I rode bike to work today. My records of riding show that before today, the last time I rode to work was on Monday of last week. So 8 days ago, really? I guess so.

I find that I get a fair bit of exercise when I don't commute by bike because the half-mile walk between home and the subway station takes me a few minutes and I walk very briskly. Then I have a lot of stairs to climb when I get out of the subway. Then with either mode, I have a lot of stairs to climb at work, as I work on the 5th floor, and we have no elevator. So either way, I get exercise. Today I noticed it's more "even" on the bike, i.e. no bursts of energy to climb stairs until I get to the building. Of course, the vigor of the commute is largely in my control. I could do it gently, but I don't since I think that overall, I don't have enough exercise in my life.

I'm starting to see that the interior of the school is vastly overheated and I need to rethink what I wear. Many of the teachers wear just a t-shirt inside, and I see why. I've been wearing a wool t-shirt as an undershirt and then a dress shirt on top of that. Dress shirts are not cool. Maybe I should switch to polo shirts. I just don't feel comfortable wearing a t-shirt to a job, any job. Maybe I need to get over that. But the last two days have been hard with the overheating. It's a very old building with steam heat. I don't understand steam heat well but apparently, it can't react quickly to a thermostat. I guess efficiency goes down when it goes off and on. So buildings with steam heat tend to be overheated.

As predicted, it rained on my trip home. And why should I care? I was wearing my hiking boots which turn out to be fine for bike commuting. My winter coat is overkill but it has "pit zips" to help me prevent overheating. As I was riding, I was pleased to discover once again that riding in the rain isn't always unpleasant. I rather enjoyed it, especially since the bike routes I took were slightly less busy. Some clearly opted to travel by other modes, but around here, it never goes to zero people on bike paths.

This morning it wasn't freezing cold (6°C ~ 43F) but it rained the whole trip to work. I did wear shoe covers, so my feet stayed dry (knees and shins, on the other hand, didn't). Oh yeah, I had another flat, this time closer to work - maybe a kilometer - so I pushed. My guess is that day before yesterday, because my fingers were numb from cold, I missed something sharp inside the tire and it, whatever it was, laughed at me this morning. I didn't think it was funny.
I am fully expecting something very nice to happen in return, one of these days, preferably tomorrow. Yes, I know what jinx is, but I am stubborn.

Zesty wind today!

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 2247:

Yesterday was interesting, so I'll start my story there. It began with a fairly uneventful ride to work with the temp at 40°F and a light headwind. I took the road bike as I had a 22+ mile day scheduled. Bad weather was predicted for northeastern South Dakota, but Sioux Falls only had a 15% chance of getting any precipitation.

I worked the morning from the office, and then after my lunch meeting took off to ride 10 miles to a client. The easiest way to get to this client is to hop on the MUP about 2 miles from our office, then ride the trail downtown and get off about 1/2 mile from the client. It's not the most direct route, as it makes a bit of a "J" shape. However, it's a very flat route and avoids the hills and stoplights that the more direct route through town involves. So by taking the MUP I wind up riding about 2 miles further, but it usually takes me the same amount of time or less.

When I left the office to head to the client, it was still 40°F, but the wind had picked up and there was now a wind advisory in effect. The wind was blowing at a constant 30 mph with gusts breaking 60 mph. For the first 2/3rds of the ride the wind was at my back and gave me a good push. As I rode, the temps started to drop and rain started to fall. I reached the portion of the ride where I made the turn and started fighting the fierce wind, and the rain was pelting my face. It appears that the storm system was reaching farther south than predicted.

About 2 miles from the client's office, I went over a bump and got that familiar feeling of a rim bottoming out on the tire. I pulled over and felt my rear tire. As I suspected, it was flat. Rats. The temp was now in the mid-30s and I wasn't all that interested in sitting on the cold, wet ground in the wind and rain as I attempted to swap tubes. So I walked my bike the remaining two miles to the client. It's hard to keep a decent walking pace wearing bike shoes.

Once indoors at the client I pulled the old tube out and found a little piece of glass stuck in the tire. When I get a flat it's rare I find the actual offender that created the puncture, so it was nice this time to have visible confirmation that the foreign object was removed from the tire. After I pumped up the tire, I unscrewed the the pump head from the valve stem and all the air came back out of the tire. What the...?

