rousseau

I live in the warmest part of Canada (southern Ontario, and stop laughing!), but since I've gotten back into cycling I've come to the unpleasant realization that we only get highs of 20+ (70s F?) degrees for five months, from May to September. Once the weather starts consistently dipping below 15 I lose interest, and have no desire whatsoever to go out for two-hour rides. We get stretches in the summer where the daily highs go up into the low 30s, which for some people might be a bit uncomfortable, but which I myself lap up, having once lived in a tropical country in Asia for a number of years.

So I'm basically stuck with 5, maybe 6 months tops of great cycling weather, which is the best you get in Canada (and before the Vancouverites protest, your winters are milder, but average July highs are a paltry 21 degrees--you don't get as many nice and warm/hot days as we do).

Where might the optimum climate for cycling be, where you get the greatest number of good days, say between 25 and 30 degrees (though obviously this is debatable)? Northern Italy? Spain? California?

shakeNbake

I would say around the northern part of SoCal, not so hot in the summer, warm enough to ride in winter. And lots of climbs.

Nermal

I can't give you a number of good days, but NW New Mexico ain't bad. There may be a week or two of daytime temperatures below +25f, but not every year. There have been a few years where daytime highs reached 105f, but like the old jokes, it's a dry heat.

Should you drop in, I might caution you about seasonal and daily headwinds; also the few odd hills.

roadfix

I would say the southern part of SoCal, like San Diego....

Mothra

Pretty much all of SoCal's got great riding year-round! The southern areas do get really hot during the summer months of June to September. But you can also ride from March to June and September to November as well. Might need long-sleeves from Novembre to March, but that's it. Some years, it only rains 10-15 days total!

sunofsand

I would say anywhere along the beach in Southern California. San Diego seems to be the city many people consider as having the best weather
I think it's a little more cloudy there than up a little more north. Seems to rain more than LA. I'm partial to Santa Monica/Malibu. Low humidity sets California apart from other warmer destinations. If it gets to be too hot on any given ride you can simply go touch toes with the chilly ocean for a while. Can't beat that.

kyle!

Sd, Ca!

bhc

I enjoy great temps like that year around in the Arizona desert. Part of the year that might be at 5:00 am, and then in the winter the riding is geat in the afternoon.

rousseau

Erm...where's this?

What about places mid-country, like Virginia or Tennessee? Are the winters very cold there? Do people ride year-round?

kyle!

San Diego, California uber alles.

MichaelW

You are looking for temperate-to-mediterranean, coastal areas.
S W France, N Spain, N Island New Zealand, S African Cape, SW Australia.
Ocean currents help moderate the temperatures
Your 15C cutoff temp seems a little odd. Have you tried wearing some clothes on the bike? Most of my riding is done at 10-20C.

Juha

Personally I enjoy the crisp -5C to +5C clear autumn days the most. No snow yet, too cold for bugs and the colors and light are fantastic. But we have only few of those every year, and even fewer happen during the weekends when I would otherwise be free to ride. Come to think of it, the rarity of such days may have something to do with why I like them so much...

--J

bitingduck

San Diego, but as mentioned above, as long as you're along the coast in SoCal it's going to be nice.

Inland LA gets pretty hot sometimes (100+ F) and we've had a few rainy winters lately (but we have an indoor velodrome...).

here and there

+1 I live in South San Diego about 4 miles from the beach and there is great year-round riding weather here. There are very few rainy days here and even then you could probably squeeze in an afternoon ride if you wanted to (I've noticed most rain events here occur overnight into the morning and are usually gone by the afternoon). Once June rolls around there is usually no rain to deal with again until October/November save for a few drizzly mornings. The only quirk in the weather is the wind, except for the warmest days of summer, there is usually a constant 8-15 mph wind.

chicbicyclist

Basically, any place in found on the map on this page:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mediterranean_climate

If you like to be more at "home"*, then choose California(especially coastal Southern California). If you want more variety, then South Western Australia and the true Mideterranean Euro countries would be ideal. If you want exotic, then southern South Africa, North Africa and central Chile would be nice.

I live in San Diego, obviously, and the weather is perfect. Even the hottest days, as long as you are within 10 miles of the coast(which you will most likely be anyway), it is bearable, even nice because the muginess is very rarely present.

It actually rains more in the LA area then here, but we get alot of our moisture from the marine layer that usually dominates around June(this year, it was in May, and June has been absolutely perfect). Other than that, year round weather is not very variable and stays around 75-80*F in the warmer months and rarely below 60*F in the winter. The only downside is that San Diego is quite hilly. Unless you're into that kind of stuff, then better stay around the coasts.



*if you really want to stay in Canada, Vancouver Island is the best says the article.

noisebeam

You can ride year round comfortably in the desert areas of AZ. Early mornings in the summer and mid days in the winter.

Al

Flak

Southern Australia. Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth, anywhere in Tasmania.

But im biased ofcourse

Nachoman

Diego.

shakeNbake

I would like to specify my first post, I meant like malibu, ventura, oxnard, solvang, etc.

I also second Vancouver, I love Vancouver. They have the best Chinese food outside of mainland China, IMO.

chicbicyclist

Jus to clarify, it's Vancourver Island, not Vancouver. It has something to do with the mountains and stuff, or something.

fuerein

N. Virginia isn't too bad. We get snow, but getting 6 inches is fairly uncommon. There are definately people that ride year round.

genec

Just out in the local paper this morning... San Diego has slipped to the number 8 position in US cities, however, the temp (June ave temp 66.8) and number of cloudless days (146) still make this quite a nice place for cycling... Now if we could only do something about the auto-centric attitude in So Cal, ("Nobody walks in LA") the place would be perfect for cycling.

sfend002

I would say that Northern Virginias traffic is a bit of a drawback. The weather is pretty mild I guess. Cant beat San Diego though.

chephy

Nah, there ain't nothing like winter riding... You get to feel so tough and special.

Jarery

I live in vancouver, i commute every day year round.

South Ontario warmest in Canada ? Where did you find that stat, some tourism ontario office?
Heres a cut and paste from stats canada.

""For the top hot spots (highest annual average temperature °C), ten of the eleven warmest cities are in British Columbia. Only Windsor ON in 8th place is from outside the province. Chilliwack BC garnered top honours as the warmest city (10.5°), followed by Vancouver (10.1°), Abbotsford BC (10.0°), Nanaimo BC (9.8°) and Victoria (9.7°). ""

Heres the link https://www.on.ec.gc.ca/weather/winne...hlights-e.html


In vancouver, just invest in some fenders

Oh and dont move to Winnipeg, they win this award ""And Winnipeg, the coldest city over 600,000 people in the world,""