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Well that’s a good start to the year!

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  • January 5, 2017 at 12:27 pm #26624
    sergius

    I managed to crash on Monday while out for an early morning ride; perfectly straight piece of road, what must have been some black ice caused the front of the bike to go sideways at 20mph unceremoniously dumping me on the tarmac.

     

    Managed to knacker both my wrists and make a mess of my chin, but could have been much worse.  Did wreck my helmet, gloves, Gabba and glasses though – bike seemed ok after I bent the RD back into position and crawled home – but I’ve not done a proper post-crash inspection yet with the state of my wrists.

     

    Anyway, after I’m recovered I think I’m going to have to sack off the (road) rides when the temperature is that low.  That’s the first (and last!) time I go out when it’s icy like that, if I can loose the front wheel like that on the straight with no warning, then it’s clearly not sensible.

    As I’ve no turbo trainer (and my wife won’t let me have bikes in the house), I’m a little limited in my options when it’s proper cold.

    All I can see is:

    – go for a jog (I hate running though)

    – exercise bike (no strava! boo)

    – dig out my MTB and go offroad…

     

    I’ve not done any offroad riding for a few years TBH, though I have a reasonable bike I bought a while back.  I live about 13 miles north of Box Hill, with the amount of MTB’ers I see around the place I assume there is a lot of reasonable trails out there, so onto the questions:

    1) Anyone able to recommend any routes or websites with offroad routes for the Dorking area?

    2) Would riding 10+ miles on road on an MTB to get to the trails really be any better on icy roads than my road bike? In my head it would be; flats, generally slower speeds, fatter tyres at lower pressures.  I’m not a fan of driving somewhere to go on a bike ride.

    3) Any reason I can’t use my road gear while riding offroad (leggings/jackets etc) I’m worried about thorns etc tearing what can be some fairly expensive gear.  But I don’t want to spring for more gear that I’ll probably only use a few times a year.

     

    Anything else I should consider?

     

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  • January 5, 2017 at 8:33 pm #884451
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    hsiaolc

    Cant remember Monday or

    Cant remember Monday or Tuesday they had weather warming specifically about ice on the road. 

    Sorry to hear about what happened.  

    I nearly slipped myself on side roads. 

     

    January 5, 2017 at 7:52 pm #884449
    0
    ktache

    I have just fitted my Conti

    I have just fitted my Conti Top Contact winter tyres onto my getting about bike, they are the original ones, with “sharp rubber”, the mark II do everything with lamellae, I have recomended them on this site before, with somewhat mixed results.  They will stay on probably until March or April, very road, though 26inch, no tread for mud and they spin and slide a lot muddy grass.  For me, they are perfect for this time of year, when that crispy hoar frost gets you in the morning, and for patches of ice.  But mostly for when there is only a chance of ice, which may get you suddenly, especially on bridges.  They give me that little bit more confidence and I haven’t had the front dissappear on me like I did with the knobblies, which is why I got the spikes and then the winters.  They are not full on spike tyres, I have those for the good bike, and they are for proper snow and ice and not needed for me for the past 3 winters, I am a southerner.  But I still put the winters on the commuter every year about now, I will not give a full lean into corners, but I can still accelerate and brake when the going gets crispy, not full on, but thats more care than anything else.

    Some of the reviews of the mark IIs put them through far more extreme conditions than I would want to.

    They work for me, and I really hate losing the front with no warning, less so when slow on a corner and of course it’s fun to get the back out sometimes.  But the winters give that bit more traction and confidence.

    Cont claim to have brought their winter tyre tech over from their car tyres.

    January 5, 2017 at 7:20 pm #884447
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    tritecommentbot

    Jogging/running gives you

    Jogging/running gives you immense heart rate work. If you haven’t been running for a while, you’re going to be in for a shock at how high, and how fast your heart rate gets there if you even remotely push it. 

    I wanted to do early morning 5am rides, but in the end I started doing short runs as moving the bike out makes noise and I don’t like to disrupt the missus’ sleep. Nothing more than 5 miles so far. Have some gravel and mucky trails nearby, so it’s kinda fun too, bit of road/trail running. 

     

    Really serene early in the morning. Feels so nice out around 0deg. 

     

    Try a slow jog and see if you can get into it.

     

    Tip: you need way less layers than on the bike. Even sub 0 I’ll be in one base layer and an ultralight jacket. Weighs like 50 grams or something fun. And I’ll sweat buckets in that. Same with gloves, seems I need only a thin layer when running, but on the bike nothing keeps my hands warm. 

    Btw, I wrecked my knee off-road in icy conditions donkey’s ago. Not sure offroad is a good way to avoid injury. Falls are way more common..

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