I don’t ever go out on a ride expecting to need assistance, but always take my phone just in case.

With this snow warning in place in Devon, is it responsible for me to bimble up to Woodbury to take a few snaps and enjoy the weather while our emergency services are likely to be overstretched?

What if I were to come a cropper, and find myself in trouble?

Any advice? (particularly from our Scottish and Welsh brethren who might have prior experience of this situation)

Don’t crash. If the weather’s anything like it is here, I can’t imagine any help would get there quickly, it’ll be mountain rescue teams who may be busy with other priorities.

By all means go for a bimble and take some snaps though, just stay within your limits.

As above. I just take it easy and don’t go as far from home as I would normally.

I also take a couple of extra layers in case I have to stop and mix a mechanical, it gets very cold very quickly when you have to stop, especially if its wet.

As above. Ride within your limits, let someone know where you are going and time of return. Treat it like a hill day.

Yesterdays commute in deep snow, wind and more = I wore mountaineering jacket and over trousers, had spare layer and my mountain ’emergency dry bag’ with a bivvy shelter, balaclava, head torch etc with me – not just shorts and an enduro inner tube taped to the seatpost. In fact, I think I am taking kids out at end of day for razz in the deep powder we now have…

[url=https://flic.kr/p/GDBeFy]Snowy commute[/url] by Matt Robinson, on Flickr

got any friends you can take as well?  I’d not tackle a solo ride if you can help it, groups are better as if assistance is needed it’s to hand.

The windchill at the tops of Peak District is below -20C,  I wouldn’t go out in that alone or on a group, as things could go downhill pretty quickly if you got a mechanical or had an accident. The mountain rescue wouldn’t be too pleased if they had to save you.  Down in Macc its absolutely grim, at the Cat and Fiddle it’s currently appalling.

Posted by Frank Montgomery on Thursday, March 1, 2018

I love riding in weather like this but it’s definitely best done in a group – crash and knock yourself on a solo ride and you’re **** when it’s this cold. I’m on the south coast though so even with the wind chill it’s only about -10C and I’m fully geared up for going up mountains. 😉

The fact that your relying on a weather alert and the Internet to make your decisions for you to me screams at the fact that you shouldn’t be going out

There is too much snow around here to bother, but the current wind makes it very dangerous too.

If I wasn’t off work looking after my son I’d be up in the hills walking with full winter gear, bivvy bag etc

If you do get up to Woodbury today, th<span style=”font-size: 0.8rem;”>en give us a conditions report, as I’m planning on going up there tomorrow on the chubby bike 😀</span>

Would go out today, but I’m on toddler wrangling duty. About to go a make her first snowman.

I would be wary.

As others have mentioned go in a group and also make sure your navigation is good.

A white out isnt a nice experience. Even if you know somewhere well it can be seriously confusing.

What if I were to come a cropper, and find myself in trouble?

More so than usual yes.

Come off and knock yourself out, okay pretty unlikely, but you’ll be dead in a few hours if that.

Crash and become incapacitated, without being able to keep yourself warm by moving about – hypothermia is likely because the sort of kit you can ride in isn’t up to laying about on the cold ground in.

Not to mention bad weather can affect mobile signals, you might get ‘full bars’ on a normal day and get SFA at the moment.

A solo ride in these sorts of conditions seems a bit foolish to me.

Well you’re an adult so it’s up to you really.

Six of one/half a dozen of the other – personally I’d love to go out on a ride now but conditions are not great – roads slippery (cars can’t control well) trails a bit slippy.

I don’t want the risk of increased injury from a tumble as it will mean extended time off the bike.

Im bored, I’d like to go cycling – on or off road, but I won’t.

particularly from our Scottish and Welsh brethren who might have prior experience of this situation

When I go out into the great outdoors in any weather it’s with the mindset that I am responsible for myself, including any injuries, illness and medical conditions I happen to suffer. I treat emergency services, mountain rescue etc as a last resort, merely a possibility they might be able to assist and not an entiltlement. I prepare and plan accordingly and never go out without enough gear to survive being benighted.

