Commuting Winter Unsalted non-gritted roads

Darith

Greetings. I was considering moving form my present location in westmeath to another; however i noticed the roads in question are not gritted. Obviously this not an issue once i meet the main roads but as we know alot of 'L' or even 'R' roads are not gritted on those bad nights. Anybody any experience of trying to drive on these roads on our glorious frosty mornings. Currently living on the N4;never had an issues thank god.

Colm17RvB

Used to live at the foot of Dublin mountains, about 2-3 weeks a year I couldn't use the bike, just wasn't possible. I did try once, but I went slippy slidey everywhere, got the bike to the office and just locked it in reception for a few weeks.

antiskeptic

Darith wrote: »

Greetings. I was considering moving form my present location in westmeath to another; however i noticed the roads in question are not gritted. Obviously this not an issue once i meet the main roads but as we know alot of 'L' or even 'R' roads are not gritted on those bad nights. Anybody any experience of trying to drive on these roads on our glorious frosty mornings. Currently living on the N4;never had an issues thank god.

Depends on your level of competence / confidence. It's okay riding on frosty roads but you have to do so super-gingerly and even then, you can get taken out with black ice.

If you haven't got too far to go until you meet gritted roads then doable but I wouldn't be planning on riding miles and miles that way.

flatty

Not worth the risk Imo. You might get away with it, but some dark night when you're tired or just unlucky you could take a spill.

flatty

There's no fun in riding stressed either, not trusting the bike to corner even at low speed.

Alkers

Not worth the risk, do you have an alternative?

Lorddrakul

I think this is a perfect reason to go full supermotard!

Foot down, boot grinding everywhere!

You know you want to

Del2005

Lorddrakul wrote: »

I think this is a perfect reason to go full supermotard!

Foot down, boot grinding everywhere!

You know you want to

There's an easy trip to hospital, at best, 2 wheels and ice/frost only mix when you can use studs.

Del2005

Just another issue with frosty or icy roads. Even if you do manage to travel safely on a bike there's a massive increase in the risk of other vehicles crashing and taking you out. Too many motorists, usually in a 4x4, think that their vehicle can go anywhere forgetting that it's the stopping which is more important than the starting and on icy roads studs or chains are what helps stop, not many vehicles here have chains.

Darith

Are studded tyres an option? Are they legal?

Alkers

Darith wrote: »

Are studded tyres an option? Are they legal?

Wouldn't they be a nightmare as soon as you get onto any sort of a hard surface?

arybvtcw0eolkf

If you have an alternative mode of transport then use that, its just not worth the risk of injuring yourself or breaking your bike.

Now I've (foolishly) rode through snow and ice for many years, but really its a silly thing to do.

D3V!L

Not a chance would I do that. I got stuck in the middle of Germany once on a ZZR1400 in the height of a snow storm. That was fun :pac: !!

Del2005

Darith wrote: »

Are studded tyres an option? Are they legal?

I doubt that they would work for frost and they wouldn't be legal once you hit treated roads, even if they were it would be dangerous riding on metal studs due to no grip they would be worse than using full knobblies (sp?) . You can add/remove the studs as you need to but that takes way too long for a commute and our conditions in general.

Darith

How about about commuting on gritted r/l roads in the countryside? Just as challenging?

Darith

Would another solution be too use a car on the bad roads and pick up the bike left locked overnight in safe place in a nearby town with access to a good road?

colm_c

Darith wrote: »

Would another solution be too use a car on the bad roads and pick up the bike left locked overnight in safe place in a nearby town with access to a good road?

That seems like a lot of hassle and inconvience for what would be most likely 5 days a year.