So I finally tried again to bike into work, I modified my face mask so that my mouth could fully breath. I greased up all my gears, etc.. There was no snow and the weather was calling for low -9 and a high of -5, perfect! I started to ride and it was FREEZING. I stopped and looked at my phone again and it said the same thing, expect it was currently -19. Gah. But I still continued to bike to work. I've never heard of any other job, where you can report on things and be wrong 40% of the time and still remain employed.
And then it snowed. I was plowing through about 2 inches or more at times and this is that slippery stuff. While going straight, I wiped out for no reason at all. Crack goes my side mirror and I think my rear break line snapped. So I give up, there is no safe way for me to get around town as a commuter. Time to review the road and bike again mid February. Until then, I'm driving to work.
Wow sounds like a bad spill, sorry to hear about that! It sucks that you broke your mirror and brake line... I'm glad you didn't break any bones though!
ReplyDeleteSnow can be really treacherous. It basically hides everything underneath. There could have been an icy bump, or a bit of a pothole, or anything really. Every time I hit the lake ice near my house, its covered with a lot of snow, and I come very close to bailing all the time. I can usually stay in control but I'm probably going a lot slower than you are.
Are you still riding on those spider print tires? They look like they'd be vulnerable to slipping. If so, knobby tires help a lot. I know that's not a great option as fat bike tires can be pricey.
In that same situation, I'm usually riding closer to the road. Shoulders tend to be slippery but that's where studs help a lot.
I think it's a real shame that Aylmer (and Gatineau in general) are so terrible when it comes to winter cycling options.
Don't know how great your french is, but here's a link to a bike advocacy group for the Outaouais: http://reseauveloboulot.ca/avo/
I'm running a fairly knobby tire in the back and still running the spider in the front. I know I should be running knobby on both but with the electric motor, it makes it such a pain to disconnect. I tried putting in connectors in between the controller and the motor, so I could disconnect relatively easier but one would come loose after a few minutes and then the motor was starting to "sputter" so I had to direct wire it to the controller. Yes, its more about being lazy than anything else.
DeleteIF I had a heated garage to work on this, I would... Next year I will have these little "gotcha" fixed up.
The spider tire does more a glide through the snow but it's awful on the ice.
Looking at the weather predictions, I can't see relief of from the ice on the ground until the end of March. So, I'm going to need to find a warm place, disconnect the rim and bring it to my bike shop to install a new front tire. I'm not worried about the price but ya, normal MTB tire = 50 Fat Bike = 250. Supply and demand.
I can cycle with-in Aylmer with no issues, just nothing really near the exit points. They really need to repave the lower aylmer road and pave the shoulder too! I'll take a look at that link.