Learning to ride on ice

I have lived in the south for most of the past twenty years, so I forgot about cycling in snow and ice. This year I moved to the mountains of Eastern Oregon, which has plenty of snow and ice. Eastern Oregon doesn't use salt, so the roads freeze in the winter. I was worried about cycling, especially on a folding bike with small tires. It turns out I had nothing to worry about. The roads are not smoothly paved in the mountains, if they were cars would slide in all the ice storms. The roads are rough with indentations throughout. this creates a surface for traction ( even in ice ). The ice forms similar structure as the roads ( it is rough ). I was about to cycle in ice with no problems. When I gpot to work my bike would slide all over due to the ice on the tires, but it was surprisingly fine on the roads.

I recall losing control of the bike once on ice, my left leg was going onto the pavement, while my body and bike were washing out on the other side ( I was doing a split ). I engaged the rear brake, and there was enough traction on the ice to grab my rear wheel and keep in one line so I was able to get back on the bike comfortably.

FYI I did not use studded tires, I didn't even have offroad tires. I used the stock tires from our 9FS, slick 1.5" up front & offroad 1.75" in back. I'm still surprised I was able to deal with the elements with minimal problems.