Cycling on ice

[ufkacbln]

Not to re-open the IPod arguments, but listening to the wheels helps, there is a difference between normal road, a hiss with frost and an eerie silence with ice. Just helps to ride appropriately.

 

[Arch]

Just keep to the main roads which should be gritted and you'll be fine, just take it easy, give your self time, don't brake or turn sharply. Just common sense really.

That's good advice, but it leaves me 100 yards from home and wondering how to reach my front door....

 

[Arch]

Or indeed, how to get to the main road, from work. Enormous bunny hop?

 

[Chrisc]

Letting air out the tyres is not bollocks, it works by lengthening the contact patch increasing available grip. Like a snow shoe, more surface area = more grip by spreading the load. Same principle is employed in trials riding, 4psi, squashy tyre, shitloads of grip. High pressure, no grip.
Inuit have precisely one word for snow, they just use others to describe what it's doing, falling, lying, drifting etc.

 

[skudupnorth]

Dragged the mountain bike out with lower pressure in the tyres,great on the white stuff but terrible on the clear main roads..felt like i was treading mud ! Had the joy of tearing up virgin snow in the works car park though !

 

[swee'pea99]

Letting air out the tyres is not bollocks, it works by lengthening the contact patch increasing available grip. Like a snow shoe, more surface area = more grip by spreading the load. Same principle is employed in trials riding, 4psi, squashy tyre, shitloads of grip. High pressure, no grip.
Inuit have precisely one word for snow, they just use others to describe what it's doing, falling, lying, drifting etc.

You sound disturbingly like a chap who knows what he's talking about.
Are you sure you're in the right place?

 

[Sheffield_Tiger]

Ice? Easy. Just don't do wheelies!

I once worked at a bike distributor who tried to specialise in producing corporate bikes...nice idea, bad business plan, it went bust.

One of their clients were the Sheffield Steelers, and they wanted the bike showing off to fans in the interval between the quarters or whatever the gaps between play are called.

Anyway, they let me have a practice ride after training..riding on the ice rik..easy! it was all churned up anyway by the skates.

Then came the night of the game. They only went and polished the ice before I got on there! Just about held it, then the commentator pretty much insisted on a wheelie....me one end of the rink, the bike right at the other end.

Thankfully all that was bruised was my ego.

 

[Sheffield_Tiger]

Dragged the mountain bike out with lower pressure in the tyres,great on the white stuff but terrible on the clear main roads..felt like i was treading mud ! Had the joy of tearing up virgin snow in the works car park though !

Not tempted with fun in a RWD czechmobile then? (Guessing from the username which I am sure I have seen elsewhere in such a context)

 

[Steve Austin]

Letting air out the tyres is not bollocks, it works by lengthening the contact patch increasing available grip. Like a snow shoe, more surface area = more grip by spreading the load. Same principle is employed in trials riding, 4psi, squashy tyre, shitloads of grip.

yep that seems to work great in this video i found. huge contact area. Just look at the truck grip. no loss of traction to be seen here

http://www.ebaumsworld.com/video/watch/247749/

 

[Globalti]

Letting air out the tyres is not bollocks, it works by lengthening the contact patch increasing available grip. Like a snow shoe, more surface area = more grip by spreading the load. Same principle is employed in trials riding, 4psi, squashy tyre, shitloads of grip. High pressure, no grip.
Inuit have precisely one word for snow, they just use others to describe what it's doing, falling, lying, drifting etc.

Yes, you air the tyres down in trials but that's not the same as riding in snow. In trials you are asking a small patch of rubber to grip all kinds of surfaces and shapes, edges, bars, points, etc. You need your tyre to be able to wrap around and grab as much contact as possible.

If you drive a car or a bike on snow or soft mud you will soon find that the bigger the contact area, the less the grip. Why do you think rally cars have such narrow tyres for winter conditions?

It's all about achieving maximum ground pressure; you need a narrow tyre pumped up really hard to bite down and find grip. I even have personal experience of this where I used to trial in my Land Rover on private land in very muddy conditions - my old-fashioned narrow Michelin XCLs would grip well when the posers in the tricked up vehicles with huge fat tyres were constantly getting stuck because their ground pressure was so low. Some really wide tyres would even build up a bow wave of mud and get bogged rather than cut through.

And yes, I have no doubt that the Inuit have only one word for falling snow and many for different conditions of snow; that was my very point - cyclists riding in snow need to learn to distinguish between what will give grip and what won't. Skiers are the same - they call snow snow when it's falling but there are half a dozen words I can think of, which describe fallen snow for its skiing qualities.

 

[Chrisc]

Yes but we're talking about bikes here not rally cars. I know they use narrow tyres to cut through but you'll never achieve those pressures on a bicycle. Not enough weight so the best way to go, just like when I ride my enduro mototcycle in deep snow, is to reduce tyre pressure and go over rather than through it. It works, I've done it for years.

 

[Steve Austin]

Have you ridden a mtb in snow? I use narrow tyres pumped up hard in snow (schwalbe black shark muds 1.5 and conti xc 1.5 fwiw), but the OP hasn't asked about snow....

Riding on ice on a bike(cycle) isn't possible without falling off. It makes no difference how hard the tyres are.

Having ridden trials, motocross, and many other motorbikes i understand a fair bit about tyre pressures, and i agree that adjusting this can affect grip, BUT how is this relevant to bicycles and riding on ICE.

I'll stick by my line, you can't ride a bicycle on ice.

 

[Chrisc]

I agree. I'm talking about snow here. Got off the op's question there didn't we.
On sheet ice forget it. You need studded tyres or you can't do it.
On snotty roads tho the small pressure drop still acts to increase your contact patch so more grip. Too much tho and it will be like riding thru treacle!

 

[fudgedog]

No matter how good you are on a bike if you hit black ice your off before any "skills" save the day. Trust me I fell off a couple of weeks ago and my shoulder and wrist are still sore and the large scab on my hip just fell off yesterday.

 

[jig-sore]

I'll stick by my line, you can't ride a bicycle on ice.

!??!?