Saturday, November 25, 2006

The Black Ice Club

Well, my membership dues are paid. I am once again a member of the "Black Ice Club". Payment was made by simply rolling out at 6:30 a.m. and riding Mule to work.

I had caught up with Steve's post on the Scooter In The Sticks site about his ride to work in icy conditions. I even commented that the same conditions were forecasted for our area today. But...it wasn't icy at my house.

As Mule was warming up, I walked around a bit and checked the usual things like the lawn, the sidewalk, the yard chair by the shop...no ice. So, everything is good, I'm thinking. I make it all the way into the downtown area before I see a real nice glitter in my headlights. "What the heck?"

Since the road was wet from the beginning, I had been running in the tire track part of the road. Now that I had determined that I was cruising on ice, I realized that my sweet spot seemed to be missing. The surface looked pretty consistent. I just hung in and tried to stay off the white crossing lines.

I made it up the hill past Lincoln Street with no problem, just to find it was even dicier as I crested the hill. It was here that Mule broke loose a little. Just enough to let my butt know that it was time get ahold of the seat.

Since there was very little traffic this morning, I just slowed her down and made my left onto Race Street and crawled to a stop at the light across from work. On smooth, clear, "I can't put my foot down here" freaking ice. I had to roll forward to find footing, thus putting my rear tire on the ice. And this was not too good, because the first car I had seen in four blocks, was now right behind me. I was gonna spin.

So, at the turn of the light, I made a slow beeline to the store's entry off the street. Only instead of a hook to the left to where I park, I was gliding straight into the alley. With feet down, and a bit of finesse I made it to my spot and put Mule up on the center stand, then popped up my shield and checked the lot to find that it was covered in frost and ice where the drains had left standing water from last night. I had made it, and laughed at the fact that I had done exactly what I had commented to Steve Williams about last night. Only unintentionally.

Tonight my ride home was in a rain/snow mix. I've seen two forecasts this afternoon, and they both call for snow up to 1" to 2". So we'll see what tomorrow holds in store. Like I told Steve last night, we'll go check it out.

Have fun,
Bill

2 Comments:

Blogger Steve Williams said...

Isn't it amazine how well a backside can grip a seat when ice is involved? Sounds as if the Mule is manageable in the slippery stuff.

My biggest concern is always the other vehicles and when the roads are slippery I try to ride before the traffice or after everyone is at work.

The weatherman promises 60 degrees today so I won't worry about ice.

6:43 AM  
Blogger Bill Sommers said...

Steve,
I want to trade weather. It's been snowing since 8:45 a.m.
I took Kung Pow out to play today, and had a blast. I'll hopefully post a pic tomorrow. And yeah, I think I saw a mark in the seat fabric where the old rearside was grippin'.

Have fun,
Bill

7:21 PM  

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