The brass monkeys are out this morning!

kenmc

Coldest. Commute. Ever.*
Fingers like ice-pops, think I'll be digging the snowboarding kit out of the wardrobe when I get home Brrrrrrrr.
Well I suppose at least I didn't have any slippages, long may it continue.
Brrrrrrrrrrrr






*Isn't it amazing how the brain selectively forgets previous pain?

Heh, I thought you were referring to the commencement of Operation Freeflow with that title.

Still wearing shorts on my commute so it's not too cold yet.

kenmc

Myth wrote: »

Heh, I thought you were referring to the commencement of Operation Freeflow with that title.

Oh yeah the traffic was brilliant. Amazing the number of cyclists stopped at the lights too for a change

Myth wrote: »

Still wearing shorts on my commute

Yeah me too. Over my bibtights! .

DirkVoodoo

Yeah it was absolutely frickin' freezin'!

Was taking it extra slow in case of slippy patches. I'm in here 10 mins and I still can't feel my face.

blorg

Myth wrote: »

Still wearing shorts on my commute so it's not too cold yet.

This really isn't a good idea, you can do severe damage to your knees even if you don't "feel" the cold. Personally my legs are the last bit to get cold but I have been making sure my knees are covered every day since mid-October or so. I used to do the shorts in sub-zero weather thing but it really isn't a great idea.

Raam

Honestly, I didn't find it cold this morning at all.

seamus

Indeed, I can usually barely even feel the cold on my legs, even when it's below zero. My knees really feel it when I get off the bike though.

If this morning is as cold as it's going to get, then I'm happy with my gear. There were tonnes of lunatics out though, flaking down frost-covered cycle tracks. I'm really surprised I didn't see anyone wipe out.

Still doesn't compare to my motorbiking days. Now *that* was cold. Even still air is freezing when you're doing 100km/h.

kenmc

Raam wrote: »

Honestly, I didn't find it cold this morning at all.

You're just probably used to feeling this cold year round, what with having no body fat at all

Raam

kenmc wrote: »

You're just probably used to feeling this cold year round, what with having no body fat at all

Yeah, I've lost all feeling
To be honest, it looked cold, so I put on 2 base layers, 2 jerseys and my heavy gloves, so I was well wrapped up.

TinyExplosions

I agree with Raam, what cold.... shorts for me yet again -though I did wear a beanie for the first time

DirkVoodoo

Yeah, all the cycle paths looked a bit treacherous today (I mean more than usual), I was taking it much slower than usual.

L'Enfer du Nord

Don't know what it was like in Dublin, but very icy in Galway this morning, also sunny so it didn't feel too cold. Usually cycle a Trek Mountain bike to work, its only 3 km and its easier on the M.B. since traffic forces me on and off foot paths, into drains, potholes etc. The Trek has a puncture so I had to take my road bike. Was cycling really slowly but to come off at top of my road, wasn't hurt luckily, infact the only things to hit the ground were my feet and a fully gloved hand. No one around to see but I'd like to think my fall was more skilled than slap stick (right!).

Signal_ rabbit

I went out yesterday morning and it was still quite frosty and icy, my Conti's GP4000 were outstanding, they really stuck to the road considering they have no grip on them, the chilli compound works a treat. Obviously I had to reduce my speed. Very impressive tyre.

christeb

I was uber-careful on the Armadillos this morn in that frost.

It was absolutely faaa-reeezin' too, but as I've booked a trip to Beijing / Siberia / Moscow / St. Petersburg (Trans Mongolian Express train) in Jan, so any cold i experience is being put down to "acclimatisation".

blorg

Quite slippy this morning all right, was easy to do a skid stop without even quite meaning to

Wasn't too cold in full length tights, two pairs of socks (outer Sealskins), overshoes, base layer, warm LS jersey, Boards training jacket and ski gloves. I was warmed up by finding two worthy opponents for a commute race; got the upper hand despite their disregarding of red lights :pac:

Lumen

blorg wrote: »

Wasn't too cold in full length tights, two pairs of socks (outer Sealskins), overshoes, base layer, warm LS jersey, Boards training jacket and ski gloves. I was warmed up by finding two worthy opponents for a commute race; got the upper hand despite their disregarding of red lights :pac:

Glad to see your injuries haven't slowed you down much!

I feel really pathetic now...

