Amiga.org

Coffee House => Coffee House Boards => CH / General => Topic started by: Bezzen on November 18, 2004, 11:01:50 AM

Title: Snow!
Post by: Bezzen on November 18, 2004, 11:01:50 AM
Yup. About 10 centimeters of snow when I went to the mailbox today. Fun fun!

Time to get the car and go out on the roads for some amateur ice racing.  :-D
Title: Re: Snow!
Post by: whabang on November 18, 2004, 11:29:17 AM
Nice!
Which Torsby do you live in?
Down here in Helsingborg, the sun is shining there is no snow, and the wind has now reached such high speeds that it can now officially be called a storm. 'Tis not a good day to go to Denmark! :-D


Bloody hell! The winds are actually approaching hurricane strength! :-o Good thing that the snow hasn't arrived yet.
Title: Re: Snow!
Post by: PMC on November 18, 2004, 11:58:57 AM
Quote

Bezzen wrote:
Yup. About 10 centimeters of snow when I went to the mailbox today. Fun fun!

Time to get the car and go out on the roads for some amateur ice racing.  :-D


Sounds like fun to me.  In this corner of Essex (which officially qualifies as being a desert) we rarely get snow and if we do it only settles for a few hours.  One winter evening I was driving my old Golf GIT back through some snow covered country roads liberally applying the handbrake...  I'm such a child sometimes.

My mate is working on a project for his mountain bike; he's got a pair of old tyres and is punching some toughened steel screws through the treads to give him grip on ice....
Title: Re: Snow!
Post by: X-ray on November 18, 2004, 12:10:07 PM
@ PMC

Tell your mate he would do better to use clothing rivets, like they use on jeans pockets. The screws will just splay or get pushed back towards the tube/rim.

http://www.hohm.com/html_t/jeans_button1.htm

Maybe the 624DE will work.
Title: Re: Snow!
Post by: PMC on November 18, 2004, 12:32:22 PM
@X-ray,

Thanks for that...

My mate is going to trim the screws down to a short length and insert a proprietary anti-puncture kevlar strip between the body of the tyre and the inner tube to ensure the screws stay put.  

It will be interesting to see how his bike handles non-frozen patches of concrete!  
Title: Re: Snow!
Post by: X-ray on November 18, 2004, 12:37:19 PM
@ PMC

"...It will be interesting to see how his bike handles non-frozen patches of concrete!..."


I think he will be able to advertise his services to any Hollywood special FX department. His business card will be signed 'Sparky'  :-)
Title: Re: Snow!
Post by: Bezzen on November 18, 2004, 02:54:55 PM
@whabang

The Torsby in the middle of nowhere. In Värmland.  :-o

Home of Sven-Göran 'Svennis' Eriksson  :lol:
Title: Re: Snow!
Post by: bjjones37 on November 18, 2004, 03:04:43 PM
Snow! Hmmm.  Let's see. I have heard of it.  Is that the white stuff that falls to the ground on mountains way up north?  I think it requires 32F to form.  I think I saw  some once many years ago. It was about 1/16 on an inch thick.  Cool to the touch if I recall. Only lasted about 30 minutes. Turned to water I think.


CAN I HAVE SOME? PLEASE,PLEASE?
Title: Re: Snow!
Post by: Dan on November 18, 2004, 04:31:04 PM
There already are studded bicycle tyres, why make your own?  :-?
Title: Re: Snow!
Post by: Vincent on November 18, 2004, 04:39:11 PM
Quote

Dan wrote:
There already are studded bicycle tyres, why make your own?  :-?

Cheaper probably :-)
Title: Re: Snow!
Post by: PMC on November 18, 2004, 04:51:29 PM
Quote

Dan wrote:
There already are studded bicycle tyres, why make your own?  :-?


@Dan,

Because the only one's we've seen for sale in the UK are (courtesy of Schwalbe) are around £40 a pop which is expensive for something that we'll only use once or twice a year maximum.

Better to take a worn all weather tyre on it's last legs and modify it on the quiet (my pal is a metalworker by trade and has all the materials / tools required free of charge).

BTW, almost no-one in the UK uses winter tyres on our cars.  The last long term "big freeze" I recall here East Anglia was back in February 1991!  Most drivers here have little or no experience of driving on snow, hence we had major problems in 2002 when a brief snowfall ground the M11 motorway to halt for 24 hours (trapping many drivers in their cars overnight) because our local councils aren't bothering to use proper grit on our highways.

