It depends on where you live I guess. I live in Sweden and bike everywhere so I hit ice and go down at least once or twice every winter. It’s usually black ice in early winter where things look fine and nothing is sanded or salted yet and you hit a curve that is just glass.
Some neighborhoods don’t plow the local roads so that the cars just pack the snow and Polish it into an icerink. If you then add powdered snow so that it looks fine you can suddenly go down and slide several meters. In those situations you are a bit fucked because there isn’t enough traction to get up again and you have to turtle a bit until you find your footing.
Summer and spring is mostly fine tough with the exception of 2 collisions from other bikes and once when one of the pedals mechanically failed. This is over more than a decade tough so it sounds like it’s more than it is but it’s still more incidents than my brother have had while driving which is zero.
I would never tolerate falling down regularly. Studded tires work extremely well. I ride through blizzard and on ice and slush without any trouble. The only time I went down due to ice was riding on a frozen puddle where my tires gripped the ice but the ice didn’t grip the ground under it. That was a decade ago.
Breaking a wrist or collarbone (or worse) happens far too easily to just accept routine crashing.
I can say from many, many experiences, you rarely get bruises or scrapes sliding out on ice. It’s nearly impossible to get scrapes because the ice is slick, and even if you hit a gritty patch, you are usually completely covered in clothing. Similarly, you aren’t very likely to get bruised because sliding out is usually a slow fall, you’re not very falling very far, and once again, you’re covered in a lot of clothes that cushion your fall.
I’ve commuted by bike for decades and I have no idea what you’re talking about. How? What causes arm bruises or scraped knees?
It depends on where you live I guess. I live in Sweden and bike everywhere so I hit ice and go down at least once or twice every winter. It’s usually black ice in early winter where things look fine and nothing is sanded or salted yet and you hit a curve that is just glass.
Some neighborhoods don’t plow the local roads so that the cars just pack the snow and Polish it into an icerink. If you then add powdered snow so that it looks fine you can suddenly go down and slide several meters. In those situations you are a bit fucked because there isn’t enough traction to get up again and you have to turtle a bit until you find your footing.
Summer and spring is mostly fine tough with the exception of 2 collisions from other bikes and once when one of the pedals mechanically failed. This is over more than a decade tough so it sounds like it’s more than it is but it’s still more incidents than my brother have had while driving which is zero.
I would never tolerate falling down regularly. Studded tires work extremely well. I ride through blizzard and on ice and slush without any trouble. The only time I went down due to ice was riding on a frozen puddle where my tires gripped the ice but the ice didn’t grip the ground under it. That was a decade ago.
Breaking a wrist or collarbone (or worse) happens far too easily to just accept routine crashing.
Good for you, I guess?
More neutral for me, bad for you. Frequent crashing and injury is not normal.
I can say from many, many experiences, you rarely get bruises or scrapes sliding out on ice. It’s nearly impossible to get scrapes because the ice is slick, and even if you hit a gritty patch, you are usually completely covered in clothing. Similarly, you aren’t very likely to get bruised because sliding out is usually a slow fall, you’re not very falling very far, and once again, you’re covered in a lot of clothes that cushion your fall.
I’ll be sure to take your experience into account next time I fall on my ass.
How do you fall on your ass? The geometry just doesn’t make sense to me.