"Living in the Past" - Jethro Tull

'leopard-skin pill-box hat' - bob dylan

'Snowblind Friend' - Steppenwolf

Gareth Bale will be like George Best in that, most likely we'll never see him play in a World Cup.

Andy Kim - "Rock Me Gently"

"I only have eyes for you" - Rod Stewart

'Caribbean Queen (no more love on the run)' - Billy Ocean

"Little Blue" - The Beautiful South

'my favourite things' - Julie Andrews

Eno - "Here come the warm jets"

'gimme some lovin'" - Spencer Davis group

Sometimes people don't expect to see a cyclist out in the winter, so have a good torch, rear lights, blinkies, I was at a junction last winter, everyone came to a stop and this motorist did not see me, worked out okay but I waited for them to stop, then I proceeded and they started up but stopped in time, they must not have seen me, so again, overly cautious. Once, there was a lot of snow and sometimes, you'll have people, mainly kids who want to see how their car will fishtail and the like in the snow in areas I go for shortcuts home, industrial areas through car parks, they don't expect to see a cyclist either, so with warmly protected feet, I'm often ready to hop off the bike and drag it out of the way if need be. Hasn't happened but nothing to be at risk about either. Which comes to another thing, I certainly don't use clip-in pedals in the winter. Some do, if you're comfortable, go for it.

This was my answer as well about letting some air out of the tyres but I held back because post # 301 mentioned those real thin tyres of racing bikes which sounds like a rather upscale elite setup, those wheels already cost a lot compared to the clunkers I might be riding. That said, Mountain Bikes (or Hybrides) with their wide tyres and nobby treads designed well for all kinds of riding are for me the ride of choice in harsh weather but much slower otherwise than a racing bike. For winter, if I have a say and if one can have more than one bike and would be riding rather extensively, a Mountain/Hybrid is the only choice, the racing bike for better weather. Sometimes, if conditions really get slowed down, a big snow, Mountain Bikes are the closest to getting you anywhere. I don't mean to plug them. Something like the above picture, if one is dressed warm can be pretty fun even, picture from the famous "ice bike" website which yes, deals with riding in the winter mainly. They are rolling. http://icebike.org/ Companies sell studded tyres but letting the air out to a low pressure works very well, you get good traction, you probably won't slide much. Only if everywhere is absolutely covered with ice would one need the studded tyres. Just to see if I could do it, I did ride once across a medium-size frozen lake with one front studded tyre which I've read before one really only needs the front to be studded. The grip those studs give is a bit amazing alright, they really do dig into the ice. The 3-speed bikes I would surmise do okay in the winter as well, the old Sturmey Archer hubs but even those can get frozen up in the winter, the oil inside and what have you. -------- Edit on: Low Tyre Pressure and excessive caution, keys to good winter riding, perhaps the knobby mountain bike styled tyres as well.

'the name game' - Shirley Ellis

'our house' - Madness

Black Uhuru - Moya (Queen of I jungle)

"rock and roll fantasy" - Bad Company

"Candy Man" - Sammy Davis Jr.

"The wind cries Mary" - Jimi Hendrix

'heavy traffic' - Status Quo

Aerosmith - "Toys in the Attic"

"I like your hat" - Mister Cooper

'come softly to me' - The Fleetwoods

Cat Stevens - 'Miles from Nowhere'

Celtic losing to Inverness in the 79th minute. I see Hellas Verona has climbed back up to Serie A and play AC Milan today, so I will be hoping for Verona, popular book out there on Italian Calcio is "A season in Verona", I think that's the name of a work by Shakespeare as well. Anyway, Verona was relegated a number of years ago, so they are back.