Cycling on hold for the moment.

[tenderbehind]

Not on the coast in Dorset so far - we very rarely get more than a few flakes. The snow always seems to stop at about Bridport. I haven't seen proper snow here since I was about 10 years old. Should be interesting if we get some.

I'm in Bournemouth Dorset, it used to be in Hampshire, maybe the change of name of county has encouraged the quite plentiful amount of snow we have here at the moment, (LOL). I've just abandoned a trip to a pub meal in the car because of the snow falling , (Tuesday 7 15pm), and because the lady friend didn't want to risk walking a few yards to and from the car in her high heels, sensible, but we'll miss the carvery, maybe tomorrow night.

 

[Rad]

We had very little snow up here. But we did have a big freeze monday night which meant Monday and Tuesday were the first days this year that I've not cycled in to work. Too risky on the untreated country lanes.

 

[flecc]

First signs of some relief here on the North Surrey/South London borders, but not so good for some others, I've just posted this in another thread:

"I've been busy with other residents in digging our road open again after nearly three days cut off. Still not open for biking with compacted large lumps of ice everywhere, but bounced my little car over it all to get out for supplies. Had to jump start it though after being parked outside in all this cold, too much for it's small battery.

Should get better in the South East with some rain forecast, but it looks like East Wales and the Midlands are going to get quite a lot more snow tomorrow before it finally lets up. Hope it's not too bad for you in that area."
.

 

[aeromys]

My journey to work is only 4 miles on mixed roads and paths, so Monday I just gave up all forms of wheels and just walked in. I completely over dressed - the effort of trudging through the snow meant I could have worn just a t shirt and I still would have been warm.
Tuesday all the A roads were passable and the other roads looked ok with a bit of care, I could always just get off I thought, so I chanced going in on the Wisper.
I found having a throttle made this far easier than just plain pedalling. When the surface was unsure I could just trickle the bike along with very delicate twistgrip control, making balance a much easier task by either dragging my feet as stabilisers on the really nasty ice or feet up trials balancing in the snow. Not having to rotate the crank or apply power through my feet helped a lot in maintaining balance while the bike hunted for its path of least resistance through the snow, and the usual power surge caused by the crank sensor would have been akward, the twistgrip was nicely sensitive enough to feed in tiny amounts of power creeping over icy bumps at very slow speeds. Soft snow on the common was great fun, with wheel spins under power and roosts of powder snow flying off the back
Again wore far to much clothing and broke another rear spoke (now two, not sure if it's my weight at 16 stone or the extra torque fighting the snow). The electrics ran fine and although I'm desperate to replace the sports mudguards for proper ones, at least they didn't clog. I have a bright yellow vinyl Ortleib pannier that kept everything totally dry and hoses clean easily too.
Wednesday it was mostly slush and a lot more bikers out there so I guess the poor old thing is now being subject to salt attack, I better give it a lot of rinses.

 

[Mussels]

I've found out that snow & ice tyres are not idiot proof. After not coming off once in the snow I got cocky last night. There is a large sheet of ice I ride across, about 40 feet long, smooth and polished like glass and I decided it would be a good idea to see how slippery it really was so I leant over to drag my toes along the ground. I managed that but my toes were quickly followed by my backside, and then I found that it was too slippery to get back on the bike.
This morning the rain had left a small layer of water on top of the ice and as I approached the sheet I recalled last nights bad judgement, then without consciously thinking about it I tried to do the same thing again. Somehow the tyres found a little grip to stop it going right over so I guess my experiment showed me that wet ice can be slightly grippier than polished ice.
A bit further down the road I was plodding along on some hard snow and there was a groove cut into it on a diagonal, I thought the front tyre would catch and I'd be on the floor but that made it over. The back tyre was knocked sideways and very quickly the back wheel overtook the front one and I was looking at where I came from, must have been a Wisper 911 I got delivered.
I must not get cocky or complacent in the snow - repeat to self all the way home tonight.

 

[the_killjoy]

Only 2 or 3 inches of snow so I came into work on the Wisper, found it easier going than I expected, certainly easier than if I had been cycling.

Definately the conditions where a rear hub beats a front hub motor I think.

 

[Mussels]

Worst weather of the week this morning, I spent 15 minutes cycling through a heavy hail storm and the next 10 cycling through sleet. The first lot hurt and the second lot was colder than snow, then the thunder and lightning started but thankfully it didn't develop into anything.

 

[Mussels]

Glad I'm home already, the weather in N. Kent is horrible at the moment. It started snowing heavily about 1/2 hour from home so lots of effort was required to get home before it started laying, I was soaked but missed the slippy stuff.

 

[flecc]

Shows how variable it is Mussels, not far from you as you know, we've had nothing today at all, just a small degree of further melting.
.

 

[Fecn]

Shows how variable it is Mussels, not far from you as you know, we've had nothing today at all, just a small degree of further melting.
.

And yet a stone's throw away from you flecc, here at the top of the big hill upon which we both live, It's been snowing since around 4pm and we've got an extra inch stuck to the ground once again.

 

[flecc]

And yet a stone's throw away from you flecc, here at the top of the big hill upon which we both live, It's been snowing since around 4pm and we've got an extra inch stuck to the ground once again.

Amazing, still nothing coming down here now, though our road and path conditions remain awful like yours. Hopefully the weekend's promised sun will produce some worthwhile melting.
.

 

[flecc]

We finally got it after all Fecn, only about half an inch very late evening, should soon melt off tomorrow.
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