Winter here in the mid-Atlantic region is pretty mild as compared to many areas. I'll ride in temps down to the high 20's as long as there are clear pavement and my driveway is open to the street. Usually sometime after New Years I put the good C&V bikes away and just ride

A) a salty roads bike for in the wild
B) my Moto Mirage on the stationary trainer
C) my c'dale on the rollers.

I don't commute, now don't work at all ( just laid off again - yeah!). I winter ride to keep enjoying it, stay in shape and prevent loss of conditioning.

My salty roads bike has been an old Free Spirit but that's gotta go now and another will take its place.

2012 was a high water mark I still haven't matched in terms of cycling performance, but 2017 has been excellent in several measures. I've ridden regularly, with 2700 miles so far in this year and I've improved my limited climbing capacity. Most importantly, I lost more than 20 lbs. I also competed in Illinois Senior Olympics and won gold in the road race and silver in the time trial in my age group. I plan on attending this event next year and that will provide additional motivation for further improvements in fitness.

I completed the restoration of my De Rosa Professional and made some detail improvements on my other bikes in 2017. I'm really impressed with the De Rosa and I'm no longer looking for a grail bike to top off my collection. Finding a significantly better bike than this Italian exotic would be nearly impossible. Sure, there are arguably "better" bikes to hunt down, but it's unlikely I'd find a better bike in my size at a sane price unless it had some fatal flaws.

I'll start attending gravel events in Missouri soon and it's possible to ride outdoors almost continuously through the winter here. I'll use my smart trainer when icy weather interrupt my outdoor routine, but I should be able to ride outdoors often enough. I'd like to be able to complete a hilly imperial century next summer. I hope to lose another 20 lbs and improve my endurance in 2018.

My wife's battle with cancer kept me close to home again this year and I only managed rides of 1 hour or less. On the plus side, I spent a lot of time in my basement workshop and kept on top of home maintenance and my vegetable garden.

I'm mostly recovered from crashing my "Clunker Challenge" entry a few weeks ago and back to riding again while the nice weather holds. Weather usually changes abruptly to wet during the 1st or 2nd week of October, so I have a long list of projects to see me through the Winter months.

I've done no hunting or fishing for 2 years, but rescued a bird dog last September, and may get out a few times this Fall. Don

This will likely be my best year within the last 20. The weather conditions were favorable from January on. Personal stuff impacted the miles but I still expecting to exceed the previous best. The milage isn't much compared to some but greater than others, 3260+ YTD. Like some, the more miles make a huge difference in how you feel and your physical condition. If I miss more than 3 days, it hurts later.

There isn't much time left though, we are moving to Fredericksburg in mid November. Instead of commuting for 32+ round trip, the VRE train will cover more than the difference in miles. One of the options I am considering is getting a Brompton to ride to the station and get off early to ride the rest of the way to work. This option will still get me about 20 miles round trip. I can add to that by doing the Hanes Point loop. My other option is to join the local riding club that meets 4x a week.

Winter will be interesting with the new place having a 3rd garage with a ceiling that is tall enough to hang bikes above the garage door and no car to put in it! It will be my "shop." The other anticipated fun will be to explore more rural routes for biking. I did a fair amount when I lived in Aloha,OR traveling west. Lots of roads with no shoulders and narrow. I expect the same down there. The biggest difference will be the behavior of the drivers. I expect the worst. So for me, the question is, will I survive the winter? I have had 4 crashes since 2011 in DC, with minor to almost serious physical damage. No known broken bones but possible fractures. Getting older doesn't help either. Almost forgot the question!

I admire those who say its not the weather but the gear. I have been encroaching on getting the right stuff but haven't nailed it down yet. My RockHopper is my "Rain" bike but after relocation, the Trek 610 will likely replace it. That will be the winter project. So to answer the question, my rides are weather dependent. Rain in the morning is a no, afternoon is ok. Cold much below freezing is a no. Sun or darkness are not an issue.

