Snow!

i rode in today on conti ultra gatorskins at 6am this morn and all the main roads from crystal palace to marylebone i travelled along were fine. as everyone is saying its the side roads you need to be careful of.

getting home yesterday was a different matter. had got a slow puncture from the rock salt in the morning so when i came to ride home the back tyre was flat. thought i could pump it up to get me home but had already pumped it up twice by victoria, so i did a pitstop at evans there and swapped tubes (thanks to the guys there). had to walk the last 2 miles home as there was zero grip.

was going to buy some grippier tyres from evans but didn't as they didn't have what i wanted. might invest in some schwalbe marathon pluses...

W12 - where I am the compressed tyre tracks look very glassy compared to last night. no fresh snow hasn't helped..
I shall pop down to uxbridge road and check on the gritting.

I'm at work. Carried the bike the first couple of hundred yards. Rode the clear bits and walked the icy bits for a couple of miles until I got to the A3 at Battersea Rise. There on in was a breeze.

Side roads in SW6 treacherous - black ice and not dooable regardless of MTB or not. Secondary roads - leading to Wandsworth Bridge Rd have car tyre tracks clear of ice, but outside this there is black ice.

Wandsworth bridge road/New Kings Rd has some ice but not too bad, but still a little sketchy
Chelsea Embankment - looked dodgy with black ice off the main car tyre tracks
Millbank/Victoria Embankment - not too bad/possibly ok, but still has some ice

So, no side roads, mmm.

Side roads in Hendon icey but not trecherous yet, not near my place anyway. Another day of being driven on and walked over and i am sure they will be horrendous. I am gonna leave the riding to you tough young cyclists and use public transport at the mo. I cant afford to be off work with broken limbs for weeks on end.

backstreets round here have more grip than at 5-6pm yesterday, and Uxbridge road is the cleanest I've ever seen it - amazing.

Going is fair / easy.

Be careful turning on backstreets, thats it.

Right. I'm cycling.

I'll walk off my road, and then as it's main roads the whole way it should be fine. I'll talk enough clothing that should I need to abandon the bike at work and get the train back later I can do.

I am meant to be collecting a 12kg bench vice.
Should I:
(a) put it on the rear rack for lower center of mass
(b) just carry it in my bag to use for balance
(c) get it another day
(d) get the bus?

Bonus question - How much should I lean in either case?

I forgot :(

I just found this though on a 'related thread':

yeah, you will thank me come the blizzard of 2011, ask adio about my dirty south time machine.

Only out by a year. Not bad.

c - you'll end up leaning because of the weight and you mustn't lean. At all.

I am meant to be collecting a 12kg bench vice.
Should I:
(a) put it on the rear rack for lower center of mass
(b) just carry it in my bag to use for balance
(c) get it another day
(d) get the bus?

Bonus question - How much should I lean in either case?

As before, just got into work, it's ok on main roads, as long as you avoid various pile ups/pedestrians walking in the middle of the road etc.

bit slippy though, nearly leaned into a corner...

As before, just got into work, it's ok on main roads, as long as you avoid various pile ups/pedestrians walking in the middle of the road etc.

bit slippy though, nearly leaned into a corner...

ffs. you NEVER lean.

ffs. you NEVER lean.

Shit. knew I forgot something. Had a mudguard though, that help?

Walked off the estate, mostly because it's steep (for snowy conditions). Sheet ice on all but the most main of roads but not too shiny. Mostly the slush from last night has frozen to a rough crust. Temperature around -6 with windchill to -10. Traffic was 1/4 usual and mostly slow moving.

Wearing, cotton T, LS baselayer, LS fleece, Waterproof, cycling shorts, fleecey leggings, thick socks and shoe covers, helmet liner. Top was OK but legs and feet a little cold. I have cleats though, which are a bit of cold bridge.

As hippy says, don't lean over too much. Alas, I have to concede that I was on my gf's geared MTB with wide knobblies. Mostly because I switched to the cross tires this morning and just before I absolutely had to leave the valve at the back quit on me. Valves need to HTFU. Gears a bit slow to wake up and I reckon I would have been OK on the roads except for about 100m out of 7 miles.

That's the report from Swindon where I took the right decision not to head through the park today as the view from the road later revealed several 4ft high snowballs along the bike path.

In good news, temperatures don't look to be getting above sub-zero today. This means that ice is less likely to melt and refreeze meaning you shouldn't have to deal with too much shiny crust this evening.

SE18 main road are fine only side road are a problem. Drove to Falconwood at 07:00 some difficulty driving up a back street hill leaving in 5 min.

I feel I should explain my conduct on this thread today.

I am a snowaholic, all those that know me can attest this fact, I live for the stuff. In my room right now I have a textbook on different forms of snow, and the avalanche conditions that these might cause. Its incredibly interesting- but only if you're a little weird.

I had hoped that my sheer 'no snow' callousness would cause a massive snowfall in London, alas, in my part of SW London the effort, though stellar, of the wicked pressure system that's going on to cause this mass snowfall over us, Germany and some other countries, it has not materialized.

My homeward bound commute was spent singing whilst cycling, enjoying the slushiness, and then some idiot nearly blindsided me out of a side street. This made me miserable for a bit.

I dream of the snow I heard of last year, whilst stuck in Oxford, where there was no snow, and now the fortunes are reversed, with my gf getting all the snow there, and me getting next to nothing here. Thus i'm bitter, because, as said before, I fucking love the snow.

that is all.

I don't give a shit, I don't think many other people give a shit.

How the fuck will I countersteer without leaning?? I have a mudguard

SM1 - As with all others, the main roads were generally ok, although had to ride closer to the centre than normal to avoid any slush at the kerb side. Chickened out and took the mountain bike yesterday, but was back on the ss today. Got to work (about a 30 min ride) with only a couple of wheel spins, then ate it in the work car park riding down the ramp taht was covered in sheet ice!

Shit. knew I forgot something. Had a mudguard though, that help?

you should have said. you'll be fine.

my road was icy, saw some bloke sliding all over the place, swearing, bumping into another car, i thought to myself "that bloke must get a grip". had trouble walking, got to the main rd, absolutely fine, stayed away from the gutters/cycle lanes.

stay straight people.

Lovely ride in this morning. -10C temperatures keeping everything predictable and the the air crisp and dry.

Blue skies in the winter. Nothing like it. Want to go back out.

PS: Lean your bike as much as you want, just keep your weight central and over the wheels*.

(*assuming correctly fitted mudguard)

TW9 if you ride round here you die. Simples.

Take care. I'm on the tube.

I am meant to be collecting a 12kg bench vice.
Should I:
(a) put it on the rear rack for lower center of mass
(b) just carry it in my bag to use for balance
(c) get it another day
(d) get the bus?

Bonus question - How much should I lean in either case?

My earliest memory is watching out of my bedroom window on a very rainy day, and seeing a man on a motorbike with a bag of cement on the rear rack. He'd lost control by the time he came into view and I can still remember how funny he looked weaving all over the road. When he fell off I went and got my Dad, who called an ambulance and grabbed the first aid kit that we kept by the front door and went out to help.

Pub ride last night over the frozen, snow laden South Bucks landscape to a 900 year old pub for Talisker nectar. Delightful.
More snow expected here tonight (if London leaves any for us, thieving gits). So we'll try and do our weekly 20 mile off-roader tonight. I think we might be off the pace somewhat.