Scenic Route

Overnight through this morning was the first accumulating snow of the season.

It was fun.

There were about three inches on the ground when I went to work this morning, and it was still snowing. I eased the bike out to the street, turned carefully, very wide, slow and upright, and headed to the side street to cut over to University Ave and come out at a light.

The side street hadn’t been plowed or salted, but it had been traveled. This gave me some hardpack and some virgin snow to experiment in. It went real well. No slipping and sliding, and the ride in the virgin snow was super plush.

University Ave had been plowed and salted, but snow was still falling and this new snow was making a greasy mess of the street. It’s a 30 MPH street, and cars were going about 20. I had to slow down and take it easy so I didn’t pass any of them. The bike just didn’t seem to be effected by it.

I still dealt with turns gingerly, just in case. I stopped for two errands on the way to work. The only time I slid was after I was off the bike. A section of parking lot I’d just ridden through was slippery enough that walking was problematic. The bike didn’t seem to care.

This is cool!

Cars wouldn’t start this morning. My bike (and it’s cranky old engine) started just fine. Cars, trucks and buses slid everywhere. There were numerous accidents—one involving a loaded school bus and another with fatalities—all attributed to conditions. I never once slid or slipped with the bike.

I was diggin’ it. I didn’t want to go in when I go to work. I wanted to ride my bike in the snow all day.

The parking lot at work hadn’t been plowed when I arrived. I thought it would be a good place to try to break the bike loose, in a safe place where I could practice recovering from a skid, and safely fall while learning it.

No matter what I tried—and I tried all the cowboy stuff—I could not make the bike skid, slip or slide. It was frustrating. Lean way over in a turn, and studs bit right in. Lock the brakes and all it did was stop. Try to fishtail by locking the rear wheel and counter-steering the front? Again, all it did was stop.

Okay, let’s try for rear wheel spin. I downshifted to the lowest gear and cranked hard on the pedals. The rear tire bit in, and I did a wheelie instead.

Now, granted, there was no ice this morning. But coming home, there was. The side street where I’d started in the morning had melted and frozen, then new snow had fallen. Mostly is was hardpack on ice.

The front tire would follow refrozen ruts occasionally or be deflected to the side by them. And that was the only thing. Yet sticks and stones in the road in the dry will deflect the front in the same manner if you hit them right (which I do, invariably), so I’m used to that.

I’m certain there will be conditions this winter where loss of traction will become a problem. I’m sure I’ll find them, and I’m sure I’ll fall. But based today’s experience, finding those situations will be far more difficult than I anticipated.

Running hot in cold

It was 16°F (-9°C) this morning making it the coldest I’ve ridden. Many riders seem to pull the plug at 20°F so I wasn’t sure how I’d fare. Considering I’m still having problems with being overdressed, I didn’t think it would be an issue.

Still, I substituted a cotton turtleneck for a long-sleeved t-shirt under my business shirt. And I tried the Magma gloves instead of the Windfronts. Other than that, the ensemble was the same as what I wore the other night night when it was 10 or 12 degrees warmer—a fleece under my windbreaker, cotton waffle longjohns under my jeans, single pair of socks, hiking boots and winter cycling beanie.

I was still overdressed.

My hands were sweating inside the Magma gloves. The winter beanie was wicking sweat off my head. And the turtleneck was getting damp. Coming home, I wore the Windfront gloves and left the windbreaker unzipped. That seemed just about right.

Damn! Near as I can figure, the way I used to dress for temps like today should be good for about -40° (F and C) on the bike.

But…

It’s not all milk and honey, though. First, the slop takes longer to melt off the bike than I had hoped. And trying to bounce it off while still outside is an exercise in futility.

Second, drivers were too scared for their own loss of traction and control to worry about giving me a lot of clearance. I got the impression they weren’t being discourteous, but that they didn’t feel safe in being as courteous as usual.

Now think about his for a minute. Cars are crashing all over town, drivers are in fear of losing control, and I’m on a bike that I can’t make slide even when I try my damnedest.

Sort of makes you wonder if it’s safe to drive a car on anything but a warm, dry, sunny day.

Which is exactly the worry people have expressed to me about cycling in inclement weather. “It can’t be safe,” they tell me. I’m here to say, it’s safer than in a car!

This entry was posted on Friday, December 8th, 2006 at 10:57 pm EST and is filed under Bike. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.