Commuting - #*&*%$ street sweepers!

So I'm going to work today, right out of my house it's a downhill for 4 blocks then I make a right onto 5th avenue at 20mph. Some street sweeper was out at 26 degrees laying down water into a nice carpet of ice. Did a pretty good tail slide before I recovered off a minivan.

So that's what the Zamboni drivers are doing during the NHL lock out.

Oooooo, I hate just thinking about that.

why would they do this? O_o

dirt just SLIDES right off a nice sheet of ice...

in philly, i hear they retire the street sweepers for the winter, now i am beginning to understand why.

I have mine mounted with panniers, but I understand it's also available as a backpack.

I didn't intend to flame anyone with this post.

Actually, I would rather ride over a sheet of ice than a road covered with salt (which is what I had this morning). My Nokkians will get me over the ice, but there's no protection against the evil that is road salt.

I'd rather have a street sweeper than the constant steady stream of nails and screws I'm always having to pick up out of the street right in front of my driveway. But then it's not cold enough for ice where I live.

Actually, I would rather ride over a sheet of ice than a road covered with salt (which is what I had this morning). My Nokkians will get me over the ice, but there's no protection against the evil that is road salt.

They salt our roads after two weeks a number of nuts, bolts and adjusters have been corroded solid. I clean the bike every couple of weeks. very annoying when it does not get cold enough to freeze.

Wow, talk about a resurrection! Two years old!

Well overall they do more good than harm. In the winter the right is a sheet of dirt and sand like material from the winter snow and snowplows. So I'd rather have them around.

+1
Dirt and sand everywhere right now.

Plus, they are fun to drop. :p

They swept out to a couple blocks away from my office a month or so ago. Leaving in the pm, those 1st couple blocks are a scrabbly downhill gravel slide, then it's beautiful clean pavement.

We can't get a sweeper out for at least 3 weeks after a rain. Basically you have to alter where you ride or ride in the minefields.

Sounds like you feel about street sweepers, the way I feel about road graders.

A good rain comes along and packs down these sugar-sand roads nice and firm and here comes the road grader to tear it all up making it soft and loose again.:mad:

They did that here. In January. On a sunny weekend day. Just the bike lanes on Summit Ave. (arguably the road with the highest bike traffic in Saint Paul). While appreciated the sentiment I was left with WTF? You can't dry sweep?

Dry sweeping is against UNION rules!

Saw the title of this thread and thought of poor Kermit the Frog's bicycle.