Does all of Finland looks the same, Jasup?
That looks almost exactly like the way I ride every other day. Will try to snap a couple of pictures today.
Well, no. If you go more south you'll find less snow and ice and more slush. These aren't also typical winter conditions, these are conditions you normally encounter in spring. It's the warm weather that does it.
And yeah see a lot of people riding their regular road bikes with regular tires, just like my GF does. I use fancy spiked tires on my MTB but in my defense, I think normal MTB tires are more dangerous/slippery on ice than thin road ones.
I could be wrong though. But one fall I had back in November on an icy patch means I don't want to take my chances.
It's true. There are a lot of people on bikes. If you look close enough there's a woman on bike in my upper picture, according to statistics about 20%-30% use studded tyres.
And yes, MBT tyres are mostly useless on ice. It's all about the size of the contact area between the tyre and the ice. Mine have very little pattern, so as I keep lower air pressure in them the effective contact area is actually comparably large as the tyre spreads out a little. In MTB tyres the contact area with the ice comprises mainly on the small peaks in the tyre's pattern.
It is slippery when you have water on the ice, but as soon as the temperature drops below freezing you have a good amount of grip.
It's also a matter of how used to you are on riding in winter. You have to plan well ahead when riding as you wan to avoid all sudden movements and sharp turns and forget about the front brake. It's a bit different, but manageable.
As a side note, you see much more slipping pedestrians than cyclists.
Whoah..! Cycling over ice is incredibly unnerving. Hitting patches of slippery mud is bad enough.
It's not that bad when you get used to it and I've been cycling year-round since I was a child. In my teens I even used a road bike with slim road tyres for my school trips. It is the most wrong type of bike for winter. But hey, it was cool. Anyway, you learn to read the road surface quite well around here.
