Nice Weather

The weather forecast for today was sunny with cloudy periods, high 6C. Which sounds just wonderful. The people on the radio gush about how great a day it is going to be.

But in December, when I hear sunny, plus six or seven degrees, I think of one thing: Black Ice.

Sure enough there was lots of black ice out there this morning. I was gingerly turning right and my back tire started to go out from under me. Somehow I recovered and didn't go down; I just took the corner reeeeeeeeeaaaallly wide. Fortunately there was no traffic coming from that direction (it was a quiet residential side-street).

A few blocks later, though, I saw the guy in front of me go down. We were going down a short hill, with an up-hill on the other side of a traffic-calming circle at the intersection at the bottom of the hill. He went down while going around the traffic circle and slid for about two car-lengths. He said he was OK and I went on my way, being even more careful.

Only a few blocks later, while riding perfectly straight, I felt my back tire slip to the side again. Freaky. I pulled over and let some of the air out of my tires, hoping for better traction (but worried about pinch-flats now). I rode over some more icy patches but took it slow and didn't have any more incidents.