Riding on frost (early morning)

[TheSmiler]

This is most probably a stupid over thinking question, however haven't been on the bike for a few months and planning on doing my normal trip to university.


Thing is the road has been extremely frosty for that last few days now just wondering if there is extra care to be taken when riding in this weather. Do know that when the sun comes up that it will get extremely slippery.

So any tips out there
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[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

It'll be icy before the sun comes up. Then still icy and shitty when it does.
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[doggone]

With frost if there's car wheel marks mostly in the same place, riding between them might give you more grip.
Same with dry snow unless it's getting deep, but wet snow it's usually best to stay in wheel marks.

[Babba]

I used to work on recovery a few years ago & one chaps misfortune still sticks in my mind.

A very frosty night followed by bright sunshine in the morning, he starts his journey about 9am & already the sun has burnt all the frost off the road.

He's about 3mls from home when he hits a tree lined country lane, the trees create a shade over the road from the low lying sun. Every patch of shade still has last nights frost in it.

I had to winch him a good 30' back onto the road, it'd rolled at least 3x.

[Speed]

The main roads i find aren't too bad but it's the side streets etc that don't have near as much traffic that have nearly caught me out a couple of times over christmas. Riding on the tracks left down by the cagers is the sensible option.

[Shaane]

Just take it steady mate and keep an eye out. Like previously said the main roads seem fine mid day but the side streets can be slightly horrible. I've been going around roundabouts at like 15-20mph
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[andym]

15-20 mph.... I do that in perfect conditions at roundabouts

[Shaane]

[Wafer_Thin_Ham]

[Shaane]

[Rogerborg]

[G]

I wouldn't say there's long, if at all between sun hitting frost and staying slippy - pretty soon is water which is considerably less slippy.
When it's still 'frost' however, it's going to be pretty slippery.

So all the braking in a straight line. Try and keep getting on the power to a straight line - or be very gentle when not. Don't go for knee-down cornering.

[Aikman666]

If you're concerned about frost on the road and grip, try to use more engine braking and rear brake - It is a shit load easier to control/recover a rear slide than it is a front!
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[snikks]

My approach this morning was to watch out for bits of the road that look like puddles - as they could be ice, and watch out for frost.

Where you can see the road is frosty, there's often either a centre line, or car tyre tracks, that you can see are clear (unless you're a very early riser) so stick to those.

Don't let cagers intimidate you into going faster than you feel is safe on the road - they're in their heated boxes and will not even think about road conditions until they're caught out by them, in all likelihood.

Keep the bike as upright as possible.. particularly when braking, or going over anything that could be slippery. I have to say though, if my bike hadn't been at my girlfriends house (along with me) and no bus routes nearby, I may well have just caught the bus this morning. Cold you can man up and deal with, but if you encounter ice on the road you're liable to take a short and intense flying lesson.
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[neil.]

[Mrjoolz]

I would also say be careful when filtering, as water collects along the white dash in the middle and freezes. Noticed it this morning along the A20 intowards sidcup.
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[JustGraham]

Just take it steady on the quiet roads, don't lean the bike over to much and try to keep it in an upright position, and keep off the manhole covers and white lines and road marking and take more caution when over taking

EDIT:also fuel residue on the roads

Safe riding guys

[robbieguy2003]

Be careful is the best one and hope for some luck as well. I've been out quite a bit this weekend when the ground was still frosty on the trips out, it was noticably slippy but the 1250 has quite a bit of low-down torque so being careful with the throttle was useful.

I find the following works;

> Supersmooth on the throttle, gradually increase with small increments, but smoothly - think analogue, not digital, and bring it on slower than normal. This goes for corners or straight lines.

> Do all braking in a straight line, or only do light braking/small control braking during leans, and limit this to where needed, again like the throttle, gradual and slower and smoother, so bigger gaps for braking.

> As soon as you start to tip in to a corner lightly bring the throttle on and have little but constant throttle going around corners, try to keep this and dont chop/close the trottle while leaning unless you need to, try to plan ahead so you dont have to, this will keep a little more weight on the bigger, back tyre rather than the thinner, smaller front tyre, the bike should feel like it wants to corner easier as well

> Observations are key, not only looking at what others are doing so you can position yourself in plenty of time, or stop but also looking at the road conditions, leafs and overhanging trees or shadows where the road could have more ice, water in the road from people washing cars/leaking pipes that may have froze - perfectly upright if its a thin streak with a little throttle (really a little, not none, but just a little to keep the bike moving forward) or try and avoid if possible.

