sportsguy
searchgeek - author
So I had the option to ride into work today or hitch a ride with my wife (early) while she was running an errand. I was out last night and enjoyed an hour or so tooling around town in a light drizzle, not overtly concerned about ice, but sensible enough to head home when the precip actually started to dampen things a bit.
I woke up this morning, went out with the dogs and noted how the morning's temps were warmer than last night's when I got back from my ride. Patio deck was wet, but not icy - this is looking good.
I stood in the kitchen mostly thinking it was time to go suit up for the commute, wondering if my ipod would select good tunes for the ride.
I was kind of looking forward to the ride as, in a bonehead move, I went riding last night without my new back protection unit (BPU??). Strap on body armor, basically. I was stoked to see how it felt as a friend rides with the same gear and loves it. I realized I forgot it as I pulled back into the garage last night, so this morning I was thinking I'd check out how it felt on the short-ish commute.
My wife entered the kitchen and immediately clarified where my head really was about ridign into work today...
She asked if I wanted a drive and I said yes immediately.
What the heck, it's supposed to rain all week and be int he mid-40's, so there's other chances to ride and try the new gear out.
Then it hits me...as I pull onto the road from our house and need to cross the concrete sidewalk... I feel the back of the car slide slightly on the grade. ICE! Now the road itself, traction control light ablaze on the dash, tires scrabbling for purchase as we slowly advance to the stop sign. I pass a guy in a BMW who's BACKING down the road back to his own house due to the ice. I chuckle. There's no real grade here, it's a mostly flat road and he's already up the hill. Nervous I guess - who knows... maybe he's from California... *whistles*
Hitting the main road, things improve immediately. Just wet, no ice. The commute to the office is clear of ice.
But man, I'm pretty sure the skim of ice on that sidewalk outside my house would have dumped me. The angles entering onto the road surface from that sidewalk see me entering a turn to the right with a slight lean, so given an immediate loss of friction for the tires, my weight would be to the right of COG and it's easy to see the path of "Oh ****...crunch" from there. I was this close (holds fingers almost together) to riding this morning. Fine with it, but not desparate to ride. Looking forward to it, but not heartbroken at skipping it. I'm not even sure it was a "decision" to not ride. I almost feel like I avoided a dump by accident. I mean, the indicators were there that it was fine to ride... but in a spot that would normally be safe, danger lurked...pesky bugger.
Rarely do we take time to re-evaluate near misses - they were a miss after all. Today I'm re-evaluating this miss. Have been for about 2 hours now. Likely will all day.
I think I'll get up a bit earlier and pre-flight the road now, too, on any day I'm going to ride. Seems a good use of 5 minutes, IMO. Ice here might mean ice elsewhere, and really, can you be too safe?
I woke up this morning, went out with the dogs and noted how the morning's temps were warmer than last night's when I got back from my ride. Patio deck was wet, but not icy - this is looking good.
I stood in the kitchen mostly thinking it was time to go suit up for the commute, wondering if my ipod would select good tunes for the ride.
I was kind of looking forward to the ride as, in a bonehead move, I went riding last night without my new back protection unit (BPU??). Strap on body armor, basically. I was stoked to see how it felt as a friend rides with the same gear and loves it. I realized I forgot it as I pulled back into the garage last night, so this morning I was thinking I'd check out how it felt on the short-ish commute.
My wife entered the kitchen and immediately clarified where my head really was about ridign into work today...
She asked if I wanted a drive and I said yes immediately.
What the heck, it's supposed to rain all week and be int he mid-40's, so there's other chances to ride and try the new gear out.Then it hits me...as I pull onto the road from our house and need to cross the concrete sidewalk... I feel the back of the car slide slightly on the grade. ICE! Now the road itself, traction control light ablaze on the dash, tires scrabbling for purchase as we slowly advance to the stop sign. I pass a guy in a BMW who's BACKING down the road back to his own house due to the ice. I chuckle. There's no real grade here, it's a mostly flat road and he's already up the hill. Nervous I guess - who knows... maybe he's from California... *whistles*
Hitting the main road, things improve immediately. Just wet, no ice. The commute to the office is clear of ice.
But man, I'm pretty sure the skim of ice on that sidewalk outside my house would have dumped me. The angles entering onto the road surface from that sidewalk see me entering a turn to the right with a slight lean, so given an immediate loss of friction for the tires, my weight would be to the right of COG and it's easy to see the path of "Oh ****...crunch" from there. I was this close (holds fingers almost together) to riding this morning. Fine with it, but not desparate to ride. Looking forward to it, but not heartbroken at skipping it. I'm not even sure it was a "decision" to not ride. I almost feel like I avoided a dump by accident. I mean, the indicators were there that it was fine to ride... but in a spot that would normally be safe, danger lurked...pesky bugger.
Rarely do we take time to re-evaluate near misses - they were a miss after all. Today I'm re-evaluating this miss. Have been for about 2 hours now. Likely will all day.
I think I'll get up a bit earlier and pre-flight the road now, too, on any day I'm going to ride. Seems a good use of 5 minutes, IMO. Ice here might mean ice elsewhere, and really, can you be too safe?
