I usually quit commuting for the year when the streets get too slick for regular tires, and I've been wondering how many more commutes I'll have this year. The weather forecast is already mentioning snow and ice, and it just makes these rides a little more interesting knowing that it may be the last one for a few months - and that I can put off the winter maintenance just a little longer.

I'm not planning to stop, so hopefully even with some light snow I can continue. I've studded tires, but more than a few cm of snow is going to be tough.

I usually stay home for my kids' winter break, but this year, at 11-almost-12 and 15, they are on their own, so I am in it to the end. I do have studded tires but peak black-ice is February for some reason.

THere's less than 20 work days left for the year...then a whole new year starts!

I'm not in your city, Im right on the coast so I have no reason to stop (other than I'm Retired so Dont Have to be anywhere every day)

But The Pub to socialize



Slow but steady, for Ice on the street, [It happens at sea level] I have a Bike with Studded Tires..

I say put some studded tires on that Hardrock and keep on ridding.

I've got an old Rockhopper setup as my winter bike that I'll ride for the next four months.

I switched to it this morning and plan on going as long as possible. The last few years I don't think I missed more than a dozen days because of the weather[IMG]https://i.imgur.com/010vP6w.jpg?1[/IMG]

I find that streets never get too slick for regular tires. If cars aren't sliding all over the place, a bike won't either.

Planning to continue commuting through December. It never rains in California so no reason to let weather stop me from pedaling back and forth to work.

LOL!

i see that you've never tasted black ice.

it's ok, i had to learn the hard way too.

I grew up in Chicago. Then I lived in Iowa for 12 years. Midwest winters are friggin' cold and snow packs down to ice that stays on the ground for-evah. I ride year-round in Colorado Springs, but it is warmer and drier than Chicago with less snow that disappears quickly...well most winters.

I spent over a dozen winters biking in Canada (including a short stint as a bike messenger), and rode over stuff that I could barely walk on because it was too slippery. As long as you don't brake or turn on it, the bike stays upright.

How many more days this year?

One enjoyable aspect of December riding (commuting in my case through light commercial and residential neighborhoods), are the Christmas lights. Though I do not ride in Rochester,MI, FYA these are some of the most spectacular I have seen.

I'm a bit conflicted on what to do for tires.

I bought an old Trek 850 to use as a winter bike, that I haven't actually commuted on yet. It's got standard MB knobbies on it, one good, one a bit worn. Not sure if I should just leave them, or get commuter slicks like maybe Schwalb Marathons or something similar, or studded tires.

Meeting a carpool at work at 5:30 on Tuesday am, not sure I will bike for that.

During my first year of winter bike commuting in chicago 8 years ago, I took two spills from black ice rolling on regular road tires, the 2nd one resulting in a wrist injury that kept me off the bike for the rest of that winter.

Then I got wise to studded tires. No ice spills since then. That's the funny thing about studded tires; you will never ever need them until you actually do.

Your point is well taken. I do understand there is a degree of danger to winter cycling; however, there is a degree of danger to any activity (including cycling under any weather conditions), and it's only a matter of which degree we find acceptable. To me winter biking without studded tires is acceptable. Given that you had two black-ice-induced spills in one winter and I had zero in over twelve winters, I suspect there are enough differences between our situations to result in appreciable difference in the degree of danger. Perhaps Toronto roads are cleared better (is salt used in Chicago, and is it piled on as thickly as in Toronto?), or my winter riding style is more conservative.


I also realize that now that I've said this, I will have a catastrophic ice-related crash this coming winter because Murphy's law.

And I think I'm done as of Saturday.