Hi,

I live in Ireland where we see occaisional snow most winters. 5-10 cm would be typical; 15 cm would be 'a lot'. It lasts up to a week, and is then gone. Other than that, we get a good deal of frosty mornings throughout the winter months.

On one occaision I unexpectedly had to cover about 100 km on small rural roads, where there had been no snow ploughing but some gritting; the snow had been compacted by passing traffic and was quite hard and very smooth. It had thawed somewhat, and re-frozen, so it was quite glasslike in many places. I couldn't manage any thing more than about 30-35 km/h, and had two wipeouts where the wheels went from under me, before I realised what was happening. In the end, it just didn't seem feasible, but it was my first attempt at snow/ice, so maybe there's some learning I need to do.

So, can anyone answer, or comment on any of the following (I'm less interested in situations on your "big trip" where you have no alternative but to get over that snowed-in pass high in Bolivia; in such circumstances, you do whatever it takes to keep going. I'm more interested in when you've decided to do a weekend's tour from your own home, and at the last minute there's a dump of snow; or what about commuting, or doing more day-to-day biking, no matter what the winter weather?):

1. Do you ride in similar frozen/slippery conditions (including frost all the way to half a metre of snow)?

2. Do you use specific tyres when it's slippery on the ground? Are there 'winter tyres' for bikes in the same manner that there are 'winter tyres' for cars? Anyone use metal-studded tyres in the winter? What do you do if you're caught out on the wrong tyres?

3. Do you manage to maintain any sort of reasonable speed, let's say 80 km/h? Or is that just a crazy notion in such conditions? Do you allow double or triple the amount of time for your journey?

4. Any observations on how the bike handles (bar the obvious slipping all over the place!), or tips on how to handle it?

5. Are you of the opinion that two wheels and icy conditions just aren't meant to be wedded together, and garage your bike while there's snow on the ground?

Let's hear all your comments and see where this thread goes!

Ken.