Gavin

I think it warmed up by the time I got up and out. Mind you, even completely slick 1.25" mtb tyres are a hell of a lot better than the 23mm roadie ones. The grip on the specialized fatboys seems very good

concussion

blorg wrote: »

Wasn't too cold in full length tights, two pairs of socks (outer Sealskins), overshoes, base layer, warm LS jersey, Boards training jacket and ski gloves. I was warmed up by finding two worthy opponents for a commute race; got the upper hand despite their disregarding of red lights :pac:

How cold was it this morning?? How far is your commute? Just needed a jacket and gloves this morning but I'm not going very far anyway.

blorg

concussion wrote: »

How cold was it this morning?? How far is your commute? Just needed a jacket and gloves this morning but I'm not going very far anyway.

Well I wasn't cold as a result, quite toasty actually. It was cold and frosty this morning; I had a fair few slippy when stopping moments. If you actually look at what I listed it's actually not much more than "a jacket and gloves" (I presume you were wearing more than _just_ a jacket and gloves )

concussion

blorg wrote: »

I presume you were wearing more than _just_ a jacket and gloves )

No, just a jacket, a glove on my right hand, left hand inside the jacket Napoleon style and the second glove on my privates :D

What I really mean is I just had a windproof jacket over my casual clothes - jeans and a hoody - and not baselayers, waterproof socks etc. My commute is only a few minutes though, I was wondering what kind of distance/temperature warranted your wardrobe choice

Raam

concussion wrote: »

No, just a jacket, a glove on my right hand, left hand inside the jacket Napoleon style and the second glove on my privates :D

What I really mean is I just had a windproof jacket over my casual clothes - jeans and a hoody - and not baselayers, waterproof socks etc. My commute is only a few minutes though, I was wondering what kind of distance/temperature warranted your wardrobe choice

OK, let's get something straight. The only thing that should govern wardrobe choice, is how Euro you will look once you are on the bike.

concussion

Raam wrote: »

OK, let's get something straight. The only thing that should govern wardrobe choice, is how Euro you will look once you are on the bike.

I have a mountain bike. I don't conform to your rules :pac:


Please don't get the pitchforks :eek:

rubadub

Oxford chill-out balaclava, thin gloves with sealskinz winter mitts over them, standard t-shirt ,sweatshirt and high viz normal t-shirt on top. Half way along I wanted to take the sweatshirt off and just have 2 t-shirts. All that really gets me cold is my fingers, face & ears. If you go fast enough you keep warm. I might switch to my MTB on icy mornings, this way I can work harder without getting up a dangerous speed, not sure which is safer on ice though. A narrow tyre should defrost the ground easier, like ice skates.

The only reason I kept the sweatshirt on was protection if I fell. It looked slippy as hell, but I tested it with my feet and it was surprisingly OK.

DirkVoodoo

Raam wrote: »

OK, let's get something straight. The only thing that should govern wardrobe choice, is how Euro you will look once you are on the bike.

Noooo! Not again! It's a winter commuting thread, how can you make the jump to euro!

You wouldn't like to see me commuting then, I roll up my jeans if i wear them. The drive side one to stop it being shredded and the other one for symmetry. Surely there is something euro about that no?

Lumen

rubadub wrote: »

I might switch to my MTB on icy mornings, this way I can work harder without getting up a dangerous speed, not sure which is safer on ice though. A narrow tyre should defrost the ground easier, like ice skates.

A tyre at 100+psi will cut through slush and maybe snow, but not ice. Although an ice skate blade has an average pressure of maybe only 50psi when flat, you use the edges to turn.

Low pressures seem to be recommended for grip, which means either fat clinchers or or tubulars (though the tub recommendation is from cyclocrossers who are running on soft ground, not icy tarmac).

Tyre compound is probably important - winter tyres on cars use much softer rubber. I haven't found much information on tread compounds for bike tyres - the mfrs seem to expend most marketing words on puncture protection.

Dunno whether fat slicks are better than knobblies for icy roads. The tread blocks will increase the contact pressure (bad), but maybe key into road imperfections better (good).

Caroline_ie

DirkVoodoo

Your debate about melting ice made me remember the clapeyron equation, wikipedia has a better example than I could give:

One of the uses of this equation is to determine if a phase transition will occur in a given situation. Consider the question of how much pressure is needed to melt ice at a temperature ΔT below 0 °C. We can assume

{\Delta P} = \frac{L}{T\,\Delta V} {\Delta T}

and substituting in

L = 3.34×105 J/kg (latent heat of water),
T = 273 K (absolute temperature), and
ΔV = -9.05×10-5 m³/kg (change in volume from solid to liquid),

we obtain

\frac{\Delta P}{\Delta T} = -13.1 MPa/°C.

