Snow?

[francovendee]

Had to go to work this morning, got to the gate, turned round and came home.
This is an A road

Wow, you are having it bad in parts of the UK. Here in France we've had extremely high winds, power outs, lots of fences blown down and trees blocking roads but not very cold.
I took a trip to the coast, spectacular waves and sand thrown up over the road, unfortunately battery in the camera was flat
Nice photo.

[pwa]

Here at the southern tip of Wales we have no snow. Not on the fields, the roof tops or the roads. In the valleys to the north it is a different story. Kids have been making snowmen and schools have been closed.

[Si]

Main roads in brum areclear, some side roads are middling, canal tow path was interesting!

[Debs]

Lots of snow in Powys.
Last Thursday i had my usual 22mile ride on my old faithful hack bike, back home for a quick bath, get into some warm clothes, eat a quick a snack, then into town to the LBS to pick up my brand new Trek Domane, and carefully taken home in back of car, first ride booked for next day...

However the following day we had a huge dump of snow, and since [last Friday] i've been grounded at home due to local roads remaining far too icy, slushy, snowy and generally far to yuk for any silly suicide cycling antics. Meanwhile my brand new Trek remains in the hanger still awaiting it's first taxying down the runway and flight around my 22 mile corse ride.

So instead of cycling, for the past few sub-zero days i've channelled my unused energy into snow shovelling the gradient part of our col-de-sac road, and applying a wheelbarrow load [or three] of grid for good measure, this has worked very well. Some of my neighbours are thankful, but i think some feel guilty for not bothering to join the one person snow shovel party and probably think i'm a bit daft shovelling snow about on my lonesome. But the road is cleared and neighbours here can come and go in their cars without sliding about or getting stuck in the slippery stuff.

Today [Tuesday] i had an email from Royal Mail; notification for delivery [it's the mudguards for the new bike] and i'm really looking forward to fitting them today. While looking out for the postman, and admiring the tarmac of my squeaky clean col-de-sac i get another email notification from Royal Snail; "unable to deliver your item" ...it went on to say something about my address being inaccessible! [although i see lots of cars/vans coming and going without any difficulty] It also goes on to say i need to apply a request to have a delivery attempted again on another day!
This makes me mad. I know where i'd like to stick my snow shovel

Anyway, not to worry, the new bike looks very nice in the lounge

[PDQ Mobile]

Many roads round here in N. Wales resemble wet salt flats.
The corrosive nature of that salt would make me hesitate to take a brand new bike out until it has all washed down the drains again.
Council tax money down the drain!

My best bikes never see salty roads unless absolutely necessary.
The effects are pretty dire.
Or if you just can't resist, oily rag it- all over!!
Oil the cables, chain etc well too.

[Debs]

Yes, i couldn't agree more, my old hack bike is good enough to use while the gritters are about!

It's just a bit sad that my new bike has arrived at the exact same time as winter, so i may not get a chance to ride it for a while.
It's my no.2 bike, and is intended for general use all year round - with full length mud-guards for the wet.

At least i have time to spend tinkering with it. I've changed the slick tyres to Conti 4Season, added a bell, lights, bottle cage, mirror, ...just the mudguard fitting to do, hopefully on Thursday if they arrive
I've ordered SKS 700c Guards (Bluemels) Black Matt Edition, just need some ingenuity in engineering the stay around the front disc calliper

[PDQ Mobile]

A person after my own heart!
Lot to be said for giving cables etc a really thorough lube before first use anyway. Often bit hit and miss on new stuff.
There's always Mallorca if you feel you can trust an airline with it!!

[flat tyre]

East Hants. Succumbed to the temptation to go out for a ride this afternoon as the temperature in the immediate vicinity of my house was about 4c and the sun was out. All went well, over the Southdowns and back, down into the Meon Valley then up into the Hangers. Oh dear, I should have known that continuing in this direction might not have been such a good thing when a delivery driver stopped to congratulate me on making it up a hill that he'd had difficulty driving up. There then followed a long 3 mile walk (not easy in cycling shoes) on lanes covered with a nice glaze of ice. Very little snow up there but what had fallen had melted slightly and then refrozen. Got back in the dark, luckily Mrs FT had gone out to get her hair done so didn't notice my prolonged absence.

[Vorpal]

We've had snow on the ground for about 3 weeks now.

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
Which part of the EU is that?
Temp in sunny Torbay gas gone up to 8 C, so the snow on moors will be gone soon as tomorrow is rain.

[[XAP]Bob]

We've had snow on the ground for about 3 weeks now.

But you are also quite capable of dealing with it...

Here there was complete panic...
Traditional cartoon...

[Vorpal]

We've had snow on the ground for about 3 weeks now.

But you are also quite capable of dealing with it...

Here there was complete panic...

Yes, we have too many snowploughs to name them.

[[XAP]Bob]

It makes sense - you have to deal with the stuff for several months every year. We get a few inches once every few years... My winter tyres have been hanging in the garage through at least the last two winters.

They're coming off tonight though I expect - so they'll have done 60 miles this year.

[mjr]

We've had snow on the ground for about 3 weeks now.

But you are also quite capable of dealing with it...

You say that but I know someone who had the misfortune to be in Finland when they had their first heavy snow of the winter, earlier than most years. They completely failed to cope with many many hours of travel delays and apparently that's a near-annual occurence for the first heavy snow, as it takes time for people to change vehicles over to winter tyres and government to get the winter works programme started and so on... but then it just works for the rest of the winter.

In a way, most of the UK has a tougher time dealing with temperatures bouncing over freezing point for months.

[old_windbag]

Heatwave next week mjr so put your studded tyres on hold .