Dancing on ice has been on our screens since 2006. I make that about 13 years too long now. Please don’t take offence if you enjoy it, but I absolutely HATE it. Z-list celebrities who I’ve never heard of slipping and sliding about just does nothing for me. The good thing is that with all the channels to choose from these days I don’t need to watch it.
This week felt a bit like I was auditioning for dancing on ice – but on my bike! I’ve said it before but the ice really makes me uncomfortable and slipping and sliding about on my bike really is no fun. The temperature continued to drop through the week with Wed morning being about -6°C. Normally this would be fine on my road bike as long as I stick to the main roads. However, on Wed things started to get a bit sketchy halfway to work with a lot of icy patches on the road.
When entering Edinburgh, heading over the Gogar roundabout, I took my usual position in the inside of 4 lanes. It was still dark and looking down at the road I thought it looked strangely wet. As I rolled towards the lights my front wheel wobbled left, then right, left, right and I realised that it wasn’t wet but in actual fact a sheet of ice. Somehow, I don’t know how, but thankfully I managed to remain upright and roll across to the next lane, which was in a better state.
Changing direction on a slippy surface is really dangerous. You can’t make any sudden movements or apply too much force to the pedals, especially on a road bike with skinny tyres.
I suspect the problem on Wed was that it had snowed heavily just before rush hour, which was melted by the salt on the road. This then froze quickly as it was so cold and there hadn’t been much traffic or gritters out to treat it before I came through.
I made it to work in one piece but really don’t want any more dancing on ice auditions! With that thought in my head I decided to take my mountain bike for the remaining commutes on Thu and Fri. I emptied my mind of any memories of it attacking me on Mon night (Best Laid Schemes) and set out into another cold morning.
Cold really doesn’t begin to describe it… Half way to work I saw my temperature reading at -9.5°C!!! Every breath was turning into ice, my scarf had turned solid and I’m sure there were icicles forming from my nose!
Although the roads all looked fine I was pleased to have the comfort of studded tyres on my mountain bike. This makes it a lot more work, but by accepting the fact that it will take a bit longer it is enjoyable in a different kind of way. On Thursday I stuck to the cycle paths a lot of the way but they were so thick and rutted with ice I stuck to roads on Fri. There was barely any wind and the ride back on Fri afternoon was delightful. Have a look at some snaps from my journeys over the 2 days:
Driving Disasters
As usual this week had the same old abuse from car drivers, although I think it was only on 4 out of the 10 commutes. Fri morning had 2 in particular that were noteworthy, one near the start of my journey and one near the end.
Driver #1 was downright dangerous and if I hadn’t been aware and anticipated her movements would have left a nice big imprint in her bonnet (or worse)…
I was heading through a roundabout, taking the 3rd exit, and she approached from the one before this. As we closed I could see that she wasn’t slowing down and she just steamed on through, staring blankly at me as I frantically took evasive action. I have no idea if she was just inattentive, hadn’t cleared her windows, or just had no regard for my safety. Some people really need to pay attention!
Driver #2 was hilarious in his attempts to push me out of the way and was really more of an amusement than anything else…
I approached a set of traffic lights with 2 lanes, the inside one left turn only and the outside one straight ahead. There were probably about 30 vehicles waiting to go straight ahead and a single car on the left. As the lights were red I filtered to the front and just as I reached it the lights turned green. Half way through the junction I pull onto the left, as you are supposed to do, only to find that Mr Important in the left turn only was actually just skipping the queue and was now right on my tail laying into his horn. Oh how I laughed as all the cars in the correct lane went past us, and I gave him a good cheery smile when he eventually made his way out and hurled some obscenities through his window on the way past me. Oh how I chuckled when I passed him again after he got stopped at the next set of traffic lights. Some people really need to calm down!
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Neil Broadhurst
CycleCommute.CC