Now starts the winter of our discontent

4Per Tom Sherman °_°:
See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LB4sb-yTReM.

I get scared just watching that vid.

Probably a lot thicker ice than anything I've seen, but around
here - especially over moving water - the ice thickness varies a
lot depending on stuff I have no clue about.

Walking, at least you'd get more warning. Riding at that speed
with all the weight concentrated on two little contact patches...
seems like just a matter of time...
--
PeteCresswell

appeared on TODAYS PAPER front page
some effort in it grows tomatos

http://www.gosojourn.com/?gclid=CMzw...FQdMgwodDk3jHA

On Wed, 10 Nov 2010 20:09:45 -0800, kolldata wrote:

Vegas - This week

Today - - - - Currently dark 6:41 PM
59°F | °C
Current: Partly Cloudy
Wind: N at 7 mph
Humidity: 20% --Quite high

Thu - 62°F | 43°F

Fri - 64°F | 45°F

Sat - 67°F | 45°F

Sun - 67°F | 44°F

Weekend ride twice a months is spent touring Garage Sales, looking for
the Road Bike Deal of the year...

Takara frame, crank, bars and fork & a complete Schwinn Traveler in first
weekend in November (6th & 7th)...


JR the postman

On Nov 9, 10:48*pm, Andre Jute wrote:
3 degrees Celsius outside, ice on cars, road with little icy buttons.

Snow on the ground here this morning, flurries through most of the
day.
It'll melt off and there probably won't be complete ground cover for
more than another month but it's a bit depressing, even though I'm
skier (both kinds).

DR

On 2010-11-11, Tom Sherman °_° wrote:

See http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LB4sb-yTReM.

Every year we lose a few people going through the ice on the rivers.
Lakes I don't have much problem with, but with rivers and currents you
seldom really know how thick the ice is from one point to the next.

--

-John )

In article
,
Andre Jute wrote:

On Nov 10, 8:08Â*am, Dieter Britz wrote:
Andre Jute wrote:
3 degrees Celsius outside, ice on cars, road with little icy buttons.

****!

My cycling target isn't high: 50km a week, 2000km for the year or at
least as far as I rode the previous year.

Last year I rode 2127km. This year so far 1906km but it has stood
there for weeks with constant heavy rain, and now, when the rain
passes, freezing weather.

When I was a young professional sportsman, I would take every
opportunity to sit on my ass in intellectual or at least elegant
company, and I thought nothing of lecturing jocks whose sole sense was
kinesthetic on the pleasures of repose, the dangers of becoming an
exercise junkie. I apologize to all the meatheads who heard that story
from me. I know now how it feels to NEED the exercise.

What keeping you inside? Here in DK we have this sort of weather for
about 4 months, and I just use wider tyres during that time. What I
can't cycle on is slick ice after one of those mild rainfalls on
frozen ground. I tried that once and after the third slide gave up.
But dry ice is OK. I was in Norway once and saw a bloke ride on that
slick ice. I asked him how he did it, and he showed me the spiked
tyres he had. They cost more, and here they are not needed, but if
you're really keen on riding, you can no doubt get them where you are.

Not enough depth of ice here, and no consistent coverage. The one time
I even rode onto a stretch of black long enough to qualify as 'cover',
it was no longer than thirty feet. Studded tires would have been
destroyed just getting there...

No, they will not.
If you get icy roads that interfere with your riding
you want studded tires. Do as Andrew does. Build up
a fixed gear bicycle with studded tires. Take it out
when there is danger of ice on the road. If you do
not want a fixed gear, some other simple, inexpensive
gearing system. Nobody who has ever installed studded
bicycle tires has regretted it.

--
Michael Press

On 11/12/2010 12:49 AM, Michael Press wrote:
In article
,
Andre wrote:

On Nov 10, 8:08Â am, Dieter wrote:
Andre Jute wrote:
3 degrees Celsius outside, ice on cars, road with little icy buttons.

****!

My cycling target isn't high: 50km a week, 2000km for the year or at
least as far as I rode the previous year.

Last year I rode 2127km. This year so far 1906km but it has stood
there for weeks with constant heavy rain, and now, when the rain
passes, freezing weather.

When I was a young professional sportsman, I would take every
opportunity to sit on my ass in intellectual or at least elegant
company, and I thought nothing of lecturing jocks whose sole sense was
kinesthetic on the pleasures of repose, the dangers of becoming an
exercise junkie. I apologize to all the meatheads who heard that story
from me. I know now how it feels to NEED the exercise.

What keeping you inside? Here in DK we have this sort of weather for
about 4 months, and I just use wider tyres during that time. What I
can't cycle on is slick ice after one of those mild rainfalls on
frozen ground. I tried that once and after the third slide gave up.
But dry ice is OK. I was in Norway once and saw a bloke ride on that
slick ice. I asked him how he did it, and he showed me the spiked
tyres he had. They cost more, and here they are not needed, but if
you're really keen on riding, you can no doubt get them where you are.

Not enough depth of ice here, and no consistent coverage. The one time
I even rode onto a stretch of black long enough to qualify as 'cover',
it was no longer than thirty feet. Studded tires would have been
destroyed just getting there...

No, they will not.
If you get icy roads that interfere with your riding
you want studded tires. Do as Andrew does. Build up
a fixed gear bicycle with studded tires. Take it out
when there is danger of ice on the road. If you do
not want a fixed gear, some other simple, inexpensive
gearing system. Nobody who has ever installed studded
bicycle tires has regretted it.


