This isn’t quite the timely topic that it was last week (and the week before that, and the week before that…), but chances are the cold, snow and ice will be back soon.
Winter bicycle commuting raises the degree of difficulty for even the most seasoned cyclist. Space-age clothing materials, studded tires and distilled self-loathing may help, but it definitely takes something extra to keep the car in the garage and the bus pass in the pocket this time of year.
For me, winter commuting is a challenge. I’m not a thrill-seeker in any other aspect of my life, but I enjoy pedaling the three miles to work under inclement conditions. Loose snow is especially fun. Ice, less so. If it was easy, we’d let those morons in their SUV’s do it, right? At least, that’s what I told myself when I huddled, hugging myself and softly whimpering, in my cubicle for several minutes after arriving at work a couple of weeks ago when it was 15 below. I was very discreet; I don’t think my co-workers caught on.
I asked a few members of the local bike community to share their winter commuting stories. Feel free to add yours in the comments, and think spring, for heaven’s sake.
The coldest day that I biked this winter was on January 13th. It was 16° when I biked to work in the morning and 9° when I biked home. There was a brisk north wind in the morning that made the windchlll 4°. I’ve learned that biking in the cold is just fine if I have the right gear, which for me is a balaclava, lobster glove mittens, a Gore WindStopper jacket, wool socks, and neoprene booties over my shoes. What I can’t bike in is snow and slush. I have a flat bar road bike (Cannondale RoadWarrior 900) with thin tires. A rack and an Arkel commuter pannier enable me to haul my laptop and other stuff. My commute to work is five miles, starting near Prospect and Windsor and ending at my office at the Vineyard Church at the corner of Lincoln and Bradley. It’s a nice commute with bike trails most of the way.
— Jim Egli
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Since I have such a short commute to work (four minutes by bike), I don’t really bundle up all that much. But I use multiple layers using either a classic wool or polypropylene layer and my boots. I also have two levels of gloves. I haven’t missed but a day or two; I remember walking once when the roads hadn’t really been plowed. My studded snow tires are great on ice and on packed snow but don’t do well on loose four inch snow. Though I have the appropriate face stuff, I really don’t like using them and the one day I needed my goggles, I couldn’t find them and froze my eyeballs riding into the wind. It helps to have a beard and I love having a helmet cover!
— Charlie Smyth
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
The cold doesn’t get me as much as the wind. A long leather coat that covers my legs to my knees is indispensable, as are double socks and legwarmers. -10 degrees was about my coldest, and I had to warm up in the Foreign Language Bldg halfway to work, a two mile ride.
Those icicles kinda amuse me — and it’s interesting to be so cold around the edges and sweating in the middle. Biking definitely gets the blood running. As a Vermonter who revelled in skiing at cold temperatures but suffered with icy feet then, I find snowbiking to be a warmer, and just as challenging, sport.
If only those people behind four wheels could control their vehicles . . .
— Cope Cumpston (pictured)
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
Winter bike commuting isn’t that bad. However, it’ll definitely make you question the adequacy of your own bike, especially if you’re a die-hard like me. First thing you gotta do is get yourself some fenders, otherwise you’ll have a great old skunk tail up your black fleece-lined jacket like I do, because I don’t have fenders and I pay for it. Other than that, I layer up, probably three layers on top of the shirt, fleece, and a leather jacket to break the wind. Regular jeans typically do it for my two mile ride, although I have been considering keeping my fleece pajama pants on for good measure recently. I was lucky enough to be out of town the day of our -20 cold snap this year, but I’ve ridden around regularly in 0 degree weather, and even during the tail end of the massive blizzard that struck back in 2007. It was a might hairy doing that, but I got through somehow.
— Brian Larson
– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –
No pictures handy, though they snapped one last week at Champaign Cycle to put on the wall, but this has definitely been a winter of new experiences. New record for coldest ride, twice at 11 below, wearing, let’s see… tights and long johns and then those heavy purple fleecy things and then sweatpants and then smart-tex “windproof breathable” pants on top (my buy of the decade at 20 bucks for two pairs, shipping included). I did enough jumping jacks before I went out so that my hands didn’t get cold (two pairs of gloves). That Norwegian Subcutaneous Insulation (a.k.a. fat) helped, I’m sure.
Another “first” was riding on the studded tyres the day after we’d had the snow then the freezing rain then the rain. It was 33 degrees and, oh, yea, the wind was a little brisk. I was riding up Country Fair and duly noted that under this puddle was ice, which my studs were rolling nicely over, except that while I was rolling forward, I was also being blown so hard from the side that I was sliding thankfully to my right.
It was so nasty the one day that I took the bus home, but the bike rack on the bus was a bit frozen and took three of us whaling on it to get the loop to slide loose and go over my tyre. (Took two of us to get the bike on there, but that’s ’cause I’m not strong enough to lift the thing.)
I’m convinced that the body does adapt because temps that would have had me shivering in previous years didn’t, and one three-degree morning when the straps that had lost their elastic decided to hurl themselves into my chain, I had to go without gloves for long enough to peel them out of the hub. I’d done a *lot* of jumping jacks before I left that morning, but I didn’t get numb at all, and they wereexposed for several minutes. Riding into the wind, plowing those studs through the inch of snow, with I suspect a few fragments still dragging a bit on that wheel, meant I had a proper workout one usually doesn’t get in the winter.
I’m afraid that the current mildness is just a “January Thaw,” and that Winter Isn’t Done With Us Yet.
— Sue Jones