Post pictures of the worst ice you can find! [Archive]

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mechBgon

12-19-05, 10:59 PM

Bekologist

12-19-05, 11:18 PM

This isn't an ice picture, but a snowbank in the town I learned how to snowbike in....you couldn't even see around the corners 5 months out of the year!

Roody

12-20-05, 11:29 AM

This isn't an ice picture, but a snowbank in the town I learned how to snowbike in....you couldn't even see around the corners 5 months out of the year!
What town was that, Bek? Here in Michigan snow piles on the corners often reduce visibility pretty seriously. One more challenge we face in this season!

You know it's a snowy winter when the city has to load the snow into big trucks and haul it away.

DataJunkie

12-20-05, 11:33 AM

Heck, my hometown in SE WA state occasionally had a blast of artic winter. It went from averaging an inch the whole winter to 4 feet in a week. They put most of the snow in the middle turn lane and steamrolled it. One of the strangest things I have ever seen.

2manybikes

12-20-05, 12:19 PM

Wait a minute ! .........Do you mean the BEST Ice ?? Whadda ya mean worst?? :)

All of these photos are part of my typical 25 - 30 miles ice rides.

2manybikes

12-20-05, 12:32 PM

Roody

12-20-05, 05:14 PM

Wait a minute ! .........Do you mean the BEST Ice ?? Whadda ya mean worst?? :)

All of these photos are part of my typical 25 - 30 miles ice rides.
I am hoping for a supercold winter with little snow, so conditions will be perfect for my icebiking debut, thanks to the studded tires I just got.

2manybikes

12-20-05, 05:50 PM

I am hoping for a supercold winter with little snow, so conditions will be perfect for my icebiking debut, thanks to the studded tires I just got.

Where are you? I'm in New England, we always seem to get some. Around this time.

Here's a picture of the worst ice I can find. :D

Roody

12-20-05, 08:17 PM

Where are you? I'm in New England, we always seem to get some. Around this time.

Here's a picture of the worst ice I can find. :D
I'm in mid-Michigan. We always have safe ice on lakes, but not until almost the end of the year, usually. Actually, that's only a week or two away! We usually get a lot of snow, which makes it hard to ride on the open ice. If it gets cold enough, the Grand River will freeze near my house and I will have miles and miles of ice. I have done that on foot many times, but not yet on a bike. Any pointers?

2manybikes

12-21-05, 08:13 AM

I'm in mid-Michigan. We always have safe ice on lakes, but not until almost the end of the year, usually. Actually, that's only a week or two away! We usually get a lot of snow, which makes it hard to ride on the open ice. If it gets cold enough, the Grand River will freeze near my house and I will have miles and miles of ice. I have done that on foot many times, but not yet on a bike. Any pointers?

Get used to turning while keeping the bike straight up on bumpy surfaces. The colder and harder the ice the better. If the ice is smooth and flat the traction is absolutely amazing. The riding is better if it has been below freezing and still is. If it is warm sometimes the surface of the ice gets a little soft, this is better if you do not have studs, but worse than normal if you do. In snow without ice underneath the studs don't do any better than knobbies.

Even if it is well below freezing, if the ice is covered by snow it is insulated from the cold air and may be a lot weaker than the ice with no snow. I have called this a little too close once. I did not go in but I started sinking in a little so I turned around and did NOT stop.

Bring the cell phone, check to see if you actually have a signal too. The buddy system is the best on frozen bodies of water.

Have a blast, it is so much fun. :D

Bring the camera !

Roody

12-21-05, 11:05 AM

Get used to turning while keeping the bike straight up on bumpy surfaces. The colder and harder the ice the better. If the ice is smooth and flat the traction is absolutely amazing. The riding is better if it has been below freezing and still is. If it is warm sometimes the surface of the ice gets a little soft, this is better if you do not have studs, but worse than normal if you do. In snow without ice underneath the studs don't do any better than knobbies.

Even if it is well below freezing, if the ice is covered by snow it is insulated from the cold air and may be a lot weaker than the ice with no snow. I have called this a little too close once. I did not go in but I started sinking in a little so I turned around and did NOT stop.

Bring the cell phone, check to see if you actually have a signal too. The buddy system is the best on frozen bodies of water.

Have a blast, it is so much fun. :D

Bring the camera !
Thanks for the advice, 2manybikes! :)

I'm pretty well versed in ice generally, but have never ridden across it, only walked, snowshoed, iceboated, skated. So I'm really hoping that we get the conditions you described this year. I have fallen in once, on a river I had walked safely across several times. I didn't have trouble getting out that time, but of course there is a certain risk, even if you are careful.

I don't think I'll have much luck with the buddy system. It's just about impossible to find anybody crazy enough to go out there with me! :)

Bekologist

12-21-05, 01:34 PM

Roody, carry an ice dagger at the ready, be ready to go supine, and practice your grovelling crawl technique....and a big stick might help, don't know if its easy to carry one on a bike....I've fallen thru the ice on a number of times,rivers and lakes, and once I got used to it, boated in sea kayaks on lake superior thru broken ice. sometimes i'd be swimming up to my neck in ice filled water, pulling my kayak, negotiating a patch of ice too thick to paddle thru, but too thin to support a walkers weight.

The picture is in Marquette, Roody. I'm a Yooper, one that used to sleep in the snowbanks when I was too drunk to walk home from the bars- just dive right in a snowbank wearing a lot of wool, and you're good to go till morning... (an old Yooper woodsmans' trick.)