If you’re considering that you might need the emergency services, I wouldn’t bother.

If you’re confident of being able to gauge your own abilities and stay within them, crack on.

edit: but don’t come running to us if you freeze to death

at the Cat and Fiddle it’s currently appalling.

Fake news !  I can’t see a single sportsbike flying past at 80mph.  Clearly a mock-up.

(I’m about to fire up the fatbike for possibly its only ever chance of a snowride – only amber here though)

I’m bored too, I’d love to bundle off out for a quick blast but we’ve got 40mph gusty awfulness here and a decent amount of snow. Bugger that for a laugh, stick the snooker on and turn the heating up! Tea?

I went out today – but our red warning hasn’t started yet.  I wasn’t on my own, but I still would have gone out.  But then I can ride slowly enough that I know I won’t hurt myself if I fall over.

Its some snow and a fairly unpleasant wind. But its not exactly trekking across Antarctica unsupported.

I rode solo yesterday for a couple of hours, including a couple of tumbles when I hit buried stuff under the snow (that’s why I had a lid, keepads and flat pedals); today I walked solo for nearer 4 including being on the tops of some biggish hills with full exposure to that wind. Both were life affirming experiences, and I wouldn’t have missed them for the world. The missus is taking the long way home by bike from work tonight – she’s just left.

Risk is something you can control. You can avoid it all together, but that would be bloody boring, or you can mitigate it by being sensible and get a lot back from the situation. I wouldn’t be riding a bike on the tops today, but it would be fine in the woods out of the wind, and I wouldn’t be planning a massive loop. Sensible kit choice, route and backup plans.

What if I were to come a cropper, and find myself in trouble?

Then YOU get yourself out of it again.

This is a fair comment though…

The fact that your relying on a weather alert and the Internet to make your decisions for you to me screams at the fact that you shouldn’t be going out

So much of it is about having the right clothing on and using it right (like don’t wear tons, be very active, soak yourself in sweat and then stand around chilling with nothing extra to put on). I remember doing a night orienteering exercise in the peak when the snow was deep – I had great time (despite being a skinny 17 year old) whilst a good few schoolmates ended up with the early stages of hypothermia. I remember it was a full moon and a clear sky, so it was pretty epic out there, almost like monochrome daylight.

What Rene said.  I have nio issue at all with folk going out to enjoy the snow.  Even climbing mountains if thats your thing ( although not in the low visibility we have)  But you need to rely on yourself like we did in pre mobile days – that means you take enough that you can survive overnight on your own.

How experienced and knowledgeable are you if it goes wrong?

Are you willing to accept that if it does that you’re putting many people at risk to come and rescue you.

Or can rest in the knowledge that there’s other days to ride.

Well, that (ride) escalated quickly !

Across the common into some local woods, brief play & turned back.  Getting dark so I chickened out of the common & headed for the minor road route.

LOADS of lost drivers, unsuitable vehicles in the middle of the new forest (I know, not quite the lost world), barely dressed (relatively speaking) and totally disoriented.  Led a couple to “safety” and then helped to (tried anyway) get a couple of cars out of a shallow ditch.

… and my wife made it home in the car, 5 miles in 2.5 hrs on motorway & an A road

(4-6 inches of snow in the new forest – wonder when they last saw that)

Awesome overall 🙂

View this post on Instagram

Bit wild out… #dartmoorcollective #dartmoor #stormageddon #snow #tavistock #stormemma #snowmageddon #beastfromtheeast #howiescape

A post shared by Less Bikes, More Stuff (@jim_gardiner) on Mar 1, 2018 at 10:31am PST

I went, Bit wild in Devon right now..

i fell off riding home from the double locks, but tbf, that’s nothing new.

i fell off riding home from the double locks, but tbf, that’s nothing new.

