I haven't braved the elements other than to shovel snow to keep my driveway and pavement responsibilities taken care of the past week. I didn't have to work today, but I was hoping to go into the office tomorrow. So with daytime temperature warmed to around zero point I decided to try part of my commute to get an idea if it was worth attempting tomorrow.
The problem I faced was that many ways were partially clear, but much of my route on the busiest roads had bike paths only partially cleared and blocked sporadically with heaps of snow often blocking my way. And those roads are too unsafe to ride on the road with the motor traffic. On the side streets some roads were OK, but I also relied on riding in the grooves left by cars or on the pavements that had been cleared. Left and right of the car snow groves were not easy even with spikes as surfaces were more snowy and lose rather than icy.
My forest short cut still had around 6 cm of snow, not compacted enough to make a good surface to ride on. I rode a couple of hundred meters in to the forest and turned around as it was not so easy. My alternate road route was not much fun either where I would have cars coming up behind and wanting to overtake, and it wasn't easy to ride anywhere except on the tyre tracks and pulling over was a challenge to let them pass.
Basically, I got half way to work with only half the way actually rideable with ease. The rest needed concentration and steady nerves and at a slower pace meaning I never truly warmed up. So I will home office again tomorrow, and hope that the Berlin thaw makes enough difference to try again on Wednesday or Thursday.
1) My commuting shortcut through Grünewald woods. Snow too powdery to get decent grip with my Schwalbe Winter spikes
2) The alternative 'bad weather' road route along service road parallel to Heerstrasse. Bikes are not permitted on main road behind the hedge- which is 5 lane contraflow and otherwise clear of snow/ice
The joys of being a 2nd class road user...
3) I gave up on that service road near Olympic stadium junction. The funny thing is that despite the stadium not being allowed to host fans, the front of stadium and the carpark had all been cleared. The roads to/from the stadium were not much better than the 2nd picture.
I did run into a couple of other bike nuts on my ride. A 29er rider with Nokian spikes had less problem with the surfaces, but was suffering with derailleur gears getting clogged with snow/ice making changing a challenge. I can remember such fun on my other 2 bikes in winter before I bought the Winora with Rohloff in the photos. My Rohloff with Chainglider was mostly snow/ice free even after a 22km ride. No gear change issues to report.
If there were no other traffic to content with, you could feasibly ride through these elements with the spikes I have, as they kept my upright and I didn't feel like there was much loss of control, but it wasn't so much fun constantly adjusting for ever changing road surface conditions. Everything should have completely thawed by the weekend where my commuting challenge will be more just on overnight frost and ice- and where my spikes will be in the element.
