[Closed] will i be asking for trouble riding my road bike on frosty roads?

[url= http://singletrackmag.com/forum/topic/did-the-ice-get-you-today ]yes[/url]

Frost is ok if you take it steady, ice is lethal.

i may stick to my mtb today then 😉

What ransos said - frost is ok if you take it easy - I've been road bike riding throughout the cold spell cause its dry. Got to keep your eyes peeled for any ice though!

GO for it I say

good way to break a hip.

Depends a bit on the frost, if it is dry then you are ok with caution but if there is ice around too then avoid.

Somehow riding a road bike on ice increases the gravity around you. When you slip, and you will at some point, you seem to go down so fast it's ridiculous.

Hurts. A lot.

Rachel

Being dumped off a road bike on ice is something to savour 😕

The rate of acceleration towards the ground is quite impressive, only beaten IMO by a rake handle when the head has been inadvertently stood on.

I tend to stick to the main roads (B's & A's) as they get gritted, back roads are a ice fest and not fun.

I almost broke my hip a couple of years ago on ice, was on crutches for a couple of weeks and not riding for a month.

As an aside, met a guy on the way in yesterday who had ridden the back roads but had studded tyres, they made quite a weird sound but he said they were very effective.

I personally know about 3 people who went down hard on the roads recently - thankfully they are mostly ok. Be careful out there!

[i]The rate of acceleration towards the ground is quite impressive, only beaten IMO by a rake handle when the head has been inadvertently stood on. [/i]
😆

I don't think I'll be heading out on the icy roads anytime soon as I have these...

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I tend to stick to the main roads (B's & A's) as they get gritted, back roads are a ice fest and not fun.

Good point. The problem is night riding - you get sprayed by the gritter lorries!

I don't go out on the road when it's freezing anymore after coming off 4 times in a ride once, it starts to get annoying. Black ice was the problem as it's so sudden - at least if you see ice you can try and avoid it. Had been fine on some previous rides including coming down off the Long Mynd on a narrow road which was stupid - had decided to throw myself over the side of the road if a car came as brakes were useless.

I stick to the MTB when the temp is below zero, not worth the risk of spending weeks off the bike for the sake of one ride.

Hip still sore from a crash on Black ice on Saturday. I'm staying off the bike for a while...

I stick to the MTB when the temp is below zero, not worth the risk of spending weeks off the bike for the sake of one ride.

The same decision I made this week, although work prevemnted me from actually getting out after Sunday. 10 degrees and Sunny this weekend though, so I'm probably off for a club ride.

Frost is ok, ice isn't so much fun. For some reason last year i thought it would be fun to mess around doing skids on my road bike on an icy bit of road 😆 didn't expect the front wheel to go quite so quickly, and you go down hard.

racefaceec90 - Member

i may stick to my mtb today then

thisisnotaspoon - Member

I stick to the MTB when the temp is below zero

Kryton57 - Member

I stick to the MTB when the temp is below zero, not worth the risk of spending weeks off the bike for the sake of one ride.

The same decision I made this week

Are you running studded tires? IME no rubber tyre grips on ice - mtbs are as unsafe as road bikes.

In the same way I put 28c road tyres on my CX bike for the occasional road ride, could you put any of the thinner CX tyres on your bike? Would make a lot of difference in the current conditions.

mtbs are as unsafe as road bikes

I've certainly been dumped on the floor both on and off road, slicks or knobblies you can go down incredibly fast either way on ice. You can slide a lot further on tarmac though. I have the remains of a nice big bruise on my right hip from my latest ice-related escapade, that was on the road but fortunately there were no cars around when it happened.

lol @ being sprayed by a gritter lorry ...jesus i had a similar effect of that whilst on my MTB... going up a steep dirt track in the calder valley when a trials motorbike overtook me at great speed and all the gravel flew at me at speed ..turned my face away and got splatterd with gravel ......not good..... lots of nasy words were flying out of my mouth too !!

I don't ride on the road when it is icy after my crash a few years ago.

I was mostly ok apart from the gravel rash, £100's of damage and a broken finger. As above you go down fast. One minute we were doing 20mph in the winter sun next I was lying underneath 3 people wondering wtf! We couldn't even stand up it was that bad. Small dip and a bit of shade meant the road was sheet ice. I broke the finger as it was on the outside of the bars when I was on the hoods and I still had them on there when the bars hit the ground. Took the rest on my knee, hip shoulder and elbow. Used my elbow to slow down destroying a jacket and making a nice big hole in the skin. Took me weeks to recover, would have been better off taking some time off the bike and missing a few rides rather than ride.

At least offroad you are slower and the position on the bike means you are more able to deal with slides. You can also aim for grassy bits and gravel to get more grip.

tricycles come into there own on icy roads

This week, I have mostly been running.

Frost is fine. Been riding my road bike around Edinburgh loads on cycle paths and down by the sea at Crammond - except for freezing feet it's fine. The light dusting of snow is actually quite grippy. Touch ice and you'll instantly die though. Doesn't appear to be any ice on the roads just now. Certainly not in Edinburgh.

