Any tips for Winter Cycling?

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What's the risk of falling on an icy road and being victim to a car that can't stop on said road? I snow fell last night in Winnipeg and ice has formed this night, I was travelling through a back lane to avoid a busy street (ironically enough) and was recently victim to my first fall in quite a few years.

^^^
ouch!

Oh, I got no idea. Most of my time riding my bicycle in the rain was as a reckless 16-17 year old. Generally, what I'd wear unless it was like, summer, but the temperature was still not ice on the ground, would be like, tshirt, plus thermal shirt underneath, and then I had a really good windbreaker that would not absorb water easily. Summer I'd wear that same jacket, but with just a shortsleeve shirt underneath. My pants, I'd just wear....pants. Shoes was the only thing I'd be different at. In the rain and winter, I was always wearing semi-waterproof work/hiking boots with steel toes. If it was sunny out, though, I'd more often wear sneakers.

My recommendation is, if you're concerned about cold while cycling, clothing helps certainly, but really, 90% of your feeling cold is from your hands and feet. You can be bundled to hell, but if your hands are cold or your feet are cold, you'll be miserable. So you gotta find a shoe that keeps your feet warm and dry, dry is a key, you don't want them absorbing water from the outside and you also don't want them to absorb sweat. And gloves is the same.

Really though, the main thing is, when you're exercising hard at all, cold is almost irrelevant. Everyone I know that ice skates, the rink is like 40 degrees F inside. Generally people start with a jacket for the first 5 minutes or so of their skating, then once they get their body temperature up from skating hard, they'll take it off. It's the same with winter cycling, if you're pushing hard, you probably won't be concerned about it being cold. Main thing is just to watch out for cold and flu viruses, which you're more susceptible to while cold.

OH! In winter, I used to be kind of an a**hole on my bike. Basically, what I'd do, legally, bicycles are allowed a whole lane to themselves in US. Technically. Sorta. You can legally do it, except nobody will like you. But uh, to avoid falling, I'd always give myself more space off the shoulder when riding in winter, to avoid ice, etc. You should feel free to do this, too, just don't be a dick and if there's been, say, a car behind you forever, go back to the side so he can pass you, etc. Ideally, you should be as close to the shoulder as possible, but in winter things aren't ideal, so yeah.

A tip from experience: on warm winter days, watch out for puddles! On a busy road with rapid temperature changes, an inch deep puddle can turn into a foot-deep pothole overnight.

I do that a lot of the time regardless. It is not safe to let cars pass when they cannot do it with enough room. my safety comes first. if they have to wait then tough

i would stay off my bike in such conditions, because the car drivers have a hard enough time of it around where i live, with crappy/absent street lighting, no sightlines in our typically twisty/curvy country roads, perpetual black ice in dense tree line shadow, and no sidewalks to speak of, just steep drop-offs on each side of the road. i don't wish to make wintertime drivers angrier and more stressed-out dealing with silly me on my bike which they have to steer around. i am a driver also so i can understand how the other drivers might feel about it. in good weather, however, that is a horse of a different color.

I never tried it once there is any significant amount of ice or snow out. People are really inconsistent shoveling and empty houses, which there a lot of around here, can go like the whole winter without getting shoveled. They're suppose to do it but I guess they have other things to enforce. The house next door to me has been vacant for more than a year so I usually end up shoveling their part because no one else will and I'm just too nice of a guy. Not that big of a deal if there is only a couple inches on the ground but when you have like a 12"+ on the ground it really sucks and that stuff doesn't melt. I would be too afraid to go out on the road as I live in a high traffic area and people drive stupid in the winter.