Originally Posted by calbars
Had a nice ride today. Finally made it to the office [...] Real Winter.
goooood.
for me, the most difficult condition is when it is currently snowing, accumulating fast and they do not have time to remove it... you then have to ride with traffic... (when cars are stopped (that is 90% of the time...), i personally pass them anywhere i can. which includes the middle lane... but cars compact snow into a somehow soft crust that is super slippery if you do not reach the pavement (or the ice...) under. i also sometimes use sidewalks (if cleared). in montreal it is good to know that commercial streets sidewalks are (usually) plowed first. but, as always, you have to be careful with pedestrians! you also have to learn to go through the snow piles that are created at each intersection (the sidewalk plowers do not go straight and create those...). lots of fun.
the day after a snowfall, they salt most snow away on medium and big streets and it freezes hard on sidewalks and smaller roads. those two conditions are usually ok, especially with big fenders and studded tires (yes, i'm a big fan of those)...
congrats!