Rather depends if it’s from or too…

I bailed in the end… I don’t have the resources to take care of myself in these temps.. I’ve done it plenty times in the past mind :\

I had a nice pootle around town to take in the sights instead 🙂

Ajantom.. I’m sorta thinking about heading up in the morning.. wanna meet up?

Been out twice, conditions bit like the summit parts of a winter hill walk.  Both times from the house, amazing how revitalised familiar paths are with snow on them, even roads which are usually a dull slog.  Frozen up beaches are a hoot with the wind behind you.

Of course when red turned to amber, the weather got a whole lot worse and even near whiteout at times.

I saw earlier that Woodhead MRT suggested they wouldn’t want to go out on a day like today unless they had too, so suggest others don’t either.

If you’re considering that you might need the emergency services, I wouldn’t bother.

If you’re confident of being able to gauge your own abilities and stay within them, crack on

This is my whole point… I always ride within my abilities cos I’m a bit of an old giffer these days.. but shit can and does happen.. and if it happened this weekend. I don’t think that I could hold my own..

I’m historically pretty good at staving off hypothermia, but….. naaaah

I have to say, blowing snow and fading light are a pretty disorienting combo – wouldn’t have wanted to be anywhere wilder than my local common without a bailout route available.  I could well imagine going in circles on a relatively featureless moor with few visible reference points

Hi yunki, having just looked out the window and seen it’s drifted 2 foot high in places, I’m probably not going to attempt a ride from Ottery to Woodbury ⛷️

Still planning on going out, but will go for a pootle round some local bridleways.

drifted 2 foot high in places

It’s a combo of freezing rain and drifted show here. One car seen all morning, idiot!

Will be riding round the local fields etc later though I might try to ride up to the forest…

Guessing your school is shut too Joe?

Stopped snowing now, just looks very cold and a bit blustery now.

We’ll see how the 29×3 tyres cope with the snow, thinking down to about 8psi should be good 😉

I fancy a couple of loops of Box Hill later. Can just roll back down the hill in the event of a mechanical. Also, with the frozen ground I won’t have to clean 3 inches of mud off the drive chain when I get back. All round winner.

I wouldn’t be going anywhere I couldn’t rescue myself from.

Bit late to the party, but because of the weather I avoided a drive to my usual riding spots where I could have ridden with mates and went for an urban ride from my back door (in to Jesmond Dene) for a bit of a play. Maybe not as satisfying, but far safer as driving on the roads is the risky bit!

Went out for a bit of a ride last night, took us ~2hrs to do about 8 miles, very hard work, some pushing, lots of ‘bike sledging’ down the hills and excellent fun! Once we got out of the city there was literally nobody about, bridleways were a bit spooky but great fun snow cover ranging from a couple of inches to over a foot depending how it had drifted so very little idea what you were about to ride into/over 🙂

Oh yes, Alfine didn’t cope well, had 2 usable gears, 1st and ‘something around 4/5/6’ but which one was a lottery as it changed with every shift!

Didn’t get out last night, but went out on local trails (Redmires and towards stanage pole) on Wednesday once the kids were asleep. On the fat bike, so a bit more control than on the normal mtb, and just nice to get out.

Solo and in the dark, so I had a bag on my back with a spare warm jacket, bothy bag, hot drink, warm hat and spare winter gloves.  Also had my phone but it turned off as it was too cold… Probably best to keep electronics near your body rather than in the bag next time.

Fairly confident that I could either struggle home or sit the night out with what I had. There’s always a risk, but the risk of getting hit by a poor driver is much lower than usual as no-one was on the roads.  Also much more cautious than usual in trail choice and riding style.

It’s all kicking off over on  Mumsnet……

https://www.mumsnet.com/Talk/am_i_being_unreasonable/3181970-WTF-cyclists-in-the-snow

meh

Things I have learnt about snow today.

I like soft, grippy, fun, fresh powdery stuff.

I don’t like 6 inches of slightly thawing snow with a thick ice crust on the top of it.

Never looked at mumsnet before but might have to drop in every so often. That thread was ridiculously funny!