Originally Posted by
MinnMan
The GOOD thing is that when bundled up for winter, I'm wearing a lot of padding AND there is no road rash on ice. The palm of one hand was sore for a couple of days as it took some of the fall, but otherwise, no big deal.
Originally Posted by
PaulRivers
If you get the shifting-snow-on-top-of-ice combo, and you don't get hit by a car, the good news is a lot of times you fall onto some amount of snow.
But if you get sheer ice it's really nasty. My dad in is 60's (I'm in my 30's) fell down ice skating and hurt for the next 6 months.
There's a weird selection bias about these kind of posts - people who got hurt on ice and stopped biking in the winter aren't going to be coming online to post about it right? Back in the day before studded tires were common I asked a group in the local bike club who were talking about winter riding if they had ever broken anything doing it. Every single one of them had broken something - a wrist, a collarbone, etc on some sort of unexpected ice (this is in minnesota so of course if your climate is milder things may vary).
It doesn't hurt anyone but yourself if you fall, so it's not really a moral issue to convince other people about, but personally I wouldn't ride without studs in the winter as I just don't see it being worth the risk.
Just for the record, I'm from Minnesota (see my screen name) and I ride with studs in the winter. And I'm much closer in age to your dad than to you.
(Also, if you are in your 30s, I don't believe you were around "back in the day, before studs were common". )
Yes there is a selection as to who is posting here, but falling on ice from skates or walking is actually quite different from going down on a bike. You may choose to disagree, but in my limited experience, going down on ice on a bicycle is not as bad. Much of the motion is horizontal, along the lubricated ice surface. No, I don't have any statistics to back that up. Just anecdotes.