Bike Forums - Strida-5 24/7/365 Winter in Racine

I live just over 2 miles from my office in Racine Wisconsin and have various routes to and from work. Found that trees make a lot of difference in road surface conditions during a fresh snow fall so I stick to the tree line narrow streets when caught out by fresh snowfall, the road surface for some reason is less slippery. When it becomes too slick to ride I walk. The Pearl Izumi Alp-X mountain bike shoes are excellent.

In the worst snow fall I snowshoed to and from work and had a blast.

The only weather condition this year that was just plain strange was a ride home one evening in pouring down heavy rain at 35 F and then having the temperature drop to 8 F by midnight while it was still raining!!!!!!!! It sounded like electricity sparking as the super cooled water struck a surface and flash froze!!!!!! Only along Lake Michigan have I ever had this happen. In the morning everything was encased in a thick coating of ice, not a bit of snow!!!!!!!!!!!! The ice was so hard and thick that windshield ice scrappers would not work. Walked to work using Yak Trackers and hardly slipped.

I have a little trick for keeping automobile doors from freezing shut in under these conditions, just take a 50/50 solution of Palmolive Dishwashing soap and water and sponge it on completely around the door seals, this works down to minus 20 F.

Coldest ride to work and back was at minus 10 with no wind. We had a week straight of wind chill factors down to -40 F and under these conditions I just walk to work.

When I did ride this winter the Strida-5 with fender extenders on both front and rear fenders stayed very clean. I carry a small towel to wipe the bike down before I roll it into my office and store it under my desk and unless it was raining, very little road dirt or road spray ever got on the bike.

Its has been nearly a year and the Strida-5 has been my only bicycle and so far the bike has performed very, very, very well with but one broken spoke. The bike has been very, very, very easy to keep clean and in good working order.

This week I will be changing out the original nylon crank set for the new Strida alloy crank set, should add another 5 mph to my top end :-))))))

Did ride a Strida-5 with the two speed crank set. The smallest gear ratio was too small for me and I could not spin smoothly in the highest gear, so I am going to stay with the single speed crank set.

Spun a fun 16 miles today on a rails to trails path. Found that the 16 inch wheels do not make the Strida-5 a HUMVEE in the snow. The mountain bikers laughed as they watched my front wheel drill a few feet into a trail wide patch of snow, bring the bike to an abrupt stop and force the rear tire to spin out from under me. Of course they were laughing as they were riding by me on those sissy 27 and 29 inch wheels.

TBAKEL