Yesterday’s bike ride

tcaley4 wrote: »

peleroja wrote: »

lorrpb wrote: »

tcaley4 wrote: »

I’ll chime in with the others. Good job on riding in the cold. 40 degrees is just about my cut off. I’m too much of a wimp, even though @stevecro has tried to get me to go colder. Looks like a great place to ride and great pics.

I suppose the danger of going much colder is black ice patches, even if one can keep warm.

I'm just here to tell you all STUDDED TIRES!

I rode all winter last year without them and I can't believe how much better it is this year with studded tires. I have so much more control and traction in ice and snow that it is unbelievable. I will never ride in the winter without them again.

I'm a psycho who bike commutes in a prairie Canadian winter (and I look like a real goober on my bike in ski pants, jacket, mask, goggles, and helmet) but even if you're not as silly as I am and riding in -30, they made a huge difference if you're riding on any kind of ice or snow.

I don't think they even sell those in my part of the world. If I had ice for a contiguous period of time like you do I can see how it would be totally worth it. Here in Arkansas, I would be taking them off after three or four days. The ice would be gone by then.

And obviously, you are fully prepared with the proper clothing to be doing anything outdoors at -30. Is the C or F?

It's virtually the same at that temperature (-40 is the same in C and F) and I bike in it, although my usual morning temperatures in deep winter are usually more in the -15C to -20C (about 5F to -5F) range and we only have to deal with -30 to -40 for a couple weeks at a time.

I wear a full set of ski clothing: insulated ski pants, ski socks, serious ski jacket, mask, helmet, mittens, and goggles, along with appropriate base layers, since it's all made for high winds at fast speeds in cold temperatures. I'm quite comfortable since I dress appropriately and never allow any exposed skin or anything, since these are the kinds of temperatures where you can get frostbite in under ten minutes and my commute is 25 to 30 min in the winter.

Since at this time of year we only have daylight from about 8:00AM to 4:00PM, I have to commute in the dark both directions, which is probably the worst part of winter riding. I have head and tail lights, a helmet light, multicoloured hub lights for my wheels, and LED bracelets so my hand signals can be seen (also, all my gear is neon) but I still deal with at least one idiot in a car every day who manages to not see me despite all that. And I have to recharge or replace batteries constantly because the cold sucks the life out of them so fast.

The tires do make it harder to ride on bare pavement so they're not ideal if you only get snow/ice intermittently, but for me they're worth it.

Congrats on your continued riding!

I'm about 10 months ahead of you, reaching 1000 miles. Keep at it, bit by bit, even on those less-than-perfect days, and the miles will add up. I have found that the miles might be a measure, but they don't measure the satisfaction I've gained.

I used to have family in that area (Bremerton). I lived in Auburn for a while as a kid (we were part of the post-Boeing-1970-slump exodus). Great area! Miss it.