To provide a rough example of how much pressure this is, to melt ice at -7 °C (the temperature many ice skating rinks are set at) would require balancing a small car (mass = 1000 kg[6]) on a thimble (area = 1 cm²).

Apologies for the copy and pasting distorting the equations somewhat, the full thing is here

Also this example is a direct quote from that wiki entry, so fiddle around with the variables if you want to model your bike wheel.

rp

Lumen wrote: »

Dunno whether fat slicks are better than knobblies for icy roads. The tread blocks will increase the contact pressure (bad), but maybe key into road imperfections better (good).

My GatorSkin mostly-slicks were fine this morning, even on the back roads, only slide was a bit of rear-wheel fishtailing when starting to mash.

The lack of a rear brake and the Zen-ness of the fixed wheel also helps in these conditions.

flickerx

*Yawn* Oh a little bit of ice has you all in tears, does it? Christ. You're such babies
This is what I had to deal with last week. A "light" fall, according to the locals. If this happened back home the army would be out on the streets, schools would be shut, etc etc.

I was at a Winter Cycling advice night recently. Here's some links for you:
http://bikewinter.org/main.php
http://www.icebike.org

In February, there's an annual race on an ice rink for the insane ones.

Lumen

rp wrote: »

My GatorSkin mostly-slicks were fine this morning, even on the back roads, only slide was a bit of rear-wheel fishtailing when starting to mash.

The lack of a rear brake and the Zen-ness of the fixed wheel also helps in these conditions.

I crashed yesterday on Gatorskins due to optimistic/stupid cornering speed in icy conditions. A fixed wheel would have no doubt added some hipster style to the accident, but ye cannae defeat the laws of physics.

I'm wimping out until my studded tyres arrive or the weather improves.

Caroline_ie

flickerx wrote: »

*Yawn* Oh a little bit of ice has you all in tears, does it? Christ. You're such babies
This is what I had to deal with last week. A "light" fall, according to the locals. If this happened back home the army would be out on the streets, schools would be shut, etc etc.

I was at a Winter Cycling advice night recently. Here's some links for you:
http://bikewinter.org/main.php
http://www.icebike.org

In February, there's an annual race on an ice rink for the insane ones.

Reminds me of when I lived in Ontario ... oh wait, that's where u are too? It's nice for a day or two ... a pain in the back side when it lasts 4 months...

blorg

I too was on (700x25c) Gatorskins when I crashed, not that I think it would have made much of a difference. @flickerx- we were all happily going about business-as-usual until the disasters of the weekend led to pile-ups all over the country with many of our number nursing broken bones; I got away with just road-rash, torn clothes and severe bruising. Still commuting as are most people but taking it very carefully! Rode the fixie this morning but again I don't think it would make much of a difference. Several unintentional skid stops. Are you riding a fixie over there? Any modifications? What tyres?

ROK ON

christeb wrote: »

I was uber-careful on the Armadillos this morn in that frost.

I have to say, I use Armadillos, and have not had a handling problem with them (yet!).
Have been out in all sorts of weather in them. Out in ice on Saturday. Have cycled in torrential rain in them.
Now, I have very little to compare them with, but thus far I am a happy user. I am aware from all the threads the downside that many users have had - maybe I have been lucky.

rp

Lumen wrote: »

I'm wimping out until my studded tyres arrive or the weather improves.

I found the studs only to be of use on hard-packed snow, on this kind of frost they don't really bite. I've the Schwalbe ones with the spikes on the sides that you deflate a bit to bring them into contact,

They make a good noise though, almost as good a playing cards in the spokes.

Lumen

rp wrote: »

I found the studs only to be of use on hard-packed snow, on this kind of frost they don't really bite. I've the Schwalbe ones with the spikes on the sides that you deflate a bit to bring them into contact,

They make a good noise though, almost as good a playing cards in the spokes.

Sound like the ones ordered - Schwalbe Marathon Winter. It they don't work on the road I'll keep them for the forthcoming cyclocross bike.

blorg

Lumen wrote: »

Sound like the ones ordered - Schwalbe Marathon Winter. It they don't work on the road I'll keep them for the forthcoming cyclocross bike.

I don't think they would have enough tread for a CX bike (not that I know anything about that Schwalbe seem to claim "icy roads" for them anyway. Do let us know how you get on; I want attempted high speed cornering on ice with full reports. Where did you order them from?

