Blooming cold

Any tips for ice ? Went out earlier up on the moors, still a fair bit of snow and ice up there. Making my way home though and shifting went out of the window and was suffering with real bad chain suck. After limping home it was basically down to front mech and chain freezing up.

I have an excellent couple of tips that I found out the last night ride we did on Wednesday.

Usually (after a bad fall many years ago) I completley fall apart on ice, however we were out around Rivington on Wednesday night and I foudn that there are two ways to approach the problem.

The first was thick fog. Could see no further than 3m. So by the time I realise that I am hurtling along on sheet ice, I am over it. In this particular case in point, i had the great pleasure of stopping and watching my riding mates behind me panic and fall off.

The second solution was stopping at some convenient point (in our case the Pigeon tower at Rivi) and break out 2 litres of Bloody Mary, made with extra Vodka. Toss, the provider of the refreshemnt, had even packed a full lemon and sliced it for each of our drinks.

After consuming said Bloody Mary’s in TOTAL darkness and minus temps, we set off for home along Belmont road (sheet ice for 2 miles solid). Strangley enough none of us fell off.

I maintain that the snifters made us “loose/drunk” and therefore better able to cope with no grip.

Was a great night out with proper mates. I love night riding.

Was riding in rivington on Sat and there was plenty of ice about but if you go in a straight line no probs ,don’t brake either!

Was funny watching 3 guys trying to come uphill over ice though!!

alcohol does make it possible to do superhuman stuff. on a night ride a little while back i was really flagging and was bloody frozen. we stopped off at a pub to warm up I had a couple of pints of stella as i had a thirst. On the way back i was like a man possessed i just flew off. i felt great so i thought i’d just go for it until my legs went again, but amazingly i just kept going. i had to wait a good 5 minutes for the others at the end. I’m putting stella in my camelbak from now on.

We did Rivvy (Nab, Goit and Brinscall woods) on Wed. Worst riding conditions i’ve ever experienced, Ice, Snow Sleet, Fog and rain, in no particular order. To add to the exitement the Ice was sporadic and under the surface of the puddles. A ride full of comedy dismounts.

It’s amazing when you fnd yourself on a sheet of Ice that what you really should not do is tense up, but I’m like a bloody statue when i end up on it.

Not so bad at riding on ice, probably just because I haven’t took a big fall on it yet. Although a few weeks ago when it snowed, the canal side prior to the climb up to Stoodley was too slippy to even walk on.

This was more about the bike icing up and failing to work, initially front mech and then due to chain suck not being able to pedal. Had some standard lube on before setting off but not a lot. The mud and water I picked up on route appeared to freeze as I started to come home. It was only an hours night ride but would have meant abandonment of anything longer

Pics from the ride :-