Gojohnnygo.

12-21-05, 02:45 PM

Scroll down and view This Cold Water Survival video. http://www.umanitoba.ca/faculties/physed/research/people/giesbrecht.shtml

2manybikes

12-21-05, 03:45 PM

Thanks for the advice, 2manybikes! :)

I'm pretty well versed in ice generally, but have never ridden across it, only walked, snowshoed, iceboated, skated. So I'm really hoping that we get the conditions you described this year. I have fallen in once, on a river I had walked safely across several times. I didn't have trouble getting out that time, but of course there is a certain risk, even if you are careful.

I don't think I'll have much luck with the buddy system. It's just about impossible to find anybody crazy enough to go out there with me! :)

I would go! Darn this internet thingy. I'm 1500 miles away! :( Oh well, have fun!

Velo Vol

12-21-05, 04:38 PM

No ice sightings in Tennessee thus far this winter.

Wait a minute ! .........Do you mean the BEST Ice ?? Whadda ya mean worst?? :)

All of these photos are part of my typical 25 - 30 miles ice rides.Out of curiosity, how long does it take to ride 30 miles on ice? How fast can one ride on ice?

Ritehsedad

12-21-05, 04:55 PM

Will these do?

2manybikes

12-21-05, 06:24 PM

No ice sightings in Tennessee thus far this winter.

Out of curiosity, how long does it take to ride 30 miles on ice? How fast can one ride on ice?

It is highly dependent on the surface of the ice. If it is flat like a lake (or my local skating rink :D) it's similar to the road, and you can blast away. The harder and colder the ice the better. But on a mtb with 25 psi in the tires that's not very fast. If you look at the last photo you can see footprints and holes in the ice. And sections of snow mixed in. That's more typical for me. Most of the way is first gear, with some second, or third gear on a mountain bike, working pretty hard. I bought a suspension seat post so I could go that far, it is bumpier where it has been walked on, and more consistently bumpy, than any off road riding. Without a lot of footprints it's about the same as any mountain bike ride.
I think the last time was about four hours for 25 miles, that is an average of 6.25 mph.? I don't have a computer on that bike. It feels almost like fast walking speed on the bumpiest part. I'll try and look at my watch next time.
When the snow has some depth to it it's also the first three gears. Sometimes first gear all the time if it's 5 inches deep. In deep snow up to the pedals (5.5 inches on that bike) I have taken about six hours to go 30 miles.

The Pontificato

12-29-05, 03:03 PM

Here's a picture of the worst ice I can find. :D

ICE, ICE, BABY!!! :eek: :D

Bikepacker67

12-29-05, 04:08 PM

This isn't necessarily the worst.
Just the worst caught on tape.

http://img518.imageshack.us/img518/7584/icy6dy.gif

Boudicca

12-29-05, 05:10 PM

kuan

12-29-05, 06:02 PM

I wonder if the right ski wax would work on ice...

hmm

2manybikes

12-30-05, 05:23 PM

I remember a cross-country ski track that went over an area where an uninsulated underground hot pipe had melted a patch of snow to water. I skied over it with no problems, and spent the rest of the trip trying, with totally numb fingers, to chip ice off my skis. Water freezes very quickly at -20C. Ice sticks very nicely to cheap cross-country skis. Cross-country skis do not (repeat not) glide when they have chunks of ice on the skiing surface. Big Problem.

When the air and your bike are below freezing sometimes the traffic on a road can keep the road wet for a while. In this condition the ice forms on you and your bike as you ride. The spokes can be 1" diameter.
You get shin guards made from ice. Forget about rim brakes. Next time I hope I have the camera.

ChroMo2

01-06-06, 11:00 PM

Who's got scary ice pictures to share? :) Here's a couple I took while I was out shopping for Christmas presents. Thankfully I don't actually ride on stuff quite this bad as a matter of routine, but this is what I had in mind when I picked the Nokian 294's over the cheaper models.

http://www.mechbgon.com/misc/ice1.jpg

http://www.mechbgon.com/misc/ice2.jpg
Awesome pictures of that ice, mechBgone! I don't have pictures, but while biking on the Mississippi river bluffs, in Minneapolis, south of the Franklin bridge, I tried going down a 100 - 150 foot decent toward the bottom (like I usually would in the summer) I was riding at summer speed and going too fast. Noticing that the bluff was covered in ice, and not being able to slow down fast enough, I let my bike "go" and fell to the ground. My bike slid for another 20 feet and I sat on a sheet of ice that reminded me of the glacial era. I was so scared my equillibrium was screwed up and it felt like I was gonna slide off the side of the bluff and down onto the trees and into the Mississippi river. I sat there and took off my gloves and melted holes into the ice with my fingertips so I would have something to hold on to and not slide down the bluff. I looked at my $1400 bicycle laying in front of me on the ice and slowly worked my way towards it. I almost slid down the bluff and would've probably died if I did. I had to melt finger holes in the ice and work my way back towards the top, warming my hand with my other hand so I could melt the next set of grips in the ice with my fingertips. After about a half hour I managed to get me and my bike off that incredible sheet of ice. I will never ride my bike down the steep icy bluffs of the Mississippi river again, but will gladly ride on any flat surface ice. I can handle falling 5 or 6 feet onto the frozen ground, but sliding off a 100 foot bluff into the Mississippi river is something that only reoccurs in my nightmares.