It's no accident that Scandinavian drivers seem to dominate the WRC!
Title: Re: Snow!
Post by: redrumloa on November 18, 2004, 04:57:09 PM
I've never seen snow :-(
Title: Re: Snow!
Post by: PMC on November 18, 2004, 05:15:59 PM
Quote

redrumloa wrote:
I've never seen snow :-(


I miss winters when snow would fall and settle for days at a time.  It's supposed to relieve symptoms of SAD (of which I'm a chronic sufferer) by maximising the meagre sunlight.

That said, it's cold, slippery, a bugger to drive/walk/cycle on, freezes up your pipes and turns to a horrible grey mush at the slightest provocation...
Title: Re: Snow!
Post by: whabang on November 18, 2004, 06:40:36 PM
@Red

You should go to Canada (or nortern Europe) sometime. Bring the kids. Snow is fun to play around in! :-)
Title: Re: Snow!
Post by: AJS on November 18, 2004, 07:15:46 PM
Quote

redrumloa wrote:
I've never seen snow :-(
 
:-D Well Red if you do,don't taste any Yellow snow  :-o  :lol:
Title: Re: Snow!
Post by: X-ray on November 18, 2004, 07:29:49 PM
Snow can lose its value as a novelty for us South Africans too.
One incident that springs to mind is the day I saw my arse without a mirror because of a cartoon-like skid on a pavement with a slick layer of snow and ice.
Title: Re: Snow!
Post by: Dan on November 18, 2004, 08:58:57 PM
Quote

PMC wrote:
Quote

Dan wrote:
There already are studded bicycle tyres, why make your own?  :-?


@Dan,

Because the only one's we've seen for sale in the UK are (courtesy of Schwalbe) are around £40 a pop which is expensive for something that we'll only use once or twice a year maximum.

Duh, didn´t think of that :oops:
I have seen them for 15Euros in catalogs, but I haven´t seen anyone use them.
Title: Re: Snow!
Post by: Dan on November 18, 2004, 09:07:22 PM
Yeah, i got nothing against snow it´s the ice I hate and that @£$@£?${?{[]"¤"#%¤/& roadsalt that does not work!
Title: Re: Snow!
Post by: bjjones37 on November 18, 2004, 09:11:21 PM
Quote

Dan wrote:
Yeah, i got nothing against snow it´s the ice I hate and that @£$@£?${?{[]"¤"#%¤/& roadsalt that does not work!


Please Dan, my poor virgin ears. :-D
Title: Re: Snow!
Post by: odin on November 18, 2004, 09:16:45 PM
Quote
Dan wrote:
Quote
PMC wrote:
@Dan,
Duh, didn´t think of that :oops:
I have seen them for 15Euros in catalogs, but I haven´t seen anyone use them.

My bro's GF (they emigrated to Norway) concluded that regular tires sucked during the winter, she had spiked tires fitted to her bike. Was a lifehazard otherwise, I'm sure they must be used in Sweden too.

@xray:
Huh? Subzero temperatures in South Africa?!
Title: Re: Snow!
Post by: Cyberus on November 18, 2004, 09:33:00 PM
He lives in UK now.

Bloody Saffers, get everywhere... ;-)
Title: Re: Snow!
Post by: Bezzen on November 18, 2004, 10:09:00 PM
I sort of lost my happiness with the snow when I realised that I had to more or less dig my car out.  :-P

But it was a fun drive... although slightly dangerous. I've only driven rear wheel driven cars on snow before and my "new" one is front wheel drive. But I'm still alive and didn't run over any kids that were important.  :-D
Title: Re: Snow!
Post by: Dan on November 18, 2004, 11:11:15 PM
Quote

odin wrote:
Quote
Dan wrote:
Quote
PMC wrote:
@Dan,
Duh, didn´t think of that :oops:
I have seen them for 15Euros in catalogs, but I haven´t seen anyone use them.

My bro's GF (they emigrated to Norway) concluded that regular tires sucked during the winter, she had spiked tires fitted to her bike. Was a lifehazard otherwise, I'm sure they must be used in Sweden too.

