Friday, February 4, 2011

A bit of a challenging two days

I've been biking all week as the snow hasn't come down so the roads have been clear.  But there were two things that stood out this week for me.

The first thing was a jerk encounter on Thursday.  The roads were bare, there were 2 empty lanes, no other cars on the road, and I had my helmet/led lights on.  Yet he decided to honk the horn at me.  What was I doing wrong?  Oh well...I kept on peddling.  At least he didn't yell at me.

And today, even though we got some fresh snow, I decided to bike to work.  It was frozen this morning and the side streets were really bad, there was sheer ice with water on top.  I realized that it was bad as I was biking down one side street, but couldn't stop and get off the bike for fear of slipping.  I went on to another street..and down I went!  I wasn't going too fast because of the ice, but I still went down good.  There was a car coming on my lane so I quickly picked myself and the bike up and went on to the sidewalk.  The sidewalk was more icy then the road!  I was resigned to walking the bike to work as there was no going back, but the sidewalks were so bad that when I got to the main street that I ride up to work on, I decided that it would be safer to ride on the road then to walk on the sidewalk.

Going home, it was good going.  Slushy and wet, but I was ok as I was wearing my full rain gear in anticipation of getting soaked.  I am ok, I just have a sore bum.  I need good studded tires I tell you!  Don't have any yet.  Do they help on melting sheer ice?

3 comments:

  1. Sounds like a crazy biking day. Recently I was just thinking on how those big bike trikes are probably the best things going for icy roads.. At least its melting!!

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  2. I'm fortunate as I don't think I've ever received the "pointless honk" from someone yet.

    I think it was three years ago when I last fell off during the winter. I took a corner too fast and hit a patch of ice. Fortunately it was in a parking lot well before anything was open.

    Yesterday however I was down a side-street that was covered with slush, and a car was coming towards me, so I moved over to the side but the whole rear of my bike moved in the opposite direction. Didn't fall but proves how tricky side-street slush can be.

    I actually find riding slightly faster through slush helps. Whenever I slow down I lose traction.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Gotta love the pointless honking...

    I've also considered getting studded tires, or even making my own -- there are good online DIY tutorials online -- but haven't gotten to it. And now I think the worst of winter may be over, here, but who knows. I know I keep getting out there.

    Be safe but keep riding :-)}}}

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