It turns out in my brand new tube the presta valve head wasn't installed very tight at the factory and when I removed the pump head it unscrewed the valve with it. I didn't have a valve tool with me, so I put the presta valve back in as tight as I could with my fingers. Then I reinflated the tire and carefully removed the pump head. The presta valve still was wanting to unscrew, but after a few tries eventually I got the pump head off while there was still some air in the tire. It was only about 50 PSI, but I figured that was probably enough to get me home at the end of the day, and then I could tighten the valve and properly inflate the tire before the next ride.

After work I rode directly to the Sioux Falls Orpheum Theater to do a dress rehearsal for the production I'm currently a part of. It was only a couple of blocks from the client, but the wind was fierce and the temp was now below freezing. Snow was starting to fall and the wet pavement was starting to ice. About 10 miles north of the city they were getting blizzard conditions. I started to think I made a grave tactical error by taking the road bike that morning.

The wind could be heard howling inside the theater as we performed. We finished up the dress rehearsal and I left the theater at 10:30 PM. The temp was now 28°F and the wind was blowing even harder than it was before. There was lots of ice patches from the earlier rain that was now frozen. Snow was collecting in the grassy areas, but thankfully wasn't accumulating in a significant way. I wasn't looking forward to the skinny road bike tires versus the ice.

I contemplated making the "call of shame" to have my son come and pick me up. Or perhaps have another cast member give me a ride. I decided to suck it up and just go slow.

Well, going slow didn't work out that well. The tail wind was so extreme that even coasting I would maintain 12 mph. Any pedaling at all would boost my speed to 17-18 mph. I did my best to dodge the ice patches that would suddenly appear in front of me in the dark. Also, the wind had taken down some tree branches and a few of them appeared in my headlight requiring evasive maneuvers. In the end, I managed to make it the 4 miles home without incident, and even did a "victory lap" on our cul-de-sac before I opened the garage door.

This morning the temp was 26°F and the wind was still blowing hard, but not quite as hard as the previous night. 20mph steady with gusts in the 30-40 mph range. I was returning to the same client as yesterday afternoon, which meant I had to ride straight into this wind.

The good news was, with the wind blowing that hard all night, most of the ice had evaporated. Even though there was snow on the ground, the pavement was fairly clear. I decided to take the road bike again as that would help me fight the wind. Before I left the house I tightened the presta valve and properly inflated the tire. I also remembered to put a new spare tube in my backpack just in case I had a repeat of the flat.

This morning's ride was slow going, with my speeds usually in the 9-10 mph range. My exposed face took the brunt of the wind, with the wind chill in the single digits. However, I made it to the office without any incidents, and then warmed myself up with a hot shower.

cyclomath, where are you? Is that kind of weather unusual in your area? If you're interested, you can toughen yourself up to wintery weather, for whatever you find to be wintery. There is a winter cycling section of bikeforums where we share tips and stories. I rarely enjoy cold weather cycling as much as warm weather cycling, but I prefer cold weather cycling to not cycling at all. And sometimes when things are tough, I get a nice feeling of triumph when a ride is over.

I find that when the temperature is below 50ºF (10ºC), I need full fingered gloves. In fact, one tip I learned from that winter section is to keep a spreadsheet so I can recall what works in which conditions. I don't use it often, but using it occasionally helps when the season changes. I record date, the conditions, what I wore, and how well it worked.

That is my experience with my commute routes. The most direct surface street route is 6 miles, the MUP is 8 miles but the times are similar...at least going in to work...slighty downhill.

With my main commuter on the disabled list, I chose to ride my 20" Dahon Boardwalk folder. It's got fenders and a rack and with the mini bull bars the position is perfect.

It was 23F when I left and 24F when I arrived at work. I dressed right, but my fingers were becoming cold. My winter gloves have no padding, and the folder has none of the cushy pipe insulation I have on the other bikes (except the 16" folder). When I ride in the position that is like riding on the drops there is no more pressure on my hands than on the other bikes. And when I do "eagle claws" on the bullhorn bar ends there is no pressure. Best I can figure is it's a matter of wrist angle.

I fought a light but very cold headwind on the trail to trail route. I slowed under the last underpass where my fender mount came off the night before. There was so much trash and pieces of burnt, black charred wood I could never possibly find it, especially if it ended up in the large rocks.

After so many days of working late, I was able to leave at 1:30p. I could have left at noon, but wanted to enjoy lunch alone at my desk. I again slowed and scanned the underpass without luck.

