ThermionicScott 

Even with the cold and snow of February, I had a great winter commuting season. Perhaps my best yet.

Things I'm considering for next winter: more layers so that I can spend more time commuting below 10-15°F, and possibly getting a cheap fat bike for those days when there is still a lot of thick snow on the ground. I've been resisting buying more bikes and accoutrements, but a fat bike would genuinely allow me to ride more days of the year.

Wilbur Bud

It was the normal winter, cold, slow, windy. Change out the tires and pedals at Thanksgiving, and somewhere end of January start to feel tired of it and wish for mid-March when I normally switch back to regular tires and pedals.

But, one new discovery for me as I'm always moaning and whining to my office mates about how winter brings a wind shift that's detrimental to me as I'm riding almost due west most of the morning ride into work (my commute has a 10 mile component east to west and 3 miles north to south), and as morning is typically a bit colder and I'm a bit less awake, it tends to make winter travel to work take an incredibly long time sometimes, just when you least want it to take a long time. Due to wanting to be justified in my complaining, I found some historical wind summary charts on Wind history map and you can pick your local weather station (I used Indianapolis Airport, KIND) and also look month by month using the little wheel of months at the bottom center of each chart.


August in Indianapolis is relatively calm and uniform for wind direction:


February in Indianapolis has stronger winds (maybe 5 knots more on average) and biased from the west ! So I'm not imagining my pain.

mcours2006

Thanks for sharing, folks. I thoroughly enjoyed reading your responses. It's nice that we can all commiserate like this about our trials and brag about our accomplishments. Yeah, some of you will say that it's no big deal, that you do what you have to do, but I still think it's quite the feat to be able to consistently get on that saddle and ride, whether or not you feel like it, let alone doing it when it's -20.

Congratulations to all of you.

Now, let's say a collective sayonara to winter. Good riddance. Bring on spring!!!

wolfchild

This has been my 8th winter and as usual everything went very well.

Jim from Boston

I posted my own personal chronicle of this historic winter in Boston to our local Metro Boston BF thread:

bikemig 

There are some threads where people are a bit skeptical about whether fat bikes help as much as is claimed with riding in the snow. I tend to think that a fat bike should help in really crummy conditions plus they look fun. Clothes can really can make a difference. I rode all winter and a few new pieces made all the difference.

El Cid

I rode all winter, like usual. Actually, February was the best part of the season, with a few weeks of good riding days out at the Hydrocut (my local trail system).

I used studded Nicotene tires for the first time, both commuting and on the trails, and they really impressed me.

This wet season is my least favourite part of the year -- I'll be away from the trails for at least a couple months before it gets hot and dry.

All in all my winter commute is pretty easy, but the daily dose of road salt leaves my bike nearly disintegrated at the bottom. I'll be in for another big maintenance bill this April.

Daniel4

It had been my first winter commuting and it was great. I learned the proper clothing to wear. Even at -20C you still can be overdressed. I only missed a few days because I can’t ride through 5cm of fresh snow. Wait a few days for it to pack down. If the snow is still too deep in my regular route, there’s an alternate. It takes some skill to stay balanced in the narrow snow trenches cut by pedestrians. Don’t’ take your feet off the pedal and keep moving. So after you’ve mastered riding through bumpy packed snow and ice the next challenge was when they started melting. Now it’s that you can’t cut through 5cm of slush and you end up walking your bike again.

It’s been a great winter. I’m excited for the next winter.

Archwhorides 

Great topic!

Boston was a fun challenge this year - I rode the bus only a few days during the heaviest snowfall period, and had fun optimizing my gear to the conditions. There is not a lot of difference between winter commuting and back country skiing in terms of layering and warmth, so the cold and wind were a non-issue for me. My ride setup with an 8 speed IGH and carbon belt would have been perfect if my fenders could accommodate fatter studded tires for the snow (35mm vs. the 28mm that actually fit); I'll have to decide next year whether to replace those beautiful fenders with something more practical or not.

baron von trail 

I shut it down from Christmas until mid-March, Stuck to riding the trainer and watching videos. Problem is more or less snow and ice on the ground, and the 55-60 mile round trip commute requires speed. It's not a commute friendly to 10 mph on fat tires and a ton of gear.

