Riding on snow and ice

[Jessica Hirschhorn]

Thank you for these excellent pointers!

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[cvcalhoun]

Um, there are some of us who can’t ride a bike hands-free even on a perfect day! My balance has always been terrible, and got worse with age. LOL

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[Meh]

@cvcalhoun 213869 wrote:

Um, there are some of us who can’t ride a bike hands-free even on a perfect day! My balance has always been terrible, and got worse with age. LOL

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There are elements of bike design that can help with that (like by lowering wheel flop). I don’t say ‘fix’, of course, but help.

My beater MTB has super-long chainstays which helps with rear-end wobble on flats but *kills* me when trying to climb anything that can slip out. I simply can’t do #4 far back enough.

[Steve O]

I did find these photos of me riding on 1-inch thick snow/ice-covered streets that had been packed down by cars (photos were taken in different places in different years).
Dispel the notion that riding a bike requires special balance (track-standing, OTOH, requires balance). A moving bike is a very stable machine and you can use that to your advantage.

My riding one handed did not require any special skills (or “balance”) more than anyone else. It just requires faith in the laws of physics. Your bike will stay up if you trust it to and follow the techniques outlined below.
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[cvcalhoun]

Riding a bike requires that you can “feel” when you are sitting upright (to go straight ahead) or leaning but not too far (to turn left or right). If it didn’t, kids wouldn’t fall off the bike when they are first learning. I have in fact had two people I know become totally unable to ride a bike when they lost their sense of balance (in one case to an inner ear problem, in one case to Parkinson’s).

I don’t have much of that “feel.” People who try to take a picture of me constantly complain that I am leaning one direction or another–even though I am totally unaware of it. Lacking the ability to tell when I am sitting straight up versus leaning, I ride a bicycle through constant small adjustments to my handlebars to compensate for the fact that I’m leaning in a direction that is not the direction I want to go. “If you are going to be crossing an ice field, plan ahead for your exit spot, and plot a straight line to it.” implies that I could ride a straight line if I set my mind to it–which is not the case. @Steve O 213890 wrote:

I did find these photos of me riding on 1-inch thick snow/ice-covered streets that had been packed down by cars (photos were taken in different places in different years).
Dispel the notion that riding a bike requires special balance (track-standing, OTOH, requires balance). A moving bike is a very stable machine and you can use that to your advantage.

My riding one handed did not require any special skills (or “balance”) more than anyone else. It just requires faith in the laws of physics. Your bike will stay up if you trust it to and follow the techniques outlined below.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]26193[/ATTACH]

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[Judd]

@Steve O 213890 wrote:

I did find these photos of me riding on 1-inch thick snow/ice-covered streets that had been packed down by cars (photos were taken in different places in different years).
Dispel the notion that riding a bike requires special balance (track-standing, OTOH, requires balance). A moving bike is a very stable machine and you can use that to your advantage.

My riding one handed did not require any special skills (or “balance”) more than anyone else. It just requires faith in the laws of physics. Your bike will stay up if you trust it to and follow the techniques outlined below.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]26193[/ATTACH]

[ATTACH=CONFIG]26194[/ATTACH]

Asterisk – as many of us who have been passed seemingly effortlessly by Steve O on an 8% grade climb, Steve O is part mountain goat. YMMV riding on snow and ice.

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