mesasone

There is nothing unreasonable about riding your bike during the winter. All you need to do is throw on a pair of studded snow tires at the beginning of the season, and take them off at the end. If you're really dedicated, you can build a second wheel set so you can swap them out at will. You have to realize, the roads in most parts of the country are not icy all winter long, only until the streets crews get out there and plow/sand/salt them. You could probably get by just fine with out snow tires, taking the cab on days that it's snowing if you're really that uncomfortable with it.

But the fact of the matter is, it's easy. It's not much different than riding at any other time of the year. You just have to dress for the weather. I got around far better this year on my bike than I did last year with my car. My biggest concern was other cars losing control and hitting me, which is why when the streets were bad I would alter my routes or even ride on sidewalks in some areas. I've found that the main streets were usually well kept, so it was rarely an issue anyway.

This year I rode through snow and ice, and with temps reaching -20F and windchill approaching -50... it sounds intimidating. If you had asked me if I would ride in that weather last fall, before I had ever done any winter riding I would have said "No f-ing way!". In retrospect, I clearly thought it was going to be much more challenging than it really is.