I had adjusted the front brake cable before leaving, since it was taking a longer squeeze to grab the brakes and the adjustment barrel was at its end. Even though the wheel turned freely when lifted off the ground, on the road it seemed like it was rubbing or dragging. I loosened the barrel adjust a few times until finally it felt free while riding. I suppose there is some sort of flex or perhaps tire interference when weight is put on it. I didn't hear anything, but my hearing ain't what it used to be.

It was 52F for the ride home under clear sunny skies. I took the trails home and there were some cyclists, walkers and joggers. About two thirds of the way home there was a jogger coming towards me from across an intersection. We both slowed to check for cross traffic when he called out, "Hey, Bob!" It was a co-worker, a features reporter for the TV station. I reflexively called out, "Hey, Bradley!". Luckily that was his name.

After I reached the house I went through my parts collection in the shed. I just knew I had a spare breakaway fender mount for the SKS longboards, but I couldn't find it. So I drove over to the bike co-op and immediately found one in the fender bins. I asked the manager how much and he said it's not worth the effort to ring it up. I see on line the SKS Secu Clip Safety clip is marked down to $5.69 from $6.99 for "Black Friday" but then there's shipping costs and the wait. But free and "right now" is better. I'll have to remake the custom dog-leg mount for it, but I have plenty of accessory mounts like the one I used before.

Sometimes it pays to be a pack rat. Being an organized pack rat would be even better, but at this stage of the game, I don't think it would be worth the effort. I'm very organized at work and with life's important adult things, I think the messy "carefree" vibe to my cycling helps keep it enjoyable.

Hello noglider (or Tom)!
I am in Serbia, the Balkans, southeastern Europe. We have all four seasons here, so pretty much every kind of weather is common - similar to NYC, minus the blizzards (it is just a bit milder here).
I am used to riding in cold and heat but prefer cold to hot weather. As there are no cycling paths in the part of the city where I live and commute (Belgrade, the capital), I ride with traffic, so getting sprayed by both passing and oncoming vehicles when it rains is something I have gotten used to. I do have appropriate clothes too, and also my office at work where I can change and dry my clothes and shoes.
It wasn't supposed to rain that hard yesterday morning. There was only a light drizzle when I left home, but that changed quickly and I didn't have the rain pants on. I did have gloves and everything else, but changing tires with gloves on is harder than without them, especially if you have to deal with the Marathons (not easy to take off and put back on even with levers) and it's harder when it's cold and you are wet.

It wind up being OK with that wind. I had a nice tail wind for half of the commute into work, and then a zesty crosswind. I did that leg of the commute unpowered.

The ride home was about as expected; fighting the wind, but I turned on the warp drive on the E bike, so not a big deal. I made a stop at the grocery store on the way home, which led to my hands being very cold as I packed things up.

It’s still super windy today, I probably will not get a ride in though, so it doesn’t matter.

No work Friday; I hope I can get a ride in before the deep snow comes on Saturday. We’re supposed to get at least 3 inches maybe as much as eight.

Didn't go to to work today. But I did reattach my fender mount with the same style plastic blinkie piece I used 10 years ago.

Left to "Fend" for Myself...

2025:

(The fender struts on 2015 were wavy because originally I had to do that to go around the disc brake. Originally I used the SKS spacer that pushed the struts outward, but that looked unsleek to me. Shortly after the 2015 photo I replaced the curvy struts with the straight ones I still have on the bike.

Saturday, we had our second proper snow storm of the year. About a foot of snow each time, but last time, it went up into the upper 50s (°F) for several days after the storm, so I could be a bit lazy and let a lot of the snow melt. This time, we're going to have below freezing temperatures for at least a week, so I spent 2-1/2 hours clearing the driveway and sidewalk yesterday. I turned on my Garmin watch and that was my cardio for the day; 668 calories! Neighbor let me borrow his fancy 2-stage snowblower, which didn't really work better than my plug-in electric one. Instead of wrangling a super-light electric snowblower but with a cord that's often in the way, I wrangled a multi-hundred pound gas snow blower with no cord. The calories I counted were not from the snow-blowing, but from the manual shoveling I did at the base of the driveway, where the plows pile it up.

Anyway, I moved bikes around in the garage and lined up the eFatty in pole position. I set the tire pressure to 12 psi and rode in unpowered this morning. It was a proper little workout. Near a busy intersection adjacent to my work property, I went up on the sidewalk, which quickly deteriorated. There is a 15' high pile of snow from them plowing the parking lot. They use a LOT of salt on the parking lot, so some of that snow melted, went downhill to the sidewalk and turned into a sheet of ice there. Road was fine, sidewalk was awful; I almost went down there, while WALKING the bike. I'll be staying on the street from now on, unless until I've confirmed the sidewalk is not icy.

