Jason Knight
Well-Known Member
- Region
- USA
- City
- Keene, NH
It's that or not ride from mid October through to mid to late April. Having cycling off the table six or seven months of the year is a bit excessive for "But baby it's cold outside" You get used to it eventually.Are you guys riding on ice and in cold weather because you have to or you are choosing to do it?
Our friends in Europe ride in snow and ice all the time... 1) they're used to it, 2) they have the infrastructure and their government aren't asshats about maintaining it.
Where I live those are the conditions they start salting... but sometimes you're out and about before they get there. With the e-bikes it's SO easy to sucker yourself into going faster than you should, or accelerating when you shouldn't...
It's actually one of the entire reasons I wanted a fat tire bike... hell, it's the entire reason. Where I live slippery conditions are commonplace. Unprepared "normal" riders go down from slick leaves in the fall alone, which can be as dangerous as ice and people don't even think about it.
In fact I had a slight skid this past Friday out and about at 3AM, (my favorite time to ride) that if I was on my old non-electric cruiser I would have gone down just like @Eric0976 no question, but the 4" fatties dug in quickly enough and reduced the amount of slip. Advantage of being able to run down at just 5 psi giving me a nice big contact patch. For a second it grabbed hard enough I thought it was gonna toss me the opposite direction, but giving a tap of throttle instead of braking corrected that. A bit like when you're in a skid in a front wheel drive car, you point the wheels where you want the car to go, and drop the hammer since braking is just going to make it worse.
But yeah, black ice is murder for anything on two wheels if you're not used to it, or just get caught unawares. If the temperatures are anywhere below 40F you need to keep your head on a swivel, 'cause who knows how solid the permafrost is set in, the ground being well below freezing due to overnight temps despite being warm outside. There's even a hint of sheen you keep your arse below 5mph, even if it LOOKS fine. Even if it doesn't stop you from going down, at least it'll reduce the hurt.
Like here this morning it was 38F outside, but the overnight low was 20 and there was a layer of frost on everything. There were still hints of icy patches on less traveled roads even around 3 in the afternoon when it was 50 out! Don't let warm air temps in late fall, winter, or early spring sucker you into a false sense of security.
In fact black ice is at its ugliest when you have 40-45 degree morning temps after a freezing night. A fine sheen of water droplets on top of the ice, where it's ALL at or below 32F thanks to "phase change" is just begging to find yourself on the ground in pain.
@Eric0976 hopefully the shoulder heals up quick. 24 years ago I took a similar spill -- down a hill -- and completely shattered my elbow. Shock set in and it stopped me from realizing how badly I was hurt. I felt nauseous for three days and had some "minor pain", slept way too much because it was the weekend, and being an American I didn't want the 'expense" of health care. Monday (crash was friday) I woke up and couldn't move my arm without screaming in pain. Doctor couldn't believe I used the arm like nothing was wrong for so long. Ended up needing the elbow and 2" of bone in each direction from it replaced with metal parts.
Ah, to be young and stupid.