Well, I live in the south. Snow doesn´t usually stay very long, real winters are like one every five years. Besides bicycle lanes gets sanded here and the dirty roads aren´t any problem, its the asphalted roads without bicycle lanes that gets icy because of that @£$@£?${?{[]"¤"#%¤/& roadsalt.
Icy leafs are a far worse danger on dirt roads.
Title: Re: Snow!
Post by: Dan on November 18, 2004, 11:13:57 PM
Quote

bjjones37 wrote:
Quote

Dan wrote:
Yeah, i got nothing against snow it´s the ice I hate and that @£$@£?${?{[]"¤"#%¤/& roadsalt that does not work!


Please Dan, my poor virgin ears. :-D

Well comics these days suck, the print the swearwords outright. :-)
Title: Re: Snow!
Post by: Doobrey on November 19, 2004, 12:18:50 AM
Quote

PMC wrote:
BTW, almost no-one in the UK uses winter tyres on our cars.  The last long term "big freeze" I recall here East Anglia was back in February 1991!  Most drivers here have little or no experience of driving on snow


I don`t mind the snow, that`s fun..but I hate ice. You just can`t see it on a cold morning...one minute I`m happily pootling to work, the next I`ve got an armfull of steering lock trying to stop the back end from coming round.

 These stupid windy,twisty, narrow roads with ditches and banks on either side give you no room for error, luckily the worst that`s happened to me was doing a 180 approaching a corner and ended up going backwards down someones drive.
 The house owners were suprised, and I found out adrenaline is brown.. :-o
Title: Re: Snow!
Post by: blobrana on November 19, 2004, 01:40:26 AM
Hum,
Re: bike snow tyres,
My handy tip for today is:
i f you have an old 2.1 tyre lying around you can just knock a few  stubby nails through them and fit them over a set of 1.95... they'll  safely stay on the rim  due to the pressure of the inner tyre...
Title: Re: Snow!
Post by: PMC on November 19, 2004, 09:17:03 AM
@Blob

Not a bad idea at all, the bigger tyres fit over the smaller ones but don't have to be squeezed into the rim I assume?  I can see a "Blobrana's Guide to Cycle Maintenance" thread appearing soon...

Strange thing last night, just after I wrote about East Anglia's lack of snow I peeped out of my lounge window to see the loads of the stuff covering the landscape!  Of course, by 07:45 this morning it had turned to grey/brown mush which has been liberally applied to the side of my car.

I remember way back in '91 when I was at college and we have what can only be described as a blizzard.  We were allowed to go home early and promptly headed straight to our local playing field where I discovered an abandoned car bonnet in the bushes.

Seconds later, five of us were perched upon this upturned bonnet hurtling downhill scattering small children on sledges as we went.  Later that day some people from a local supermarket turned up with one of those rubber door type thingies that proved to be an excellent sledge for six people.  Poor chap on the front didn't share our amusement when he managed to suddenly stop all six of us using a large oak tree and his groin...  This was a perfect excuse to make for the nearest pub for a few fortifying ales.  Ah, them were the days....

Title: Re: Snow!
Post by: Star69 on November 19, 2004, 04:55:38 PM
Quote

Bezzen wrote:
Yup. About 10 centimeters of snow when I went to the mailbox today. Fun fun!

Time to get the car and go out on the roads for some amateur ice racing.  :-D


Lucky bu&&er. I woke up to a piddly 1 cm.  I haven't been snowboarding in 2 years cos I was in NZ last year (their summer)... I NEED IT NOW!!!
Title: Re: Snow!
Post by: whabang on November 19, 2004, 07:22:59 PM
Woo! We got some snow too! Aprox. 0,1% of the ground is covered by less than 1 mm. of snow, but we got snow! :-D
Title: Re: Snow!
Post by: blobrana on November 19, 2004, 07:34:57 PM
@PMC
Hum,
i  managed to fit both tyres inside the  (standard sized) rims, but you got to watch that it doesn't pop out when blowing it up....

If you first fit the tyres together - then fit  the two `beads` (from one side) of both tyres into the rim - then prise the other two in , it fits quite snugly...

But you got to hurry - the snows melting...
Title: Re: Snow!
Post by: Bezzen on November 19, 2004, 11:15:40 PM
@Star69

I've never actually tried snowboarding. Used to do a lot of slalom skiing (only as a hobby, no cometitions or such) when I was younger but I haven't been at the slopes for at least ten years. Now I live pretty close to what seems to be a pretty decent mountain (Hovfjället (http://www.snorapporten.nu/pistkarta.asp?Anlaggning=70))
so I think I'll give it a try again. I will probably break a couple of legs though.  :-o

It was -15 degrees this morning, so I think the snow is here to stay for a while.  :-)
Title: Re: Snow!
Post by: The_Editor on November 19, 2004, 11:33:03 PM
Last bad snow uk had was 1985.

