What'cha want, bud? I've been on the bike almost daily since the first flake fell! While I can't say I've NEVER turned away from the bike because it was too cold, I know I haven't done it in over 6 years. But with the last two winters resulting in broken bones, I'm a little cautious when it comes to surface conditions. Icy-slick, forget about it. My commute is "the short, direct route" during this weather; wind chills of 0*F and less cut through even the layers I put on -- and I've pretty much got this winter gear thing dialed in. The main road between home and work is dangerous to ride -- it's been labeled "the deadliest mile in town". So, yeah, I'll sidewalk it for that stretch. It's a good thing I ride MTB exclusively -- people don't shovel around here very much, either, law or no law. So the ride is like baby-head rocks half-covered with sand. We had almost a solid week of snowy weather; 4-5" of snow is unusual for early December here (although, a couple years ago, we got a horrific ice storm about the 14th, almost shut down the city for three days), and the temps have been cold enough that very little ice has formed -- the snow isn't melting enough to form the ice. I made a pledge to myself to see how far into the winter season I could get before taking the bus to work. Might do the whole thing!
That's great, better then I would be doing. How about filling in your profile so we know where you and age and stuff.
We had some crazy snow last night. Not deep, but super slick. On the way home from dropping off my daughter, we were cruising uphill in a 35 zone when my traction completely gave out. My car just decided to veer right, then left. I got it straightened out quickly, but I only expect that sort of behavior when I'm doing something stupid. Anyway, we decided to go look at a local mansion with its ten million lights. Going downhill, I decided to feather off a bit of speed, due to slowing traffic in front of us, and immediately started to slide. Dropped it into L and took my foot off the brake, and that kept us at a crawl. At this point, I wasn't sure how we would get home, as it's uphill to our house. Right then, Mr. Plow came by, dropping sand in the other direction. I figured I could turn around at the bottom of the hill, and take advantage of that extra traction to get back up. Well, we eventually got turned around, only to see a Suburban coming down the hill, sideways. All the traction in the world don't mean squat unless traffic in both directions has it. I ended up taking a side street totally out of the way, until I could find another cross street leading to my house that had been plowed/sanded. I've driven in snow that came up to my car's bumper, but this was far worse than anything I've encountered so far. Like one of those videos of cars just sliding all over on ice. No thanks.
Im not so sure about that. In fact Texas can be quite entertaining in places watching guys in the big 4 wheel drive trucks just flying by. Trouble is almost all of them have absolutely NO experience on ice and snow. I have plenty and even fairly easy drives have me at home. Why? The guys in the 4 wheel drive trucks know they have 4 wheel go, but they don't have a clue they don't have 4 wheel stop. Better to get a hot drink, sit near a busy road by a big tree to duck behind, and count how many trucks wind up in the ditch and how many times they spin before they wind up there. Get good and you can predict how many times they will turn around. These are in relatively easy conditions too. Anyone that lived in Yankee land for more than a month should usually be able to handle with no problem. Im near the DFW area and the big risk here is the fly overs on the interstates. Some of the bridges can get close to 100 feet up and there isn't much if any equipment down here.
