Originally Posted by JohnBrooking
Nor'easter expected, beginning early morning, by afternoon for coastal Maine there may be sleet and freezing rain mixed in, windy, blizzard conditions, accumulation 6-12".
I have the option of working from home. I'd like to try for the challenge, but the freezing rain gives me pause. And visibility problems.
If I ride, it would be the 3-speed internal hub, but no studded tires. (This would be one of a handful of days I could justify having them.)
[Edit: It's 5 miles each way, small suburban roads, some shoulders, some not, no bike lanes, usually moderate traffic.]
I would say no if it does get to 6" deep or more. But it depends, have you ridden in deep snow before? Do you remember where all the objects are under the snow? How about lots of ice? With 5 miles of hard ice, without studs don't bother to try.
You really can't ride much in 12" of snow. Around 12" or so your bottom bracket (pedal axle) is touching the snow. Then to go far you need to walk and drag the bike. If it's five miles of 12" deep snow it would probably be better to walk. That's in nice fluffy powder and about 25 degrees. If it is wet like they say it will be, the snow will be twice as hard to get through. Around 5" your pedals hit the snow 6" is time to consider walking if the snow is heavy, assuming you are in good shape and can ride hard all the way. If not it may be less.
You can ride, walk, ride, walk, a few miles if needed, but you may be very late to work.
Studded tires are only a benefit on ice or hard packed snow, in soft snow they are the same as knobbies. It does say rain and freezing, that could ice up your bike so much it has 1" diameter spokes. And the brakes of course won't work. If it does get slippery it's easy to fall in the road.
If it gets plowed you may be fine, but the mound from the plow takes away a place to move to the right if you need to. You may be in the lane all the way.
My suggestion is not to ride to work, but to find a safe place to ride in a few inches of snow to see how it is. Try 5" and about 8" if you can. 3 or 4 inches is fun if you are in good shape. Just try riding across the yard. Run your tires as low as you can possibly go and not pinch flat. The side of the tire may say the minimum pressure. If there are icing conditions ride in the yard to see what it's like. Try as many different things you can think of away from the road now. IOf the snow gets wet and heavy from rain, try it in the yard. Same for a frozen crust, try it.
This will give you better judgement about when to ride to work for the next storm, if you have not tried deep snow or ice already.