You didn't ask, but other mentioned heat. Temperature or humidity don't deter me. I have ridden with an index of 103+, loosing 2lbs on one trip and survived fine.

i will easily break 3000mi again this year. my daily commute is pretty short, about 5 miles round trip but most of my grocery trips have been on the bike. having a trailer helps do a lot of things i used to need the car for. i even sometimes go to play music on my bike now. with the dynamo and decent lights it doesnt feel crazy to ride at night. i have snow studs but hate using them. i know i will have to though and thats ok. been a great year for me really. hope everyone else is doing well.

Tx, will do.

This was a great year for me. I was a team member with [MENTION=73614]rhm[/MENTION] in the E. PA Fleche and rode two other 200K's that were planned by the randonneuring grounp since and a 250K on my own. I feel fantastic and keep getting stronger combining cycling with other types of strength training. Right now I am at 4,200 miles which is a few hundred behind last year's mileage at the same point but I still commute every day throughout the year with the exception of days in which the roads are icy or snowy. Another new family member and the associated additional time commitments along with a long trip to Ireland this summer were great reasons for lower miles. Keep riding safely all.

One of the worst years for mileage goes for me, but the best in every other way. Work is going well, I met the woman of my dreams and we're engaged to be married next year!

For cycling, though, it is a far cry from last year. I trained all season last year for my first century at the Hotter than Hell 100 in Texas, and rode down into the 30s fairly regularly, ending the year with somewhere around 1500 miles.

This year has had only around 500 miles, with about 100 of those on a mountain bike, which is fairly new to me. Turns out that now I don't have the time anymore to put in bigger miles on the road bike.

Even though it is way too small for me, buying my Schwinn Passage and reading blogs from Jan Heine, Velo Orange, and others really rekindled my love for C&V steel bikes, so over the winter I am hoping to reshuffle my quiver of bikes, hopefully ending up with a fendered steel randonneur/light touring ride. I would love to try some of the southern Wisconsin brevets next year.

Finding this place has been eye opening, I haven't found a forum with a community like this in a long time. All of you seem to be a really great group.

Congratulations!

Yep, I've made a lot of new friends from BF. Some, just online, but many local ones that are now part of my regular "hey, wanna ride this Saturday?" list.

There's a thread with a similar theme in the Commuting subforum: What will you do differently this winter?

I'm a little bummed that I didn't reach the fitness and confidence I've had in previous years, but I'll keep plugging away into the winter and see what I can do about staying in shape and avoiding SAD.

I have a job, and I don't have a car, so I'll continue to commute by bike, regardless of the weather, unless the weather is nasty enough to justify staying home.

And I ride at least one century, or usually 200km, every month... this gets more difficult as weather changes, but the tipping point comes after Christmas. February can be a real challenge.

It has been an excellent year for me. I set some goals, and I have exceeded them. I'm about to hit my mileage goal for the year, and there are three months left to the year! September has been the biggest month for miles. I plan to be tougher against the weather this winter, though I think I will mostly avoid icy and snowy surfaces. I have to figure out how I want to handle cold rain, and that shouldn't be too hard. In below-freezing temperatures, I have to figure out how to keep my hands and feet warm. I have to wear SPD shoes, so that adds to that challenge. I have an excellent jacket and a ski helmet, so they help.

Thank you!

Looks like there are quite a few active users around the Chicago area, so I can only hope for the same.

Just keep your eyes peeled for show and ride posts, I'm amazed at minimal degrees of freedom I am from most anyone on this forum.

Tom,

I the winter time I wear a good pair of rain paints and high top waterproof shoes. High top is the key-you want the pants to overlap the shoe like shingles. If you wear low tops there'll be a gap, and cold rain will find it's way in there. Leg warmth can be adjusted by using knickers or tights underneath.

Chrome makes a nice pair of SPD compatible shoes. It's also available in non-SPD, for those like myself that commute using platform pedals.

If you use nice wool socks your feet may not be warm, but they won't be painfully cold. Last winter there were several days when I rode the 9 miles to work when it was raining pretty hard and in the low 30's, my feet were fine.

