While I am a year-round bike commuter, this is my first winter riding in snow and ice in many years. Today's 9 mile ride in to work with only a few yards of bare pavement was wonderful: Sunny and 13F when I left the house..warming up to 19F at the office 53 minutes later. This is also the first time I have used studded snow tires and they have made a huge difference. My confidence is building and my average speed was 9.5...up from 7 last week in similar conditions. I did build enough confidence to hit 17mph on hard-packed snow and 12 on glare ice.

However, where as last week I walked my bike down a steep icy incline by a railroad crossing, this morning I rode down. Three weeks ago on my first snow and ice ride I found I was able to come to a complete stop going down some very steep ice-covered hills. While only 12 yards, this rail crossing is the steepest incline on my commute. On the way home last week, I was able to ride up it while a couple of cars were spinning their wheels (although other cars made it). So this morning I rode down and was tempted to stop, just to prove I could, but I became worried about stopping and putting my foot down on such an incline of ice, since my shoes don't have the grip of studded tires. So I didn't. But in the last couple of yards I began to turn right, as I normally do, and the back end of the bike started to slide. I straightened out and was able to continue to the where it flattened out and then turned right. Made a mental note of that.

While we had only 2-3 inches of snow I came across a couple of powdery drifts 4-6 inches deep and was able to power through those, but the effort was great and my speed was down to walking speed, so I think 2-3 inches will be my limit for now.

I have used toe clips (mousetraps and straps) for years and on this old mtb, even with the 178mm cranks, I was able to flip them down and ride on the flat side without them scraping the street. I am still a little nervous about getting a foot free if I slid on some ice.

Also last year I had lowered my cold temperature threshold from 23F to 12F after missing out on too much winter riding. I absolutely nailed the clothing today and I may try 8F if the opportunity arises.

That's it...just wanted to share.