for me, the bottom end of the temperature scale is governed more by what the wind is doing rather than the raw temperature.

a sunny and still 6 degree morning is more pleasant than a 16 degree morning with a nasty 25mph headwind.

generally speaking, if windchills are below zero, i tend to throw in the towel and walk to the train station.


as for the white stuff, chicago is pretty damn good about plowing and salting for most regular snowfalls. the real danger most of the time is ice, and my studded marathon winters do a nice job with that stuff. every once in a while i find myself riding in more snow than the marathon winters should be expected to handle, but slow and steady wins the race in that case. really big snowfalls like that typically only happen 1-3 times per winter on average anyway.