Commuting - the full monty

i'm loving winter riding so far - as far as the ride itself. but oh man, the gear. the dressing and undressing and disentangling of layers of tights from layers of windproof pants where they got all spaghetti'd together when you took them off. the hopping on one foot with those same pants stretched inside-out from the other one because you peeled them all the way off before you remembered about the ankle straps. the hauling around all day of a sack full of slightly-damp stuff you really don't want your colleagues to smell, the hunting of the socks. . .

the unpacking of the bag at the end of the day to find the right layers first, stacking everything else in neat piles as you take it out. . . the getting dressed all the way to the last layer of rain-pants and then realising you put your shoes on too soon. the removing of work clothes just to apply the wicking layer, the strapping, packing, buckling and zipping . . . and then trying to find out which of the nineteen pockets you have your keys in this time.

maybe it's just because i'm organisationally-challenged when it comes to solid objects and i have to do it all in a tiny little bathroom cubicle, but this part of winter riding i'm not enjoying too much. always worth it when i get out there though :D

In my case, the cycling gear is no more of a hassle than walking gear, which is my other alternative for transport. I know that, much more than most people in my age and social standing, I wear a lot of weird-looking but practical outdoor clothing. I mean, I dress much more like a mountain sherpa than like the "typical" urban gay male of a certain age. It's fun being a stereotype buster!

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maybe it's just because i'm organisationally-challenged when it comes to solid objects and i have to do it all in a tiny little bathroom cubicle, but this part of winter riding i'm not enjoying too much. always worth it when i get out there though :D

:lol: I'm pretty much the same way. If I don't put everything where it should be, I inevitably forget it. All the hassle has added 10-15 min to my morning commute. But as you said, it's a all worth it, gotta take the good with the bad. It's a also part of what makes winter commuting special in its own way. I, personally, love it when I finally get to work, after riding through low temps, wind, rain, snow, darkness, and my muscles are tired (in a good sort of way) and then I get ready to take a nice warm shower. It feels good :D

It's a also part of what makes winter commuting special in its own way.

i should try to remember that, because you're right. it's kind of extreme to me, because our climate is so (technically) mild. the last time i had all this to go through, i was dressing in quebec city to walk to the end of the block for a pint of milk. this time around it keeps feeling excessive because i know i'm not in quebec; there's no minus-30 plus windchill out there. i guess i should be telling myself i wouldn't get this quintessentially canadian experience at all if it weren't for my bike.

and there's a flip side. i dress much more than my colleagues for the trip home, but during the day they're the ones putting on sweaters and coats and umbrellas to cross the parking lot for a cup of coffee, while i'm still just fine in my sandals. i think i am actually feeling the cold a lot less than i used to. when i'm not actually riding, i haven't really been cold so far this winter.

after getting to work in changing into jeans and nice t-shirt sometimes i'm freezing as the building's cold. i end up putting my liner and jacket back on.

hard to believe i'm perfectly comfy biking at 20 degrees that sitting in a chair at 68 degrees

I find it does take more organization in the winter, but one way I've found to make it easier is to really turn much of it into a habit. There are days when I go through the getting undressed process at work and don't even remember it -- but there I am standing in my work clothes. If you spend a couple of weeks turning all the steps of getting dressed/undressed into a habit (that means very meticulously going through it step by step and avoiding any variation until you do it without thinking) the end result is much less stress. Other than that, there is no way around the layering process. I can also sympathsize with the feeling that it is a little overkill, since our climate is reasonably mild. When I get to either end of the ride, however, I am glad I did it.

Oddly enough, I don't have the on/off process of my layers. At most, I take off a poly pullover and pull on a sweater. Pants, longjohns, etc., stay on. Hat stuff, ear warmers, etc., come off too, but those go in my jacket pocket along w/ my gloves for when I go out at lunch.

I feel for ya. I'm trying to find the right combination of layers, such that I have the minimum necessary number of layers that still deal with the change in how cold I am from start to finish.

I recently discovered that I'm more comfortable wearing just a sweatshirt rather than a sweatshirt over a tshirt. AlertShirt has sweatshirts made from the same wicking polyester as their tshirts, I bought one and love it! I'm gonna get at least 2 more.

Key for me seems to be windproof clothes over a medium-weight base layer. Then I unzip the vest and pull up the pant legs on the windproof stuff as I get warm.

On a different aspect, I counted how many buttons I have to push to turn all my lights off, and how many pushes.

