The last couple of days have been mild, a couple of degrees above freezing, with a bit of rain and wet snow. Today, however, it is a couple of degrees below freezing and not about to warm up so the sidewalks are a bit (or more) slippery, despite the sand laid down on them. I was walking in today and as I walked on what appeared to be slippery ice, I got into the habit of twisting my foot a touch (as if rubbing out a cigarette on the sidewalk) to test my traction and it was quite useful to know what the traction was like, especially on a section of about 30m/yd that appeared to be glare ice.

When riding, does anyone do something similar, weave the front wheel back and forth a bit on potentially slippery sections to both test the slipperiness and/or force the studs on the sides of the tire to grab a bit?