Hands are a different story. I think I have poor circulation in my hands. I've found that the best bet is to wear a set of gloves with a rainproof mitt over them for those really cold days.

+1 on all of this, especially the wool and the pant shoe overlap. I use PI CX shoe covers that work pretty good especially with wool which I use yearound. I use Paradox merino wool blend shirts over a cotton tshirt under a good rain shell with Castelli rain pants that are very thin, work good and are stretchy so you can hike them up if need be and is good into the 30's most of the time. Again wool is the key as most of us know, regulating can be the tricky part.

Winter isn't bad here, though I'm not going to ride in the cold rains. Actually, I don't ride in the rain, period, if I can help it, mostly because I don't like soaking my bikes. This year has been an exception for me. A combination of becoming bike obsessed last year (thanks to all the enablers here) and working from home has meant I have several bikes I like to ride, and I can ride almost any time I want. My goal this year was to do 2500 miles, after never having done more than about 600-700 probably, and I may end up hitting 3000. Unfortunately, there's a good chance I'll be taking a regular job in the near future, along with moving wherever I need to, and my fear is that this year's riding will end up being a fluke. I hope not, but I could easily see myself living somewhere less bike friendly, especially for commuting, and working a time consuming job. A sad thought indeed.

Thanks to those making rain gear suggestions. If I end up in a place with more rain than sunshine, I'll probably set up a bike just for bad weather, and I'll start gathering good rain gear.

That's the best plan, gear up! I didn't get through a full winter until I outfitted a dedicated rain bike, fenders, rack, Ortlieb waterproof panniers, lights, cameras, action, good to go. Now its a piece of cake when my heads in the game. Already had plenty of rain gear, but the bike was the lynchpin.

Our focus in 2017 has been one thing, getting in shape to hike to the bottom of the Grand Canyon. Our hike is mid November, then I can start thinking about bike stuff. In the meantime, everything is doing stairs (100 flights up and down) along with doing longer high elevation hikes. Fortunately, we are close to the Blue Ridge Parkway where we can do hikes at 6000 feet (but not 7300 feet like the south rim of the Grand Canyon).

I did this hike over 42 years ago......

Used in my Winter commuting days: Kinco 909 unlined, mesh back, pigskin gloves. Good to 30's (F). Also avail. lined, good down to sub zero. I started with the lined ones, but they were actually too warm/bulky most days. The old standby ragwool gloves/mittens are also excellent but not reflective. https://www.amazon.com/KINCO-909-L-U...%2Bgloves&th=1

[MENTION=381793]gugie[/MENTION] thanks for the shoe recommendation. It looks perfect, but I have to try it on. My feet are difficult to fit. I should be able to find a store here that carries them.

I used to not ride over the winter, but now I'm good to about 10 degrees if it's not windy. My toes start to freeze after about 2 hours seemingly at any temperature below 40 degrees. Not sure why.

Try some Neoprene Shoe Covers, aka Bike Booties. Don

It was a great riding season. My only disapointment was that there was no Cino in Montana. My tour to Colorado was pretty Cino though. Not sure when the rides will taper off. It's getting to the point where I don't really care to ride much when it gets cold or wet, that's when I start trail running (easier clean up). When winter comes, I'll be skiing.

2017 was my best season since I retired and I experienced a little bit of everything. Rode every bike I owned except the diminutive Colnago and the Alpina (the drillium display-only bike). Added a bike (the Medici) and I think this is one reason I got so much riding done - it's more laid-back and I can stretch out on it well. I picked it every time I was doing anything over 30 miles/with hills.

I had my first true crash in some 20 years, too. I suffered more from a tweaked tendon or something in my (r) knee afterwards, but I gave it a week off and it's been fine since. And just to prove that you're never to old to learn something new, I found out it's possible to over-hydrate today

Pretty happy with this year, tho I'm sorry to have missed out on a couple C&V rides in both Port Angeles and Portland. Next year!

DD