Obviously the best option is to not do it at all, but that isn't always an option.
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[Skudd]

[Teflon-Mike]

Ride-Cool... least effort, most effect; SMOOTH... works every where, not just when conditions are bad.

Frost? What IS Frost? WHY are you scared of it?
Frost is frozen dew, ice... "Oh No! ICE... SCARY.. no grip. MUST crash!"
Come on GET A GRIP man!

Quick Google reveals that the Eskimo's aparently DONT have more words for 'Snow' than we do in English, but another source suggests they do have 18 words for distinct varieties of it; bit like all the different kinds of 'rain' we have in Britain! ANYWAY...

ICE is H2O in its solid form, at low temperatures. And ICE is NOT actually 'Slippy'.....

What is SLIPPY is the lubricating film of LIQUID water, on top of SMOOTH solid ice.... ice itself is no slippier than nicely polished marble..... BUT unlike marble, ice can melt if it's compressed...

Curiouse phenominon, but when water freezes, the H2O molecules have to arrange themselves into a 'least-stress-latice' and they are an awkward 'V-Shape', as water, free to move around they reach maximum 'density' at about 4DegC, but as they get colder, to turn into a solid, they have to expand to take up the chrystal form... So when you stand on them and put the molectules under strain, its easier for them to 'melt' than to resist the compressive load... provided it is not TOO cold... and they just CANT melt.

So, Ice is only slippy when you stand or ride on it, and its slippy becouse you are turning it into water, and its only slippy becouse of the solid ice under that water....

SO, SHEET ice, is bludy slippy... its a self lubricating marble floor.....

But 'Frost' isn't sheet ice, its frozen dew; droplets of water, each seeded about something the water can stick to as it condensed out of the air.

Stand on it, it will melt.... and as its stuck to something NOT ice.... so chances are on FROST it's no slipier than bad rain or a heavy dew....

WHAT may be slippy, is is melted frost... frost is nice and easy to see; pretty white Chrystals, soft fluffy light reflecting 'forsting'...

When trodden on, it melts easily; when sun hits it, it melts... no problem... no more slippy than RAIN...

Where the 'problem' with frost lies, is when it melts, and THEN Re-Freezed... then it is no longer 'frost' but sheet-ice.

Lightly driven urban road; early frost melted by passage of early traffic driving over it; sits then as a water 'film' on the surface, and low ground temperature and air temperature, can re-freeze it as 'sheet' ice, and THAT is the slippy bit, AND the Dangerouse bit, becouse glassy sheet ice is a LOT harder to see.

So, the short answer;
- SMOOTH always works well.
- Frost, nice white easily seen frozen Dew; WARNING that its COLD and risk of it being ICY, but in itself ought NOT be a mahor worry and no slippier to ride on than rain.
- ICE and in particular sheet ice, is the DANGER; & 'frost' ought to alert you to the pottential hazard, but, it WONT be where the frost is... becouse THAT is still nice freindly frozen dew.

SO! BIT of THINKING about tangible FACTS, rather then endless FRETTING about FEARS..... a bit of MTFU and a lot of go bludy DO= IT... Stop Thinking-Start riding... just keep your WITS about you, and dont let paranoia 'kid' you 'fretting', is 'thinking'.
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[Dan_Davies]

watch out for the grit too D: had a near miss on the way home due to grit on a roundabout, i sort of did a moto gp style high-side but stayed on the bike :L
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[kawakid]

I went in the car today, first time in 11 months.

When we had the snow in December, I did try to go on my bike, try being the word. I live on a hill, the gradient is too steep and the road is not gritted.

I ended up dropping it.

So today I drove.

I have made it before in the Frost/Snow on the bike, the problem I had was when there was too much ice.

tbh I quite enjoyed it, I had the heater on, the radio on etc. It was okay. I did have to leave work late because of the traffic though. Whereas on the bike I would have got straight through it.
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[TheSmiler]

Thank you for the replies everyone a lot of great tips here and your not just helping me but anyone else in the future who has a query of riding in the frost
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CB125>CG125>GN125>ER5>K100RS>R1100RS>K100RS
A2 completed 23/07/15 Ready for the Golden Crisp Packet