, always on side roads or cycle tracks.  If it's really icy, sliding along for a bit seems to soften the impact. It is possible to ride a long way in a straight line on black ice without realising it's extremely slippery - then you brake or try to turn and over you go..  Once I fell off due to a shiny painted cycle lane and bounced.  In my twenties I caught the front wheel in some embedded rail track and somehow managed to do a judo fall (I did learn judo for a bit) went over on my shoulder and came back on my feet.  How it worked I really don't know, and have no intention of trying it again.

[Flite]

The only times I've fallen on ice have been going uphill and the rear wheel looses traction.
The good thing is that I've hit the ground so quickly there is no time to tense up or stick an arm out and I think that reduces the chance of injury.
Getting my feet out of the cleats when lying horizontally is interesting.

[The Family Cyclist]

Not bent specific but came off once when snow had partially thawed then refrozen. Even with 2.1 and 2.3 inch tyres (which were big for the time) run at low pressure on my mountain bike was no grip at all. Slid down the slight incline still clipped in and then like flite struggled to unclip

[Lightning Phil]

I rode on some Marathon winters (lamella tread, cold weather compound, studs) on my recumbent today on a 100km audax, average temp -2C.  Transformational confidence inspiring and if you are regularly commuting when it could be icy I’d highly recommend.

[fd3]

I find that on my fixed the sno tyres don't do much for me.  If the sno is deep then I can't get through it and if there's ice a few small studs won't do much for me.

[Cudzoziemiec]

I'd have thought that unless you're in Scotland, the higher parts of Wales or the Pennines, the number of snow days in an average UK winter is so minimal it's not worth getting a special machine for. Of course everyone knows that n+1 is the answer to everything, but even the keenest n+1er eventually runs up against a limit in the form of money, space or household compliance.

[Kim]

I'd have thought that unless you're in Scotland, the higher parts of Wales or the Pennines, the number of snow days in an average UK winter is so minimal it's not worth getting a special machine for. Of course everyone knows that n+1 is the answer to everything, but even the keenest n+1er eventually runs up against a limit in the form of money, space or household compliance.

This is why I bought a set of Ice Spikers for my Reasonably Priced Mountain Bicycle.  It's certainly not an ideal bike for riding in soggy conditions (though it's admirably competent in Proper Snow), but it would otherwise be gathering dust all winter which means I can ride something with sensible tyres when it's not icy.

[Lightning Phil]

I find that on my fixed the sno tyres don't do much for me.  If the sno is deep then I can't get through it and if there's ice a few small studs won't do much for me.

Which studded tyres did you have? The Schwalbe and Continental ones have between 120 to 240 studs. Somewhat more than a few and they work very well on ice. If deep snow then pretty much any mountain bike tyre will work very well, even though hard work.

[fd3]

I do already have the catrike.

I guess for me it's less sno and more the ice that worries me. 

I have marathon winters I put on my fixed, but I slip on ice with them on, so they really just seem to be a heavier set of tyres.

[Kim]

I have a set of Marathon Winters that I've used with my boring Dawes hybrid.  I've successfully ridden on sheet ice with them on more than one occasion.

[mrcharly-YHT]

I do already have the catrike.

I guess for me it's less sno and more the ice that worries me. 

I have marathon winters I put on my fixed, but I slip on ice with them on, so they really just seem to be a heavier set of tyres.

That is odd, I have notched up quite a few miles on marathon winters and don't find they slip on ice. Not as secure as good tyres on wet roads, but more like riding a tarmac road with sand on it.

Maybe, with it being fixed, you are putting down more torque, both forwards and backwards. The freewheeler's reflex to stop pedalling when things get dicy is actually helpful in this situation.

[tonycollinet]

Trikes turn ice from Fear to Fun.

Extra maintenance is required - but ice commuting was one of my main justifications for the machine.

[MattH]

Hmm. My one try on an upright trike, belonging to LWaB, turned a nice sunny day ride on a track from fun to fear.
Recumbent trike is different.

[Kim]

Hmm. My one try on an upright trike, belonging to LWaB, turned a nice sunny day ride on a track from fun to fear.

Well-known fact^[1]: barrows can smell fear.


_{[1] This statement may contain lies or traces of lies.}

[tonycollinet]

Hmm. My one try on an upright trike, belonging to LWaB, turned a nice sunny day ride on a track from fun to fear.
Recumbent trike is different.

Fair enough - I was insufficiently precise in my statement. 

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Some of us find that fear turns to fun after a time, which is a good reason to ride an upright trike.

Recumbent trikes can be a too-easily earned (and accordingly not so valued) pleasure.

[MattH]

I can absolutely see the enjoyment that you'd get out of mastering them. Just not sure it's really for me - and, to be honest, not sure the recumbent trike is really me either - though I must make an effort to get it out on the road again not having done so for a couple of years. It tends to live on the trainer which seems a bit of a waste, though I did sort out new mudguard blades for it recently in anticipation of actually using it other than in the pain cave.

[ElyDave]

I must admit that I would love to try a recumbent trike, and have a secret desire for a VTX, though realistically the more sedate sprint or sprint x is more suited to my needs and capabilities