There were some cheaper bike tires on the market with hardened steel
studs. Those did wear out pretty quickly on pavement. The better tires
(e.g. Nokian) use tungsten carbide studs, which last forever. Studded
tires are expensive, heavy and slow (RR). It's also true that ice, black
ice in particular, is a fairly rare thing to encounter. It's also
virtually impossible to predict, detect or ride over without crashing.
My philosophy is to just put studs on at the beginning of the black ice
season and off at the end -- then I don't have to think about it. Even
avoiding a minor injury is worth it, and minor injuries are almost a
certainty when there's ice around.

I usually have my studs on my fixer, but I'm not sure that's a
particular feature. It's nice to have a simple drivetrain that's immune
to icy buildup, but getting out of the saddle is not such a hot idea in
slippery conditions. Around here it's flat enough (at least winter
routes) that it isn't a problem, but I don't know if fixers, hills and
ice is the best combination.

On Nov 12, 5:49*am, Michael Press wrote:
In article
,
*Andre Jute wrote:





On Nov 10, 8:08*am, Dieter Britz wrote:
Andre Jute wrote:
3 degrees Celsius outside, ice on cars, road with little icy buttons.

****!

My cycling target isn't high: 50km a week, 2000km for the year or at
least as far as I rode the previous year.

Last year I rode 2127km. This year so far 1906km but it has stood
there for weeks with constant heavy rain, and now, when the rain
passes, freezing weather.

When I was a young professional sportsman, I would take every
opportunity to sit on my ass in intellectual or at least elegant
company, and I thought nothing of lecturing jocks whose sole sense was
kinesthetic on the pleasures of repose, the dangers of becoming an
exercise junkie. I apologize to all the meatheads who heard that story
from me. I know now how it feels to NEED the exercise.

What keeping you inside? Here in DK we have this sort of weather for
about 4 months, and I just use wider tyres during that time. What I
can't cycle on is slick ice after one of those mild rainfalls on
frozen ground. I tried that once and after the third slide gave up.
But dry ice is OK. I was in Norway once and saw a bloke ride on that
slick ice. I asked him how he did it, and he showed me the spiked
tyres he had. They cost more, and here they are not needed, but if
you're really keen on riding, you can no doubt get them where you are..

Not enough depth of ice here, and no consistent coverage. The one time
I even rode onto a stretch of black long enough to qualify as 'cover',
it was no longer than thirty feet. Studded tires would have been
destroyed just getting there...

No, they will not.
If you get icy roads that interfere with your riding
you want studded tires. Do as Andrew does. Build up
a fixed gear bicycle with studded tires. Take it out
when there is danger of ice on the road. If you do
not want a fixed gear, some other simple, inexpensive
gearing system. Nobody who has ever installed studded
bicycle tires has regretted it.

--
Michael Press

A fixie on my hills? Are you trying to kill me?

And there isn't ice often enough to worry about. The only reason I go
on about the one spot of black ice I saw in ten or fifteen years is
that it *was* the only one, and *I* was on it. I described the
experience here, how I never saw it though I was in fact watching the
road, how I would have fallen into the gorse hedge and the ditch if
I'd been on a diamond frame, how on my crossframe mixte I just put
both feet down and slid backwards about fifteen feet to where the
black ice stopped, how I warned drivers not to proceed, how one
blusterer who knew better had an accident (I don't know how heavily--I
just saw the police 4WD and ambulance go by shortly afterwards).

But I am most certainly not going to ride on studs for weeks and
months on end every winter in case they are necessary just once every
ten or fifteen years. The greater likelihood is in fact that heavy
rain will keep me inside.

I don't understand the point of the fixie. I'm never out of the
saddle. (Oh well, maybe once every third year, just out of pure
exuberance.) The whole point of the sort of bike that I ride (Dutch
city bikes with the tiniest overlay of sporting pretensions) is that
you, snuggle down comfortably into your Brooks, and glue your butt
there.

What is the point of paying for 14 well-spaced Rohloff gears if you
have to stand up to use them? That's like buying a Mercedes with the
biggest engine and then pushing it around by humanpower.

I understand Peter Cole putting on studded tyres at the beginning of
the winter and just keeping them there; but he lives in Boston. I live
in Ireland where the climate is much milder. In thirty years the river
outside my front door never froze once, or even had any ice on it.

Andre Jute
Sometimes I have a hard time following the logic here

On Nov 12, 3:20*am, DirtRoadie wrote:
On Nov 9, 10:48*pm, Andre Jute wrote:

3 degrees Celsius outside, ice on cars, road with little icy buttons.

Snow on the ground here this morning, flurries through most of the
day.
It'll melt off and there probably won't be complete ground cover for
more than another *month but it's a bit depressing, even though I'm
skier (both kinds).

DR

Here in Ireland our summers may not be as hot as the everlasting
summer that unrehabilitated surfie Danlels seems to follow around, but
we essentially enjoy spring three seasons of the year, or have in
recent years, probably ten months in the year.

Andre Jute
Give us the global warming you promised us!

Per Andre Jute:
I don't understand the point of the fixie. I'm never out of the
saddle.

I built up a fixie a few years ago.

Surly 1x1, 55/55 tires, 180 cranks, BMX flats, fifty-some inches
of gear.

Still ride it - mainly on local trips and when riding with my
neighbor to give myself enough handicap to make it not boring.

It's also easy to throw on the back of the car in case of a
breakdown or just wanting to get somewhere without driving to the
next parking lot.

The simplicity of it has an undeniable appeal.

But, IMHO, it's primary benefit to me is reminding me how
thankful I am for gears when I get back on my regular bike.
--
PeteCresswell