1 button push (push and hold) to turn off headlight

6 pushes for left side-marker LED on pannier

6 for right side-marker LED on pannier. Who came up with all these flashing modes anyway :p

1 for left side-marker LED on bar-end

1 for NiteRider super-blinkie

2 for Cateye LD1000 super-blinkie (push & hold two separate buttons)

1 for Cateye LD500 bailout blinkie


But wait, that's just the bike! :rolleyes:

2 for helmet blinkie

2 for self-illuminating vest

2 for self-illuminating belt

2 for self-illuminating wristband


Heck, I'm working up an appetite just turning this junk off AFTER the ride :)

Heck, I'm working up an appetite just turning this junk off AFTER the ride :)

You make even me look reasonable. Possibly even slvoid. :) Thank you.

You make even me look reasonable. Possibly even slvoid. :) Thank you.:roflmao:

I don't mind the all organizing and dressing time so much but I'm getting kind of sick of peanut butter and jelly lunches at work. The commute to and from work is great but putting on all your rain gear to ride one mile to get lunch is a hassle. On days I don't ride to work I really cherish going out to a restaurant and sitting down in my cotton clothes for a hot lunch ... better stop thinking that way.

-Scott

P.S. I counted, I have 11 lights I have to turn on (I almost never remember all of them)

heh. tell you what, maryland - when the weather develops some habits of its own, i'll grow mine. as it is, running on habit is just as likely to leave me standing stymied in front of one item of gear the habit part of my mind don't recognise. "there's no specification for this . . . "

I don't mind the all organizing and dressing time so much but I'm getting kind of sick of peanut butter and jelly lunches at work.

LOL. and me with the yogurt and orange juice/bagels and peanut butter. all this time spent getting dressed and undressed could be spent in the supermarket diversifying the grocery list. course, if the season was the kind you didn't have to dress for, there'd be stuff in the supermarket that was diverse. seven different kinds of apples are still all apples, dammit.


putting on all your rain gear to ride one mile to get lunch is a hassle.

relate to that too. the winter i lived in quebec city it just wasn't worth it. twenty minutes of dressing up to go to the corner of the block for a loaf of bread. . . heck with it. i'll just sit here all winter and eat lentil soup.

Its been near 15 years since I was a driftbuster, bike commuting to college in snow country, but I found Roody's approach to be the most practical.

The non cycling specific clothing was infinitely more adaptable once off the bike.

A nice set of Schoeller softshell pants would be any cold country commuters' ace in the hole.

Additionally, since I've discovered the brillance of wool as a base layer, I've been much more comfortable thru the wide temperature variation you get going from outside to in. I've found I can go from bicycling for an hour (or 5!), or ski mountaineering all day, then going inside, that I can still wear the wool shirt I had on and no need to change.

For my Seattle area bicycle commuting, I don't bother with any fancy special clothing other that a rain coat if it is completely hosing down buckets out there.

But by wearing a wool undershirt, I can pretty much just wear what I rode in, all day long. I got some great, thin wool long sleeve t shirts that are carbon copies of those 3/4 sleeve t-shirts we all wore in the 70's.... these new wool versions are the winter clothing equivalant of the holy grail. Maybe more like the golden fleece. :)

I agree w/ the non-cycling specific gear. I wear a poly wick t-shirt as a base. Over that goes another layer (athletic poly thing) or wool/cotton long-sleeve shirt. Then the ski jacket shell minus the fleece jacket liner (not cold enough for that). The ski jacket has a bottom zipper that I can pull up to give me more movement at the waist w/o bunching up, great for riding. Helmet and headband for warmth, gloves and I'm set. For the legs, Sears finest long johns under my pants and wool socks. All non-cycling specific, except the helmet which looks just like a ski/snowboarder's helmet and does double/triple duty as such. I pack a shirt for work in my bag which goes on once I've cooled down and comes off before I leave.

I'm lazy when I get to work, and eventually change after checking my schedule and e-mail. I'm lucky enough to have a change room to do the one-footed-forgot-to-unzip-ankle-thing dance. Occasionally, I don't bother changing at all, and spend the day in shorts and a t-shirt.

A coworker got embarrassed when someone found a toothbrush/toothpaste in her desk. I showed her my drawer of Toothbrush, toothpaste, pit stick, body spray, body wipes, comb, batteries, gu packets, tube patch kits, etc. etc.