I'm a bike commuter, commuting 7 miles each way every day I work at the office, which is 3 days a week. I telework the other 2.
Previously I rode around on a beach cruiser style bike (Trek Navigator) but over the summer my husband, son, and I started doing some minor mountain biking. I mean, how intense can you go with an 8 year old? So, I gave away the Trek and bought an entry level mountain bike, a
Raleigh Talus 2.0, with a 14 inch frame cause I'm short. I've been quite pleased with it. I like the steel frame because we have lots of potholes and such and because part of my regular commute is on an off-road path.
But here's the thing, so, last week we got down to the low 20s for the morning temps and this week we're in the teens, with the wind chill putting it at 0F. Last Tuesday I go out at 6:30a, all bundled up against the cold to bike to work.
Only, my shifter (grip shifters, great since I HAVE to wear mittens in the cold due to poor circulation) isn't responsive on the flywheel, chainwheel still shifts. About halfway through my commute I get the flywheel shifter to work, only not really because now it's all out of alignment, where it reads gear 3 but that's really 1 and now I can only shift up to gear 4 on any given chainwheel gear.
Can the cold temps do that? Can they make it so that whatever metal they're using in these admittedly low end components become brittle or inflexible or something and are no longer able to respond as intended? Has anyone else ever experienced this? I will note that I store the bike outside, under a bike cover. So, I try to protect it from water, but it's still outside. And there it will stay as there's no room in our apartment for it.
I'm not up for plunking down huge chunks of change for components but I could do a minor upgrade if there is something out there that can handle colder weather. Any thoughts/suggestion?
Thanks!