Just remember braking distances in the frost and snow are huuuuuuuuuuge so ride slower

Are you running studded tires? IME no rubber tyre grips on ice - mtbs are as unsafe as road bikes.

I meant MTB rising offroad. If I want a long/slow roadie style ride I can just stick to the more open bridleways, towpaths and fire roads rather than singletrack.

Although I find the MTB much better on road too, it'll still throw you off, but you can at least ride through some stuff, whereas the road bike struggles on anything but clear road.

I'm using 35mm cross tyres on my Pompino ATM whilst they are hard work on the tarmac they do feel a lot sturdier than 23mm. I still corner like an old woman though.

I still corner like an old woman though

That's called a smart riding style ,if you commute all year round 😉

Treated roads ftw.

i have been commuting in, -5 this morning, but it really is a case of pick the roads you know will be gritted, even if it means i am riding on a main trunk road as a result, at least i know it is clear of ice if not very pleasant.

Surely the wider profile of MTB tyres makes things more stable, not just grippier.

If i fall off less than twice on the trip to or from work then it's been a good commute in the frost/ice, usually slow speed but a couple of impressive superman style slides or rolls last year. probably a dozen or so falls in total, just a bit stiff don't think i got any bruises. guess i must be running on borrowed luck!

tend to worry more about the bike than me. bent one of my giro shoe buckles 🙁
but it still works

So, um. you're the deus of crash then ?.
😉

portlyone - Member

Surely the wider profile of MTB tyres makes things more stable, not just grippier.

Perhaps slightly. If a road has proper ice on it though, mtb tires are no panacea.

When a road bike goes, it goes really ****in' quickly. On a mountain bike the wider tyres and slacker angles give you a bigger window of stability, and providing you're not trying to do anything other than ride carefully in a straight line (no braking or steering), you can generally get away with it (flat pedals advisable though!)

That said, roadying on really cold, crisp, clear days is magic. You just have to be careful and stay out of the shadows, where the ground may still be icy. Definitely no barreling round blind corners at 40mph!

ride slow on big tyres at lowish pressure you'll probably be ok, I managed to hit a few patches of ice offroad in the last few days and stayed upright, pretty scary tho. Been off road this week but last week was riding on some short frosty roads carefully (slower, smoother and cornering as stated above, like an old lady) and it was ok but not much fun.

Just don't lean or brake on corners, pedal on icy patches or stand up pedaling. Was pretty worried about commuting the past couple of days, but took it carefully and it was fine.

minus 6 or so from memory out near Langsett

[IMG] [/IMG]

gritted roads ok but look out for flow from fields hidden on bends
ungritted - i remember once thinking how well i was doing on black ice, not touching brakes, no panic steering then the road went up hill - so of course changed gear and automatically pushed harder on pedals - nothing broken but sore for a week and minor damage to bike
and front mechs don't seem to like salt much

or you could ask a lawyers opinion:

[IMG] [/IMG]

Melbourne - on average is below 0deg C on 1.3days/year and no one rides in the rain so the sign was really worth putting up

It was a Pretty Frosty commute on Tuesday, on Slick 25c Road tyres I was fine, as said previously keep and eye out for ice, don't lean it over and/or grab at the brakes...

Having said that I know a fella who went over last December on some black ice on his way into work, on a slowish B road corner, Broke his Hip and was off the bike and relatively imobile for a long while as a result...

Perhaps stick to more major roads where ice is more likely to have been cleared?

If it snows though I'll be out on the MTB...

"Having said that I know a fella who went over last December on some black ice on his way into work, on a slowish B road corner, Broke his Hip and was off the bike and relatively imobile for a long while as a result..."

There was a thread on tt'ing forum a year or so ago about ice and resultant broken hips, can be a very very nasty injury requiring hip replacement which iirc has a limited lifespan so one may need a couple of big op's over ones lifetime for this reason. After a clubmate broke his hip just going slowly and hitting ice(mid thirties broke it two years ago still not fixed 100%) I tend to avoid ice and go off road instead

If you must ride your bike on salted roads, be sure to give it a good wash down with copious amounts of hot water with car shampoo afterwards. I find that a floor hand brush with long soft bristles is best for this as the bristles can get into all the nooks and crannies.

I was out somewhere in the Surrey Hills a couple of years ago, in the dark. I was zipping along enjoying the ride when I noticed that there was thick glazed ice all over the side of the road seeping out of the verge, winking at me in the glare of my lights.. slowed me down a bit!

Currently riding 35 cross tyre on the front and a 25 road tyre and mudguard on the back. Gives me a little more confidence. Whether its any safer I dont know!!!

Managed 11 miles of my commute on Tuesday over some really bum-tightening ice, only to slam onto the tarmac during the last road section.

(Hint: when transitioning from road to side road remember that if said side road is bikes only then no one will have gritted it and it will be sheet ice).

May have to get myself some ice spikers. I'm currently running narrow Conti CityContact 26 slicks and they aren't really much cop when the paths are this shiny:

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