I have experienced snow, but not for the past 11 years--low fifties is the coldest. I reach for a sweater when the temp drops into the low 80s. And yes, winter riding is upon us, and I am very happy for that! I'll be in northern Ohio for Thanksgiving, though, and have already ordered a jacket and knee warmers, and bought some long johns.

I'm in south California but seriously, my ears hurt when I ride in cold weather ( below 70). Any sugestion to protect, cover my ears? Must be something thin!.

You call below 70 cold weather? I'm sorry, I'm finding it hard to relate to that. Compared with places like Minnesota, NJ has wimpy winters, but I've never heard below 70 called cold. Even my wimpy aunt in San Diego wouldn't say that. She calls 50 cold.

Sorry.

I think the 30's, 40's are when it gets cold here in AZ,
to get me through the winter I have wool tights and a wool top as a baselayer and then my riding pants which are hemmed up dickies, and a jacket.
and topped of with a beanie and gloves.

I have noticed people running and bicycling in jackets already. Im still wearing a tshirt and shorts.

I wear a really thin fleece beanie under my helmet when I ride. I might have gotten it at Old Navy or Target.

I don't need it until it is below 40F, and even then it can be hot in the upper 30s. I like the fleece because it is not very tight. I find the tight beanies uncomfortable.

Tom, no need to go all NYC on Uyle. ;) It's a good question and if he's cold below 70F, best he stays in southern CA. :roflmao2:

Time for another snow cycling picture? :innocent: The windows above the snow pile are on my second floor, so yes, the pile is that big.

http://i125.photobucket.com/albums/p...cleFeb2008.jpg

Mike needs to show us some South Florida winter riding pictures. :p

It was 7 degrees(F) at my house this morning.

I wonder about something like this:

http://cozywinters.com/shopping/grap...ar-Mitts_B.jpg
http://cozywinters.com/shop/bar-mitt...zmap=Bar-Mitts

that actually looks pretty sweet! the red looks a bit lobster like, but functionality wise it seems pretty good. i used to live on northern california (sonoma county), i know its not -0 degree weather, but still it gets icy on the regular during the winter and it can make your knuckles feel like rusty hinges. i dont particularly like wearing gloves so these seem perfect for my taste. Too bad they dont have something to match dark brown or honey leather:p

When I had my paper-route in Wisconsin, I had clothes I wouldn't wear unless it was below 0 F, because it was too warm to wear. Two pair of wool mittens with leather outers was on my hands, two wool scarves, one around my neck, one around my mouth and nose (over a army surplus winter mask), a wool USNavy watch cap, hood over that....layers and layers and layers. When you are biking at 20 below....it DOES get chilly!

i have a schmidt generator hub that powers an electric blanket i drape overmyself

Yeah, well, silliness aside, there actually are people who do long rides in all seasons, and not just so they can post about it on the internet. On such rides it can be a challenge to keep your extremities --hands and feet, sometimes face and ears-- warm.

In contrast there are plenty of people who don't want to be outside unless it's "nice" out. They are missing out on something. But that's not my problem.

I'll ride down to -15F I have a fleece lined bellaclava (sp?) and wear ski goggles. I also have a merino hat as another layer. You don't need those handlebar covers with big expedition mitts, but then I ride a single speed at those temps so there are no shifters to fiddle with.

Genius!

I ridden have at -40 and beyond and seem fine still to be.

This blows my mind. My hubs feel like they have glue in them at -10.. I took my studs off last night as there isn't enough snow out there yet and felt I was ruining them. Spinning the hubs they have a ton of resistance. What kind of grease do you use for your winter steeds. I repacked my girlfriend's hubs with Motorex white grease this fall and they seem better than mine. I even mixed in a drop of phil wood tenacious oil in the rear to thin it out a bit.

I am thinking dura-ace special freehub grease all around would be awesome, but damn expensive.

I usually run a three speed IGH with synthetic oil which runs very smoothly at normal and fairly extreme winter temperatures... it has only been when I have ridden at -52F that things started to get a little sluggish and skippy and that was with my extracycle which has synthetic grease in the hub and freehub body.

-52F, huh? Do you think you might hold the world's record for coldest cycling? I don't think I've ever experienced anything below -10F.

I don't think so... I did that a few years back when we set the record for being the coldest place on earth save for some weather station in Siberia.

After winter riding for so many years there is not really any weather here that can keep me off a bike... I am equipped for extremes and our typical winter weather is not this bad although I have ridden through weeks of cold snaps where one would see -35 to -40 for long periods of time.

Winnipeg gets harsher weather and longer cold snaps... I tip my toque to those folks.

Sounds like my kind of place! How are the real estate prices there?:eek::cry::twitchy:

Is this you by any chance?:winter2::D

-52f? that happens?

Guess it was 2009... it was -46.1C and -58.4C with the windchill which translates to -51F / -73F... (with a corrected conversion).

http://www.edmontonsun.com/news/edmo.../12141366.html

If you read the article you will see how quickly our weather can change... a few days later it was almost warm enough to be wearing shorts.

At these temps you do not expose a mm of flesh.

Because of the booming economy, real estate prices are relatively high although they are probably cheap compared to New York.

Whitehorse is through the roof. A small townhouse duplex goes for $400K!

Can you recommend a brand? Or any synthetic grease? I will likely use motorex 2000 synthetic (the green stuff), but I would think that at -20 even that grease would be a little thick.

It doesn't get that cold here in New Jersey, but it still gets cold to freeze your water bottle solid in an hour. When we talk about how cold it is, we should also talk about how long we're out there. If you're going to be out for more than an hour or two you need some serious insulation around the hands and feet, because they will just get colder and colder the longer you're out there.

I get tubes of commercial synthetic grease from Shell... am stocked up for the rest of my life here.

Any decent synthetic bearing grease will do the job... thing about synthetics is that keep a stable viscosity through a very wide temperature range.

Same applies to cars where regular oil becomes tar at extreme temperature while synthetic oils do not... this make a huge difference when you are starting a car in very cold weather as it turns easier and the oil does not have to warm up.

I use "Moose Mitts" here in Illinois to help get through the winter.
Not a ton of snow where I live but the wind is always blowing, the wind turbine electric generators are always going.
Nothing to stop or block the wind once the corn and beans are harvested.
http://allseasonscyclist.files.wordp...ng-2.jpg?w=645
These work great as I suffer from a mild form of "Raynaud's syndrome" and need to be careful.
Gloves and "Moose Mitts" and I am ready to go.

When you get used to 110 in the summertime, and are out riding daily when it's over 100, then 70 is quite cold. 50 is frigid!

I use Cabela's Guide Gear gloves, they're water/windproof and keep my hands warm down to about -15 Fahr.

This is an annoying time of year in that I find the 35-50 degree range very hard to dress for. It's a little warm for actual winter gear but too chilly for the lightweight stuff. I compromise with thin longies under basketball shorts, a cashmere V-neck sweater with a T-shirt over it, and a Duluth Trading Post pocketed vest over that, which usually stays unzipped. Footwear is usually my Adidas hikers, and I'm still working on a glove solution.

I do treasure my subzero midnight rides. It's so quiet.

Well, if it drops to 70 in a day, yes. But we had 110 last summer, and it wasn't much different from 100 which we get almost every summer. Sounds like Yucatan gets a smaller range of temperatures than the northeast does. And I know southern California does.