Originally Posted by
Roody
Yeah, winter riding is work; summer riding is just riding.
The wind is another factor, IMO. For one thing, the winter winds are faster. But in addition, the denser cold air (mentioned by others) intensifies the wind's effect on movement, even at equivalent wind speeds.
I'll second that statement. We've had hard winter wind here for the better part of the past two weeks. The winds have been steady between 15 to 25 MPH with some days gusting up to 45 MPH. That was some hard riding. The temperature was also hovering between the mid teens and low to mid twenties the whole tome. We've also had some level of snowy precipitation for just about every day for the last week and a half as well. All that made for hard work, and messy commuting. Yesterday was the first truely nice day in weeks. We had temps hovering right around freezing, little or no wind, and bright sunny skies. I went out and finally got to use the cross country skis
.
This week looks to be a "light" weather week. Temps right around or above freezing, and relatively little wind. Possible thunderstorms tomorrow and snowy winter weather returning Wednesday. In a sick sort of way I actually like the winter commute. It feels more like a bit of a battle against mother nature.
Happy riding,
André