Winter Cycling - Riding on frozen lakes and rivers

Do you have a place to do this?

What is it like?

Got a photo?

I have two small lakes that freeze over.

It doesn't get that cold here. What's it like?

It doesn't get that cold here. What's it like?

If it's good and cold and the ice is hard, using studded tires is about the same as riding on pavement with knobbies. When the ice gets softer on top from a warm day you can often ride without studs. When the ice is rough with lots of footprints, it's like a rock garden.
It's great to ride to an island!! Near me I have a salt water marsh, and salt water beaches, that get very hard so you can ride right over them. Being able to ride places you could not even walk in the summer is very interesting.

Cool river riding (Quicktime) video here: http://www.digave.com/videos_ice.html This was the Charles River in Boston during that real cold snap a couple of years ago. Other "extreme" bike videos at http://www.digave.com/videos/

Somewhere I have an old photo of my parent's 73 Ford station wagon parked at the dock at their place in the Rideau Lakes about halfway between Kingston and Ottawa, Ontario, and pics of ten-wheel dump trucks driving across the lake too. Ice hasn't gotten that thick in a few years though.

I have heard of local people here riding across lake St. Clare to Canada in the winter time, that sounds fun.
wonder if it is possible now since the heightened security

None that I have pictures of 2many. Maybe sometime this winter I'll try toadd to this thread.

Nice Pictures BTW. :)

I have heard of local people here riding across lake St. Clare to Canada in the winter time, that sounds fun.
wonder if it is possible now since the heightened security

My great-Grandmother owned a blind pig in Delray during Prohibition. Back in those days, they didn't have the Coast Guard break up the ice on the Detroit River. She used to walk across the ice to Canada and smuggle bottles of whiskey from the Hiram Walker distillery in her girdle. I wonder if there was much bike traffic across the ice in those days.

Great pics, 2MB. Post more if you got 'em!

Amazing coincidence! I was reading just today a novel called "Middlesex" with a great scene involving rumrunners driving booze across Lake Ste. Claire in 1923. Weird that you guys mentioned it just now--and this is a book that will make you doubt that there is any such thing as a coincidence! I doubt if they ever drove canadian across the Detroit River because the current there is vicious, and would keep the river from freezing--at least I have never seen it frozen anywhere except in backwaters near shore.

What is it like, Donna? Usually you're the only person out there, so it's like being in the wilds of Alaska even if you're only a few miles from the state capitol. The ice makes the eeriest whooping and cracking noises as you ride or walk across it. Sometimes it sounds like a humpback whale, sometimes like a rifle shot. A lot of animals venture out on the ice. I saw a bob cat running along the ice once. When he saw me, he turned in mid-stride and slid on the ice, just like a housecat on a waxed floor. Sometimes new ice that forms in very cold weather is as clear as glass, and you can see the lake bottom as you ride over it. Stop and talk to the ice fishermen--they are friendly folk who know a lot about nature and weather.

I have two small lakes that freeze over.


The ice on these photos look like they would be great for ice skating. As much as I enjoy cycling, there is nothing like skating on a large lake when the ice is good.

A swamp made into a solid place to ride.

One of the Springs feeding Brickyard Pond. A sign to stay off the ice in that area.
Under the ice lies 100 year old brick making equipment and full size trees. When they stopped making
bricks they shut off the sump pumps and the whole place filled with water. These bricks are all over the world.

A view from up on a hill made of the clay there were mining for the bricks.

We will ride the ice at a state park and never needed studs. Knobby tires at 25psi cold works quite well. Our tires make a peculiar sound similar to rubbing a balloon as we roll.

A few pics on my bike with sheet metal screw studs.
The frame I made also, the bike is now 6 years old

A few pics on my bike with sheet metal screw studs.
The frame I made also, the bike is now 6 years old


Great photos, what is the frame made of ?

Thanks, the frame is made out of carbon fiber you cant see in those pictures but the rear has a pivotless suspension, there are more detailed pictures at my website and on photo bucket.

It was my first carbon project since then I have made 5 more bikes of various design out of carbon.

Building them is almost as much fun as riding them.
Brian

A few pics on my bike with sheet metal screw studs.
The frame I made also, the bike is now 6 years old



Awesome, thats a great job, howmany can claim to have built their bikes form scratch? :beer:


Adding to your collection here 2many.

A friend and I made it out for the final ride of 2006 this morning at Fish Creek Provincial Park. It was a fabulous ride as we were able to cross the frozen stream at any point and was able to ride on it. Most of the parks bridges were washed out from the flooding in the summer of 2005. Ever since, crossing the creek has been limited to a couple bridges.

Zipping throught the forest.


The summers easy down hills are now garly icy death traps. (A ton of fun BTW) :)


It was really warm last week so everything melted but got fairly cold at night the last 4 days. The ice was NHL quality in parts.



The Nokian Extreme 294's work well as usual. As difficult as it was to walk on the ice, riding on it was like dry pavement.



Some areas of the creek had hard pack snow on top of the ice.


Shadows are getting long, time to go home.


Happy New Year everyone!

Hmmmmmm ..... even looking at those pictures makes me nervous!!!


The last time I was out on a frozen body of water (the Red River in Winnipeg) .... I fell through. I have had this aversion to frozen bodies of water ever since.

A friend and I made it out for the final ride of 2006 this morning at Fish Creek Provincial Park. It was a fabulous ride as we were able to cross the frozen stream at any point and was able to ride on it. Most of the parks bridges were washed out from the flooding in the summer of 2005. Ever since, crossing the creek has been limited to a couple bridges.
It was really warm last week so everything melted but got fairly cold at night the last 4 days. The ice was NHL quality in parts.
Happy New Year everyone!

Great photos , thanks. :)