ThermionicScott 

Yeah, I was able to resist buying one this season. It may be up to confidence as much as anything -- when there are a few inches of mashed potato snow, or when that snow develops ruts and freezes into ice, I start worrying about losing all momentum or catching a rut just wrong and going down. It seems like 4" tires at ~10psi could tackle that stuff with a lot more impunity than my 1.95" tires. A Walgoose Dolomite is something like $200 new, so I'll save up my pennies and go for one next winter.

AlTheKiller

It was a tough winter. Because as I sat through day after day of perfect temperature and humidity, and no rain, all I knew was that this upcoming summer will SUCK.

greg3rd48 

It was great until January 23rd when the true winter hit NYC. I just was not prepared for all of the snow and ice. Yesterday, March 31st was my entrance back into commuting by bike and it felt great despite the wet ride home.

KenshiBiker

I live in California - I'm barely worthy to read this thread, let alone post here, but here goes anyway. This was my second full "winter" of commuting. As DarthLefty mentioned, it was a mild winter: more rain than last year, but not as many days in the 30s. In fact, since I have trouble with my feet getting uncomfortably cold, I gave in and bought a pair of Lake winter boots last fall, but the weather this year was so (relatively) mild I never wore them once (there were a couple of days I wished I had, but I forgot I had them until I was almost to work).

As far as commute days: I work a 9-80 schedule, so I have every other Friday off. Mondays and Thursdays I have after-work commitments that involve hauling an inordinate amount of gear with me, so no bike commuting on those days; so that leaves Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and every other Friday for bike commuting. In the past two winters, I can only recall one or two Fridays each year that I didn't bike commute; I don't recall missing any Tuesday or Wednesday bike commutes (unless it was a vacation, holiday, or I was traveling out of town). For more exact detail, I'd need to look it up.

noglider 

In many ways, it went well. But that's not to say it was easy. I started my current job in early December. My route is along the very windy Hudson River, and wind chill temperatures there seem quite a bit below what the weather service reports. My goal was to get at least a little tougher. I rode my bike once a week throughout the winter except I think I took two or three weeks off in the middle of it. I learned about riding on a snow covered surface and even started a thread about that in the Winter Cycling section. I coped by using cyclocross tires. I also learned that cyclocross tires, while excellent in many types of snow, are useless on ice. Other tires are also useless on ice unless they are studded. I might get studded tires for next winter. I found good mittens, and they are roomy enough for me to wear gloves under on the worst days. I have not found cycling shoes that are good for winter, but my boot-like shoes are pretty good, largely because the toe box is oversized. Wiggling my toes consciously is a partial solution to cold feet on the bike.

devianb

Hated it. Unplowed streets made me work harder. Icy roads at night made me paranoid so I would ride really slow. Hands forever cold. I didn't clean and lube my drivetrain regularly and thus my chain, cog, and chainring prematurely wore out.

Scummer

Well... I came back from my family visit in the US and the first commute on January 7th I spilled on black ice on a left turn. That put the start of my 2015 commuting on the right track.
Then sometime in late January there was a total whiteout with such hefty cross winds that I got blown off the bike path, because the snow on the ground made the ride a tad bit difficult.

Regardless, I still commuted almost every day until I got sick end of February with the flu... that sucked. 3 weeks of almost no riding.

And today... it snowed again, but i still got 20 miles in. Can't wait for summer.

bikemig 

I have 2 bikes set up permanently as commuters so I never have to worry about down time if one of the bike has a mechanical issue.