I'm also getting to the point of the year in which colleagues are asking me: "You RODE to work today!?" → "Yep." I try to sound nonchalant, so that it can be normalized, but by their looks, I'm just an eccentric, slightly crazy and seeking attention in some little way.

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 2248:

We had our first big winter storm this weekend, which dropped about 6+ inches of snow on the city. Areas outside of town got a lot more. This caused usual "early-season big snow freak out" among people which I think is mostly driven by the media. By February people around here will hardly blink when a big snow is predicted. We received nearly 11 inches of snow throughout November, which is a fair amount for us this early in the season. Eastern South Dakota generally gets more moderate snow amounts but extreme low temperatures and wind.

On Friday before the snow hit, I knew I would likely need the winter bikes this week. I got the fat bike ready to go by topping off the tubeless tire sealant and lubing the drivetrain. Last winter I rode this bike less than 40 miles total, but I was still amazed how rusted up the chain was. I had to break a lot of links free that had fused together. I didn't have time to pull my other winter bike down from storage and prep it, so the fat bike will have to suffice for now.

The theatre production I'm involved in had its opening weekend in the midst of the storm. Despite the inclement weather, the theater was at least 2/3rds full (684 seat capacity) for every show and the crowds were very energetic. It was a great opening weekend and I left the venue each night all pumped up with adrenaline. However this morning after I had come down from the weekend high I found myself bone-weary tired. I have four days to let my body and voice recover before we're back at the theater for eight more performances.

I got up this morning at my normal time and discovered the plows had run during the night, burying the end of my driveway. Normally when the plows go by it will wake me up, but I suppose I was so exhausted that I slept right through it. In any event, that was a surprise. I easily could have carried my bicycle over the drift, but then my wife's car would have been trapped. So I decided to be a nice guy and went out and cleared the driveway. Plus, the longer that you wait after the plows run, the more the drift turns into solid ice and the tougher it is to move. It was already starting to ice over, which makes me think the plows came by earlier in the night.

After moving the snow I was now running 1/2 hour behind. The temp was a balmy 12°F with a 10 mph wind. I loaded up the fat bike and headed out. I was only about a 100 yards from the house when I notice the cold air had already deflated my rear tire too much. I had set my front tire to 4 PSI and the rear tire to 5 PSI, but that wasn't enough for the rear. I turned around and went back into my garage and pumped the rear tire up to 7 PSI. That was better and gave me about the same amount of flex on the front and back.

Within the first 1/4 mile I was reminded how much I dislike riding the fat bike. It is painfully slow and very tiring to pedal. The fit on it isn't ideal and makes my butt and wrists hurt. Nevertheless, it handled the packed mashed-potato snow with aplomb, which is the reason I own and ride it. It doesn't blink at the snow that even my studded-tire mountain bike struggles in.

My old ski goggles had served me well for about 15 years, and during the off-season I bought a new pair. This was the first ride with the new goggles. The difference in clarity of vision was startling. My old pair had gotten very scratched up over the years and I hadn't realized how bad they were until I put on the new pair.

Because I was running 1/2 hour late, traffic had gotten very thick. There is one very busy and fast moving street where I join it at a "T" intersection. I have to right turn to merge into traffic for about 200 yards, then move into the left turning lane and make a left turn into a park entrance where I can then hop on the MUP. When I wear goggles I don't have my take-a-look mirror. Between the lack of mirror and the heavy traffic I decided to just cross the street and get on the opposite sidewalk for the span I would normally ride in traffic. Things were gridlocked and moving slow, so drivers were willing to stop and let me cross. I gave them a wave of thanks and raced across the street.

When I got to the other side, there was a wall of snow formed by the plows. I bunny-hopped over the wall the best I could so that I was no longer blocking traffic. When I landed the snow brought me to an abrupt stop and I flew forward. Thankfully I was expecting this to happen and stayed on my feet. I pulled the bike out of the drift and remounted on the sidewalk. Then I noticed that my headlight was missing. I looked back and saw it laying in the snow drift where I had come to a sudden stop. I'm glad I noticed before I got too far away!

The remainder of the ride was mostly MUP, which thankfully had been plowed. There were still some drifts caused by the wind that had formed after the plow had run, so the fat bike continued to earn its keep. I pedaled hard and was able to average about 6 mph. I didn't even notice the low temperature as I was sweating hard from the effort of pedaling this bike.

