so this morning i found out that studded snow/ice tires are NOT infallible. i was cruising along the lakefront trail on my commute this morning when i hit a huge patch of mirror smooth ice. i went down hard within a fraction of a second and because i was still locked into my clipless pedals, i proceeded to slide across the ice with the bike for several dozen feet, coming dangerously close to the edge of the path and falling right into the bone chilling waters of lake michigan. thankfully i finally came to a stop a few feet short of going over the edge into the drink, but it was scary none the less.

the problem of course was that i was riding my tires with too much PSI for icy road conditions, and they didn't have enough give to truly allow the ice studs to grip into the ice, so it was definitely my own selfish fault, but i really wasn't expecting such a large sheet of ice on the trail this morning, but i guess the waves must have kicked up a bit last night and buried that section of the bike trail under a super slick sheet of ice.

live and learn. at least i stopped short of falling into the lake...... which is nice.