This morning we woke to a glazed world. Overnight, freezing rain had coated everything with about 0.25 inches of glare ice. It was virtually impossible to stand on any kind of slope, and walking was extremely difficult.
What could I do but seize this rare opportunity for a bike ride.
Bounding to the basement, I mounted my studded tires on the bad weather bike, put on a rain jacket and headed out into the mess. It was so slippery that I had trouble mounting the bike - you really couldn't comfortably lift a leg to swing it over the saddle without almost falling. After accomplishing this, however, I rolled out and had a fantastic ride. The Nokian Mount & Ground tires held the road beautifully and the bike handled predictably up hills, around corners and in the straight-aways.
Bringing my ride to a close was another story all together. I was perhaps a little over-confident as I rolled up to the garage and put my foot down. The slight incline of the garage lip was enough to wash my right foot out from under me entirely, and in an instant, I was laying on my back next to my garbage dumpster, looking at the sky. I picked myself up, but it was so slick that I could not even walk up the incline to the garage. Instead I started sliding down the hill in the alley with my bike. I ended up riding back down the alley and circling back up the block, coming in for a landing on the crusty snow in front of the house this time.
I whacked my right elbow pretty hard in the fall, but I think it's okay - it only hurts if I rest on something at this point.
Today's lesson, class, is that studded tires are all kinds of awesome, but some ice creepers make a nice accessory to them in these conditions.
I've had nearly the exact same experience. Doesn't matter how good your tires are when mounting and dismounting. :)
ReplyDeleteYou have to learn to roll into the fall. I had a few falls when I first started using SPD pedals.
ReplyDeleteYeah - rolling would have been difficult on this one; it was basically 0 mph crash. More like falling while walking in a parking lot than an actual bike crash. Plus, I fell uphill and actually slid down the hill on my back a little. Maybe that counts as a roll - I at least scrubbed off a little energy with the slide.
ReplyDelete