In the winter, I set them both up with winter tires. I use studded tires on one for the really gnarly days. I use continental winter contact tires for all the other days. They're very good tires and work well when dealing with mix of clear pavement with a few snowy/icy patches which is pretty common in the winter.

wphamilton

I almost hate to say it considering the trials and tribulations suffered by most, but this was the easiest winter in recent memory here in Georgia. I didn't skip any commuting days, no sliding around on ice or slogging through snow, and most of the time I just used my regular road bike.

bloomrae

I'm at 50% for the year; 32/64 commutes. I'm just behind last year's 40/64 as of April 1 and I'm about 100 miles off last year's mileage total to date. I told my son just the other day that someday he'll be able to track the climate change through my bike mileage journal.
I don't have studded tires and I'm not in a bike friendly area. I rode when I could and that often meant riding in 0 degrees because the roads were dry. Whenever it warmed up (20 degrees was warm) it seemed to snow.
The only real change (aside from layers) that I made for the winter was to use platform pedals and wear boots. I could have benefited from the platforms yesterday when the ride home was through a very heavy snow (my snow crusted helmet from yesterday).

I'm totally over the winter crap and I really do need to stop talking about it and just get studded tires on one of the spare bikes!

tclune

We had a somewhat snowier and colder winter than usual. The good news is that the city plowed the bike path better than usual because of that: the bad news is the roads got very pot-holed and are not yet fixed.

Gresp15C

This was my first winter of bike commuting. Weather was unusually mild in this area -- not very cold, and very little snow. I skipped a couple of cold weeks, the first due to being off work at the end of December, and the second due to catching the flu right after the New Year. Other than that, I gave myself a reprieve on one day when it was well below zero, and had some days of "excused" car use due to family schedule complexities.

Since this was my first experience with real winter commuting, I learned a lot about about what clothing I need for different conditions, and how to configure my bike. So it was useful even if it wasn't heroic. I gradually let myself try colder temperatures, and had a couple of decent rides at roughly -10 F. That's kinda where I have to begin thinking about my safety if the bike breaks down and I have to hoof it.

I've shown the bike before, but it's pretty boring: An entry level Gary Fisher rigid steel mountain frame, 26" wheels with Nokian 160 studded tires, fenders, rack, basket, kick stand. I installed a taller stem and swept handlebars. This "cockpit" is a necessity because I can't reach drops any more, and straight bars pound the hell out of my wrists.

There were relatively few days when I strictly needed the studs, but the weather is unpredictable around here, from morning to evening. It helps me get motivated to take the bike out in the morning, if I know that I can get home in the evening, no matter what happens to the weather. This is true in the summer as well. The carbide studs have shown no visible wear so far.

After a few weeks, I was cleaning things up, and noticed that the FD was really getting full of crud, plus I had not shifted it at all. So the bike is now a 1x7 with the chain on the middle front ring. It's not highly geared, but I'm not highly fast. I might see about replacing the larger ring with some sort of plain disc to protect my snow pants.

Clothing: LL Bean hooded ski jacket -- the hood can go over my helmet. Wind proof hat under the helmet. Fleece muffler. Wool sweater under the jacket if it's super cold. Waterproof ski mittens -- my shifter is thumb actuated. Baggy Columbia snow pants. Extra layer of socks if needed. Leather boots. I also have a ski helmet and goggles with clear lenses if it's super cold.

I'm middle aged and quite un-athletic, riding an inexpensive bike, so this should serve as encouragement to anybody who is thinking of riding through the winter.

Jim from Boston

Nice story, and welcome to the world of winter riding. My impression is that upper midwest winters (e.g. Wisconsin) are more severe than Boston (I'm originally from Detroit, and the winters seem similar, though this year in Boston was historic).

I perennially make this request of winter riding stories:

locolobo13 

Usually there are 2-3 mornings of just under freezing on my morning commute. The mornings were there but as I was on vacation I waited until afternoon to ride. The coldest I rode into work was about 35°F.

Gresp15C

Ah, good point. My commute is about 8.5 miles round trip, on mostly level ground, either tame residential streets or MUP that gets plowed during the winter. They plow it pretty soon after each snow, using a narrow little machine that they also use for sidewalks around city parks.

I'm from a suburb just south of Detroit.