Originally Posted by
Juha
I did wear a pair of ice spikes around my neck, just in case. I'm fairly confident I would have been able to pull myself out, but the bike would definitely have been lost. Hope you didn't lose yours, Teemu.
Regarding the traction on my trip: I pretty soon decided to follow some long distance ice skaters' tracks, for two reasons. First, I wasn't too sure the ice would hold my weight. I figured I'd either be safe following them, or at the very least fall in the same hole with them
. Second, just their skate blade marks on the ice made small but notable difference in traction. At one point local kids had been playing on the ice. Skate marks everywhere. Riding through that, I had no problems with slipping. Beyond that area, a push on the pedals (while riding seated) would again cause the rear wheel to lose grip.
--J
20 years of playing broomball on outdoor rinks has taught me that not all ice is equal in terms of grip. In broomball you use special shoes instead of skates so you can easily feel the difference. We just finished up our 7th game this year and the ice hasn't been the same twice.
So I believe it when one person says he was riding on a hockey rink with ease and another person was having difficulty on a different ice covered surface.