Winter Cycling - first spill of 09 :(

i was really hoping i could go all winter with out eating the ground.

a couple hundred miles on cheep Chinese studded tires has pretty much reduced their effectiveness to nothing. i didnt notice this till today. time to go to the hardware store and make my own!

i was cruising down an ice covered hill. i tapped the rear brake to slow a little and the back end kicked out. even though the brake wasnt engaged for longer than a split second, the rear wheel wasnt really spinning, just sliding all over the place.

i went down easily onto my leg then hip and forearm. i sledded down the hill on my clothes whilst in a koma-sutra like position with my bike.

totally unharmed; and glad nobody saw me.

Ouch, me too. 2 spills in one ride, it's been2 years. Hit my head, broke my helmet. I'm totally fine. No witnesses. I hate crashes.

Ouch, me too. 2 spills in one ride, it's been2 years. Hit my head, broke my helmet. I'm totally fine. No witnesses. I hate crashes.

I've had more crashes this season than the last 3 combined. I was blaming the A10s but maybe it's just a bad year. I've seen more salt and sand on the bike trails this year than ever before. No crashes today but there was definite slippage on the soft spots.

This is my first year of winter biking and I've had about six falls. Nothing broken so far and only one of them made me really sore (too sore to get on the bike the next day). I'm very cautious on streets because I have a great fear of falling over to my left and getting smushed by a car. Most of my riding is on paths, though, and I take it comparatively slowly on days when there's a risk of falling. It annoys the speed demon in me but I don't want to crack my head open.

I've had more crashes this season than the last 3 combined. I was blaming the A10s but maybe it's just a bad year. I've seen more salt and sand on the bike trails this year than ever before. No crashes today but there was definite slippage on the soft spots.

Indeed. The combination of weather events this year have made it more treacherous than ever. All that ice formed during the 2 warms days we've had followed by the series of small snow events that don't get plowed well or at all. It's really dicey even with the Nokians. Be safe, go slow, take the lane, look for the dry patches!

Indeed. The combination of weather events this year have made it more treacherous than ever. All that ice formed during the 2 warms days we've had followed by the series of small snow events that don't get plowed well or at all. It's really dicey even with the Nokians. Be safe, go slow, take the lane, look for the dry patches!

I'll admit to being somewhat shy about taking the lane on busy residential streets in the past. This year it's just too dangerous not to.

I had my first spill of the year on Monday. City had been covered in a sheet of ice overnight, but by the time I was riding to work most was gone. I was going down a hill not paying enough attention at about 25 MPH and the road turned left with a reverse bank. Turns out, the reverse bank still had a sheet of ice, with slush on top! I went down hard and slid about 25 feet into a snow bank, with my bike hitting the snow bank a couple feet behind me. Both brifters were bent in at about 45 degree angles and my left side was covered in slush and thus rather wet. I got a bruise on my thigh and lost a bit of skin on my left elbow - but I was amazingly OK. There was no shortage of witnesses.

I guess this is what I get for riding really worn slicks at about 100 PSI on ice. Time to get studs!

i was really hoping i could go all winter with out eating the ground.

a couple hundred miles on cheep Chinese studded tires has pretty much reduced their effectiveness to nothing. i didnt notice this till today. time to go to the hardware store and make my own!

i was cruising down an ice covered hill. i tapped the rear brake to slow a little and the back end kicked out. even though the brake wasnt engaged for longer than a split second, the rear wheel wasnt really spinning, just sliding all over the place.

i went down easily onto my leg then hip and forearm. i sledded down the hill on my clothes whilst in a koma-sutra like position with my bike.

totally unharmed; and glad nobody saw me.

Ouch! What are you going to make your own studded tires out of? I'm buying Schwalbe's (I've heard the same good things about Nokians, to) just because I figured the carbide studs in these tires will both last longer than anything I could make (and my own would probably last half as long, while still costing half as much to make).

I fell last night too. I was testing out my new light and went down on some pretty slick ice. i have studded tires too. sometimes its not the tire thats the problem. its sometimes the tire pressure. thats what my problem was. the studs just skidded over the ice. and down I went.

First tumble of the year, too.

My Marathon Winters are confidence inspiring, but even carbide studs are of limited effectiveness when they're up against snow buried streetcar tracks.

Blerg.

Ouch! What are you going to make your own studded tires out of? I'm buying Schwalbe's (I've heard the same good things about Nokians, to) just because I figured the carbide studs in these tires will both last longer than anything I could make (and my own would probably last half as long, while still costing half as much to make).

well i've got a set of knobbies that i dont use anymore they have about 3/4 to half the tread left on them. the lugs on the tires are really big. im planning on drilling them out and putting sheet metal screws in them, or if i get ambitious i might pickup a bunch of some more expensive hardware from work. maybe put bolts and nuts in each lug. (nuts on the tread not inside). then i figured i'd use some gorilla glue and make a liner out of an old tube then put some duct tape on the inside to protect my inner tube. the tires are 26x2.2 so i might go ahead with a smaller diameter tube to make up for all the excessive lining on the tires.

also i realized i've been running my pressure too high.

and as a word of caution: dont buy innova studded tires. after a couple months i can see the tread cracking and weathering. the studs are just about ground down to nothing. i didnt mean to buy innovas, the lbs ordered some more expensive kendas and got the innovas instead, and i had waited too long in the season to wait another week so i bought them. cheap chinese garbage