When I rode a motorcycle the last ride of the season was always pretty bittersweet. It was nice in a way, and I knew that putting the bike away for the winter made it easier to start on the annual maintenance as the weather got warmer in the spring but it still meant not being able to ride during the winter. Winter storage was part of the cycle of the riding year, and the mental break produced a change in mindset that made the return of the riding season so appealing. The annual motorcycle show here is always around Superbowl time, and by then most riders were anxiously awaiting the return of the riding season. I always liked seeing other riders sitting on the new bikes with the far away looks in their eyes as they dreamed of another year of riding.

Bicycling isn't like that in that I could ride outside all year if I wanted to, but I really don't have the desire/ability/space to ride all winter with parking indoors both at home and work and usually quit riding when the roads get too slippery or salty.

I may have had my last bicycle ride this year last night. It wasn't anything special as far as what happened then, but it was special because it may have been my last ride of the season. Depending on the salt/slime/slippery pavement I may or may not be done for the season, and there's really nothing different to do after that last ride like there was with the motorcycle as far as maintenance goes, especially since I'm not going to store the engine on the bicycle!

We've all got different criteria for ending the riding season, what's yours?

It does not end , out here , I just use a different bicycle.. have 1 with studded tires ..

grit/gravel, here, is spread on the roads when ice covered, not salt.


[ & I'm not commuting , I'm Retired]








...

Live in Cali, can’t relate :-D

i keep riding too but i must confess i generally think a little harder before i got out.

I still ride but volume goes down a lot; I ride maybe 1 day a week if the weather is nice and the roads are plowed. It's not a must and nobody forces you; but it's a good sniff of fresh outside air that's welcome And it's quite a challenge too.

I'll commute year-round unless there's snow or ice on the roads. We had one stretch of two whole weeks about 5-6 years back where I didn't feel safe with the (other) idiots in SUVs on the road. I think my wife was almost as anxious as I was for me to get back on the bike.


It makes a mess of the bike, and I'll lose half of one of the first good riding days in the spring cleaning everything up, re-lubing, re-cabling, etc., as needed.

My season never ends. I stop if there's enough snow or muck on the ground. I start again when it goes away. That's usually not more than a couple of days at a time; except for a serious blizzard, plows and salt make the roads rideable pretty quickly. Bike share helps, cause those bike are like tanks, and they get mucky, rather than my own. Temperature doesn't factor; I've commuted in 9 F weather, which is about as cold as it ever gets around here.

Ah! Winter bikes. I always had one. Now two. (Yes, I live in sorta winter Portland but I spent 27 of my first 33 in Boston or Ann Arbor. No car the first 30.)

After the snows it was winter bike only. Late March or early April the good bike came out on good days. In a few weeks, the winter bike's wheels got re-rimmed. (I rode tubulars year 'round, both bikes. The dark ages. Good clinchers didn't exist. By the end of winter those sewup rims were irregular polygons.

Early winter on the winter bike was fun! Rims were still round and the bike was a good ride. Roads weren't very potholed yet so while there might be stuff on the road, I didn't have to worry about the road itself. Now the game for me is different. I have an old geared bike that can handle anything for tires and is a dream ride on the big sticky Continental ice tires. Nowhere near as fast as my sewup-ed fix gear but then, I am 64 years old, not 24. Spills have much greater consequence (in part because it hurts so much to land on those old places yet again).

Funny, I had a medical emergency Sunday/Monday. Went to the ER at the orders of my primary care as the swelling in my leg could be a clot and potential killer. Ultrasound identified the issue as Baker's cyst. Therapy? Riding the bike! Yesterday I went for a 40 mile solstice ride. (The ride of the gentle sun.) My leg loved it and still does today. Seems I have orders to ride seriously this winter.

Ben

[MENTION=392125]79pmooney[/MENTION]: Thank you for sharing.

Ironic that therapy equals riding a bike, yeah. Keep riding, be safe, and ’njoy!

I'm done commuting for the year... I take off from Christmas to New Years Day. But if there's a sunny day between now and the 31st I'll try to get out and do a century around Eastern Long Island... just 'cuz.

I commute year round down to 10F and up to 3 inches of snow. After a two-decade creep up to 21F as my low, and no snow or ice, I first pushed my limit back down to 12, then bought studded snow and ice tires and then pushed down to 10F for good measure. This winter I may try down to 5F as I have learned to dress smarter.

But even before all my winter gear, there are enough warm, dry winter days in Colorado Springs that I have always ridden year round here with no more than a week off related to weather.

Today will be the latest in the year I've ever ridden. I'm a bit of a weather weenie, so cold and rain will stop me, especially when they come together.

I'm very fortunate to live in a city where seasonal changes are only variations in temperature. My "season" (whether bicycling or aerobic walking) never ends - I just dress more warmly. My city has a significant snow event only once every six years --

My last commute was mid September. I was kind of done with the bike, had ballooned up to 247lbs and was not feeling it. But, I went out for two last rides in October. One was a 70 mile round trip up our local HC. That was a great ride, and I was under my goal for the 13.4 mile 3,904 feet of climb segment by 13 minutes.


The second to last ride was a 103 mile ride into the next state.




We're at about a foot of snow so far for the year. I don't ride much in colder or even wet weather. So my commute season is late March to early October. Last winter we had well over 60" of snow. It was a long winter. This year I'm following a structured training plan and have been on the trainer since November 6th. I'll be on the trainer until the end of March or maybe a little earlier depending on the snow and cold. Hope it's earlier.


Anyway, I like to do an "end of season" ride. It always feels good. However nothing beats that first ride outside with a bit of sunshine after 3-4 months in the house. It's amazing! Like the last day of school. I would not want to miss out on that feeling.

My last bike to work was a month ago yesterday! Time flies.... I last rode on Saturday - 6 days ago. Yikes! Must be Winter. I am usually able to get out for a ride occasionally during the Dark Months.
Rode to work year-round when I lived in Atlanta but that was several decades ago.

That first ride of the season is one of my favorites too. I may have to wait a while for the second ride, but the first ride is always very special to me.