Originally Posted by
stealthbiker
... Found out that cold salt water can, almost literally, freeze your butt off if enough sprays on it. Got a fender on New Year's Eve with hope of riding yesterday. Snow was largely packed but enough ice/thaw under it that riding really wasn't safe. Ended up on the trainer (sigh). More snow coming down now - hope roads are clear by Saturday - really itching to get outside.
Yes, salt lowers the freezing point of water, so yeah, the water is actually colder than the adjacent snow! I believe Dr. Fahrenheit based zero on his scale to be the temperature of a "frigorific" brine solution. (Look it up!) Oh, and 100 was the temperature of his wife's armpit (before it was subsequently corrected to allow for boiling water to be an even 220 degrees!). This is why Celsius makes so much more sense - 0C is where plain water turns from a solid to a liquid; 100C is where water turns from a liquid to a gas. Dead simple, and in common use in Canada!
Luis