Black ice everywhere

Looks to be snow/sleet on top off the cars in Dublin 7

Hmmzis wrote: »

Should have taken the MTB. South from Ballyboden roundy it's all ice. Ticknock would have been so much better than an aborted interval session.

Yeah, it looks like snow but it actually turned solid overnight. Not completely ice, still a little crunchy, but definitely not snow either.

My new commuting tyres work in the ice. That made me happy.

There was about one inch of snow at my house this morning (Dublin 16). It was snowing and sticking by midnight and some more must have fallen during the night. It was very crystalline this morning though, the kind of stuff that forms ice rocks rather than snowballs - if this snow were to appear in a music video it would have to be more of a death metal "I'll feckin' BUST YA!" type of snowball fight rather than the playful japes and frolics and "Here, let me dust you with some soft fluffy snowflakes" type of thing as memorably represented by Wham's "Last Christmas".

Even with spiked tyres I let some air out of my tyres coming down the hill in my estate as the entire road was white and very icy in particular where cars had driven on it. Once I got to the roads which had been gritted it was fine but there were still icy patches at the edges of some stretches of road, the stretch past Rathfarnham Village being one obvious place. Any vague notions I'd had of removing my spiked tyres before the end of February are now well and truly on hold.

I saw several cars being driven with a thick layer of snow completely covering the rear windscreen - what is it with that? I wouldn't consider it safe to drive my car if I could see absolutely nothing through my rear windscreen. I can only assume the drivers were too delicate and/or traumatised to clear their windows: "'Twas shocking stuff Joe, 'twas cold and wet. Did I what Joe? Did I remove it from the windscreens? Jaysus Joe, no, sure I wouldn't touch it, sure it could have been anything Joe and I've seen enough horror films to know you don't just casually handle stuff you don't recognize, I coulda been kilt Joe, KILT! Do I have a what Joe? An ice scraper? Feck it Joe I'm not living in Scandinavia, I'm living in Ireland. IRELAND Joe, sure what would I be doing with an ice scraper? Jaysus Joe you've fallen a long way, I never thought I'd here you embrace strange foreign practices. I don't know Joe, I don't know, I'd drive over to shake some sense into you Joe but sure I can't see a thing through the windscreen so I don't know where I'm going and I'd probably never find you".

doozerie wrote: »

I saw several cars being driven with a thick layer of snow completely covering the rear windscreen - what is it with that? I wouldn't consider it safe to drive my car if I could see absolutely nothing through my rear windscreen

It's perfectly safe to drive with no rear screen visibility, you just use the wing mirrors.

I offer as evidence the exemplary and highly predictable behaviour of white vans.

There's a 200m section of downhill just outside my house which was basically sheet ice from all the cars driving over it. Though the bike wasn't slipping, I just wasn't happy at all and so gingerly stopped and walked down that section. If it wasn't downhill I would have ridden on it.

No slips at all the rest of the way though, even when braking. Even had the tyres at 80psi, so I could have dropped them to 60psi and I reckon I would have been fine on the really icy section.

What's the southside like this evening? Pretty mild here on the Northside.

Cruagh/Stocking Lane ok?

Mild enough northside. I have a bucket of water outside the back door, so a quick glance at that in the morning tells me whether I'm likely to encounter ice in the vicinity. It was all clear today.

N4 was grand. Some frost on the cars, but the commute in was fine.

Seweryn wrote: »

Yeah, I am on my commute as usual. There may be some ice in places, so be carefull. I had my first bad fall of the bike yesterday (except the collision with a car last year). It was at a straight section of the road at speed and I lost some skin as of effect. Not pleasant, but could be a lot worse. All bones in tact, as I feel.

Ouch, that sounds painful. I hope you heal up quickly.
I made it in this morning without incident. Terrified of coming off the bike on ice, but it seemed fine today. Phew

AssaultedPeanut wrote: »

Ouch, that sounds painful. I hope you heal up quickly.

Thanks, it was very unexpected, so I would say "expect the unexpected" on the road, seriously. It looks a lot worse that it feels though (I am not going to put up any photos for that reason ).