closetbiker

saw this on https://www.copenhagenize.com/

Lower temperatures this year.

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Ngchen

Having watched part of the video, I think we can draw the following lessons.
1. Snow/ice covered roads are slick, and crashes are more likely at turns and by extension intersections.
2. When something is slick enough, no amount of riding technique can keep one from crashing.
3. Therefore, riding on ice is a BAD IDEA, at least without studs. Places like Copenhagen should salt the roads to clear the ice.
4. Interestingly, the crashes tended not to be serious. So people's sense of danger caused a certain level of correction to deal with the danger.

LesterOfPuppets

I'm surprised at how hot some of those folks came into that 8' radius turn! A little fast just for the wet, unless your handling skills are top notch.

closetbiker

Yeah, most crashes are not serious. Serious injury on a bicycle is relatively rare.

What I find amazing is how often cyclings beneficial effects are overlooked. Even taking into consideration all those rare incidents of serious injury and deaths that do happen to cyclists, cyclists live longer.

Bikepacker67

Notice how many come pretty close to smacking their noggins?
Jus saying, for all your helmetless freaks...

gcottay

Someone recorded the action rather than throwing out a bit of grit or melter.

Wogster

I have 3 issues with your conclusions,

There is a riding technique that can make it possible to get around that corner without crashing, ice reduces the adhesion factor of tires, reducing speed can counteract that reduction, to some degree. The corner in this case is a very tight radius, reducing the radius by going from outside the corner to the inside, would also help, cutting the corner completely by going off the pavement on the inside would prevent the crash completely, and looking at conditions at the inside of the curve it looks like that happens quite often.

Salt to clear ice, is fine when the temperature is just below freezing, but when it gets colder, it doesn't work as well, in fact it can make the problem worse. Take a road covered in snow at -10℃, throw on some salt, it melts the snow which then because of the thinner layer of water freezes again into ice. There are other chemical ice melting materials that will work in colder temperatures and are less hazardous to plants and animals. The environmental impact of salt as an ice melter is horrible, what happens is that in the spring, you have roads covered in salt dust, rain washes that salt into the drainage system, some plants and animals can tolerate salt, many can't. Salt is also a good conductor of electricity, so underground utilities can be affected by salt. Here in Toronto it caused some utility covers to become live, and several dogs were zapped when they stepped on those covers.

The video was edited, some of the crashes could have resulted in more serious injuries, where the arrival of emergency medical services was edited out, to include more crashes in the video. The bulky clothing so typical of winter does absorb some of the impact. I wonder whether one of those heavy fur Russian hats wouldn't work better then a helmet in a head involved crash.

Bikepacker67

Cyclists are dorks that only serve as impediments - or in this case, entertainment.
But you knew that.

closetbiker

One has to wonder why he/she didn't.

There's also the possibility that the person recording the falls could have thrown water on the corner to create ice to record the falls.

closetbiker

While it's possible there may have been some injuries, I doubt there were very many. These types of falls happen all the time and I think what happens is what we saw. People fall down, they get back up. I think some people worry too much about remote possibilities, not enough about common occurrences.

hairyman

Right back at ya. Notice how many come pretty close to smacking their noggins? A helmet would not have helped these people one bit.

It could actually have made things worse by increasing the effective size of their head, making them more likely to hit it on the ground and injure their neck.

closetbiker

Copenhaganize made the point of how some people go overboard and create a culture of fear.

GraysonPeddie

My tears came out of my eyes while watching the video and it made me laugh... I had trouble keeping my eyes open at first before I mute the sounds.

Sixty Fiver

Nothing like a little black ice and a 90 degree turn to make one's day... short of aggressively studded tyres there is very little one can do to have any control this kind of surface.

On the plus side, crashes are easier to handle when you are riding a step through.

RobertHurst

Strangely, I've had some of my most awkward ice wrecks with one foot already down. Ice and two wheels = no bueno. Ice + two wheels and a foot = still no bueno.

Aaaarrrggghh!!! Damn you Ice!!!! <shakes fist at sky>

Sixty Fiver

It has been snowing here for about 24 hours and the road conditions have degraded quite a bit... that layer of fresh snow on hard pack is almost as fun to ride on as ice as it creates an unstable riding surface and you cannot see what is under that layer of snow either.

Just took a ride to the store on the fixed mtb and even without studs I managed quite well... have found that if one keeps constant power applied that the odds of having the front wheel slip out are much reduced.

I have also recovered from some front wheel skids on wet pavement by maintaining steady power and this is the same reason one accelerates a car into corners rather than letting it coast as it increases traction and control.

You can see that the first response of most people when they start to skid their front wheel is to stop pedaling...

ItsJustMe

First, I'm surprised they weren't running studs. Second, if I had to negotiate that turn without studs, I'd have gone into the gravel. Even icy, gravel or grass gives pretty good traction. I do the same in a car; if I find that I'm heading for trouble and the road is icy, I put my right tires into the gravel shoulder while I still have some control, and THEN put on the brakes.

Of course, the video only shows the wipeouts. Those 20 or so wipeouts could have been out of 200 or so going around the corner, 180 of them making it fine.

LesMcLuffAlot

I would have taken the inside line off the path in the dirt. I got skillz. Also i don't think I saw any helmets and they all lived to ride another day.

ghettocruiser

It's curious that some of us are slagging the videographer for not doing something about the ice, when it appears every one of those cyclists crashed (or nearly crashed), got up, and left fully knowing that more cyclists would be coming and would experience the same surface conditions.

If I bought it on an icy corner on a busy cycling route, I like to think I'd at least look around for some sand, gravel, dirt, anything, or even a stick to put across to slow people down.

It's like everyone is so embarrassed they crashed, they have to flee the scene and leave everyone else to fend for themselves.

I have studded tires but haven't been using them this year much. I've had one slide-out, but saved it with a foot-plant.

Pig_Chaser

I'm not so surprised they're not running studs. It's Copenhagen, those people just ride. Also note the complete lack of cycling specific clothing and dare I say it... helmets. It's different there (it's better).

closetbiker

It's much better there. This winter there's been a lot more snow than normal, but it doesn't stop the cyclists. There are even dedicated snowplows for bikelanes and salting them are a priority.

From copenhaganize.com, here are 2 cyclists enjoying themselves on a winter day while in conversation

randya

personally, I worry more about knee and hip injuries; and a helmet's not gonna protect your face or teeth unless it's full-face.

crhilton

At least one person demonstrated this to be false in this case. Not everyone went down.

crhilton

Face injuries no. Not a major worry on a cruiser bike. You're almost certainly going to lose your back wheel, and you don't hit your face from losing your back wheel on ice.

Hip injuries yes.

ItsJustMe

Yup, all any of them had to do was to cut in to the gravel part and they'd have been fine.

I've been on surfaces that I couldn't stand on, I'm pretty confident that nobody could ride a bike without studded tires on it, but you can always ride off on the shoulder.