Lumen

blorg wrote: »

I don't think they would have enough tread for a CX bike (not that I know anything about that Schwalbe seem to claim "icy roads" for them anyway. Do let us know how you get on; I want attempted high speed cornering on ice with full reports. Where did you order them from?

I ordered them from bike24.com.

Sorry, my reasoning was not well-articulated. What I meant was "studded tyres are cool. If they don't fit on my road bike I'll put them on a cyclocross bike then go find the right conditions to justify the purchase".

buffalo

flickerx wrote: »

In February, there's an annual race on an ice rink for the insane ones.

I'm trying to imagine how people might react to someone doing a few laps of the rink in Smithfield or the RDS. :P

Civilian_Target

Haha, you think that's bad... look what greeted me this time last week when I went to cycle home from work... (I live in Provence Alpes Cote d'Azur in the South of France)



Needless to say, I just went to the pub...

The rest of last week wasn't a lot warmer so I left this morning in t-shirt, boards jacket and long combats.... and sweated like a beast

Chips Lovell

After chickening out entirely yesterday I went out at lunchtime today. Went up Edmondstown Road as far as the viewing point. Lots of frost in the fields, but the road had thawed out well. Still took if fairly handy coming down Stocking Lane. My left hand was cramping from all the braking. Just as well that I did, since there was a huge patch of ice on one of the worst bends.

blorg

Think it looks a lot safer today, lots of water on the road. Filthy but not so skiddy.

kenmc

Ah yeah, was almost balmy this morning by comparison!

Caroline_ie

blorg wrote: »

Think it looks a lot safer today, lots of water on the road. Filthy but not so skiddy.

Well this morning the D15 footpaths were leathal ... I almost fell 5 times and each time I could see me breaking my other arm ... arrived into work 20 minutes late and fuming. Winter stinks!

souter

Fell off on some ice this morning. Completely by surprise and first fall on cleats. Not sore or dangerous but shook me up at bit.
Would I be wise to swap out my 25c gatorskins for something fat and squishy for the forseeable, and any recommendations that I could get in town today?

kenmc

I was half contemplating swapping out my 23c Gators for something a bit bigger for the winter too, to get more rubber down, never did get around to it though. Was contemplating 25c gators, but that's barely any improvement I suppose. I can fit 28c on my bike, so maybe I'll move up to that, but they only have wire bead 28c on CRC

Lumen

souter wrote: »

Fell off on some ice this morning. Completely by surprise and first fall on cleats. Not sore or dangerous but shook me up at bit.
Would I be wise to swap out my 25c gatorskins for something fat and squishy for the forseeable, and any recommendations that I could get in town today?

How much clearance have you got?

blorg

Caroline_ie wrote: »

Well this morning the D15 footpaths were leathal ... I almost fell 5 times and each time I could see me breaking my other arm ... arrived into work 20 minutes late and fuming. Winter stinks!

Are you cycling your bike with a broken wrist? :eek:

Lumen

blorg wrote: »

Are you cycling your bike with a broken wrist? :eek:

I suspect that's "footpath" in the sense of "walking", and "fell" in the sense of "fell over" not "fell off".

Even Caroline isn't that crazy.

Caroline_ie

blorg wrote: »

Are you cycling your bike with a broken wrist? :eek:

I barely manage to type at work ... I don't see how i'd be able to cycle my fixie to work ... I wish I could... I will the bike a rest at least until the cast comes off ... I have my trek set up on the turbo in my bedroom... with the zipp wheels for aero purposes, obvisously. As soon as my back is less stiff, I'll be on it everyday.

Lumen wrote: »

Even Caroline isn't that crazy.

Yeah ... well, thanks for that I guess... the above might change your mind.

TinyExplosions

kenmc wrote: »

I was half contemplating swapping out my 23c Gators for something a bit bigger for the winter too, to get more rubber down, never did get around to it though. Was contemplating 25c gators, but that's barely any improvement I suppose. I can fit 28c on my bike, so maybe I'll move up to that, but they only have wire bead 28c on CRC

These are supposed to be very good in bad conditions... could be worth a look

Caroline_ie

TinyExplosions wrote: »

These are supposed to be very good in bad conditions... could be worth a look

the pave tyre are used by most riders for paris roubaix ,,, slipery pave are bad when wet ( I experienced ... and it hurts ), but would they be as good on icy roads?