I had just past my truck test and was going to work at 03:00 one morning......

Our depot was 12 miles away in the middle of nowhere.

I was driving my worked 3.1 Capri very carefully in thick virgin snow.  I came to the steep hill just aways from our depot and thought .. " I'd better not touch the brakes ..just ease it into 2nd gear ..gently !!

As I let the clutch out the arse promptly came swinging round (at the top of the hill).

Power steering enabled me to .. Get it back, but it came back at twice the speed.

Once again I corrected ... BUT..  This time it came back with such force ( I was halfway down the hill now) that it was impossible to collect it.

I let go of the whell and 360'd virtually all the way down.

Just before the bottom the vehicle slid into a DEEP snow filled ditch (twisting the chassis) .. Drivers side deep into the ditch,  facing uphill.

And so I sat there at 03:15 in this ditch... I decided that this probably was a good "Hamlet" moment and so sparked a smoke.   At that moment the passenger window got wiped away..  A voice yelled.. "I'll get yer out mate" and the passenger door was opened.. sending a tidel wave of snow cascading all over me !!

Brr.

When I walked into the yard... We couldn't get our wagons out for three days anyway !!

  Crunched Capri (http://uk.pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/the1dogzbollox/detail?.dir=175e&.dnm=1458.jpg&.src=ph)

What a waste.
Title: Re: Snow!
Post by: X-ray on November 19, 2004, 11:50:33 PM
We had snow once in Johannesburg, South Africa. It was in 1981 and I was at school. It was such a momentous occasion that we were immediately let out of school and allowed to go to the park and make snowmen and have snowfights. It was a good amount of snow, not just a sprinkling.

But as for cold: it can get bloody cold for a country that has such good weather. When I was there in winter 2002 it was -2 C with the wind chill. And it is a biting dry cold, an unfriendly cold....
Title: Re: Snow!
Post by: bjjones37 on November 20, 2004, 12:02:12 AM
We are used to two kinds of weather in Texas - hot, and dry.  It is usually either hot or dry or both, actually just about always both.

Don't have any snow stories (wish I did) but we do have some freezes in Texas - if only people could learn to drive in them.  Anyway we lived in Port Lavaca at the time.  We were driving home when we saw some lights revolving in the distance. Looked almost like from a police car except they were white.  When we got there we saw a pickup truck spinning like a top on a bridge.  Apparently some lady was driving her pickup across the bridge and felt it slip just a little bit.   You guessed it, she slammed on the brakes.  Eventually the truck stopped spinning.  My dad spoke to her briefly just to reassure her and she drove safely off.  The moral of the story is: No matter how good you are at driving in snow, if it snows, freezes, rains, gets a little cloudy, wind is blowing, etc. Beware of Texas drivers! :-)

Title: Re: Snow!
Post by: PMC on November 22, 2004, 09:18:37 AM
@X-ray

The Cape gets quite cold IIRC, I remember cycling to school in Mowbray one May morning feeling surprisingly cold.  

Our school uniform consisted of a green blazer, green and yellow tie, white shirt, khaki shorts and khaki long socks...

Brr!
Title: Re: Snow!
Post by: Dan on November 22, 2004, 01:13:28 PM
It snowed all morning, now it turned to nasty cold rain and its going to freeze tonight.  :madashell:
Title: Re: Snow!
Post by: whabang on November 22, 2004, 01:44:57 PM
Quote

Dan wrote:
It snowed all morning, now it turned to nasty cold rain and its going to freeze tonight.  :madashell:


Ice skating! WOOOHOOO! :-D
Title: Re: Snow!
Post by: Cyberus on November 22, 2004, 02:21:18 PM
Title: Re: Snow!
Post by: Dan on November 22, 2004, 03:06:59 PM
WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!
Aaaaaarggggh!
@£?$£$?{"#¤%#%¤/%& bleep bleeep!
 :lol:
Title: Re: Snow!
Post by: Star69 on November 24, 2004, 10:50:18 AM
@ Bezzen

It's alot easier than you'd think... only i'd strongly recommend taking a hip flask with you... for medicinal reasons, of course... :-D

The puny 1cm of snow here melted the next day though  :-(