Originally Posted by
Beaker
Kudos to the folks posting in this thread riding with such low temps. Worst I contend with here are upper 20's. Still we get some crazy inversion layers when I go up and over the hills that can lead to 15-20 degree temperature swings. That kinda sucks when you're in winter gear with a backpack and suddenly the temps are in the low 50's.
Lol I used to have that on my old commute. It was 45-60 minute one way to work, the last 1 mile was one giant hill, then the remaining 0.5 miles crossed 2 bridges over water. The temp dropped drastically over the bridges. Combined with 15 MPH headwind, wind chill (when standing still) of -10F, and going downhill at >25 MPH.. it was terrible. By that time my feet and hands already felt like they were in vices and then suddenly it feels like I was dipped in liquid nitrogen lol. I did that for 2 Winters. Thankfully now my commute to my new job is 10 times easier so I don't have to go through all that. I was amazed I didn't get frostbite, especially as a Type 2 Diabetic with not so great circulation in my feet.
It was almost 50F yesterday. I did some biking around town to run some errands, get groceries. The rolling resistance in the snow tires and having to push through snow for a week seems to have really increased my leg strength, because I was biking faster than I ever have before. Of course my bike chain decided to get a stiff link which ruined my fun. I ordered a chain breaker tool to hopefully fix it.