We're supposed to get more snow over the next couple days, then during the second half of the week the temps are predicted to drop into the double-digits below zero. I think winter has arrived.

Yesterday I did an errand for my spouse in the rain on a bike. She needed me to pick up a prescription from a pharmacy open on a Sunday. I took a Citi Bike bike, about 5 miles round trip. I was coming to a crosswalk where the pedestrians had the light. A man warned his wife about my approach which was illegal. I tried to brake but my front tire slipped because I was riding on a steel plate in the street and it was wet. I want to say the bike fishtailed but with the front wheel, is that called fishheading? I managed to stay up, and I feel bad about cutting those people off. It wasn't a close call, and it didn't seem to affect them. I tried to do the right thing, but I nearly fell.

Today it was about 35ºF, the coldest I rode in since last winter. I bundled way up, assuming I'm not yet acclimated to it. I did just fine, and it wasn't as windy as I predicted. I had tights on under my trousers so I stopped in the men's room and took them off.

I never took the anticipated rides last week. Other than one ride to work on Monday, the rest was sunrise to sunset daddy daycare. Oh well, I get to ride today. I'm going to lose my bike-resistant butt at this rate, though

Called by school at 10:30 to come get behavior kid. He was sleeping in class. Last night he stayed up til 11 because he wanted to participate in the shelf elf. We told him no, some other night, it's back to school, go to sleep. So he stayed up all night waiting to intercept me when I did it in the wee hours. This is hardly like getting suspended for violence but it seems to have the same effect on my work day.

Had to pedal back to the school, where he said incredulously, "I have to ride my bike home?"

I tried to ride next to or behind him for the half mile back to the house. But he kept swerving - clowning that he was falling asleep on his bike. I ran into him - lightly - and we didn't fall over. I told him "hold your line!"

He did not take this at all well but when he bid for sympathy I reminded him that not doing what I told him had resulted in serious inconvenience for my work day. He screeched at me. Now he's in his room - hopefully trying to sleep, but most likely reading.

This has little to do with bikes or commuting, I just wanted to share. Walnut Creek, California. 47 degrees and overcast. What we call tule fog, when the right combination of temperature and humidity (85%) fills up the inland valleys with fog.

Monday is the day when the pool guy comes. He comes year around. I like to take the cover off to make his life a bit easier. It’s powered by an electric motor and pulled by ropes in that run in tracks at the side of the pool as it rolls on and off. Usually this involves rain water that has accumulated on top of the cover. I have a pump that I put on and plug it in to take off the water. But it’s been several weeks with no rain so the cover was bone dry. I tried sweeping the leaves off but they just sort of floated into to air.

I have an electric blower that’s sat in the garage for years and never used. So I dragged it out. It did a good job of moving the leaves but was difficult to control. I blew some leaves into the pit that the cover rolls into and some off into the yard. And some into the pool since it was now partly open. Oh, well. The pool guy will take care of that.

It’s a big country isn’t it? I read this group regularly and appreciate and enjoy the stories. Thanks.

Darth Lefty I'm very sorry you're going through all this. My kids ripped my heart out many times, too. I can't even recall all the times. They've grown up and made me proud now. I'm betting on yours, too.

oh, this one was mild

Finally a snow commute! 16°F. I had shoveled before leaving so I had a chance to warm slightly. I took one core layer off and was very comfortable.

This was the first drop-bar snow ride since Nov 2024 when the '97 Nishiki Blazer's frame broke. I bought a '97 Specialized RockHopper to replace it, but left the straight bars on till after winter to avoid any complications that would keep it out of commission.

I had swapped out the smoothie wheel set with the studded set yesterday in anticipation of the predicted snow. I pumped the tires to the max which is is best for dry pavement. I forgot to drop the psi from 65 to 35 but the bike was doing okay until I took a turn a little too quick and almost lost the front. I let a generous amount of air out and all was good after that.

On my the way home most of the snow had melted except in shady areas. There was also quite a few curb-to-curb ice fields which felt like nothing with the studs.

The winter tires have a higher rolling resistance, especially when running lower pressure...so the stupid-low gear ratio of the front granny cog and the rear bail-out gear was appreciated on my heaviest bike on the bigger hills.

All in all a great and memorable day!

noglider here's how. I dressed for the temperature of 16° f. Wool socks over my cotton socks. Plastic bags over the socks inside my water resistant sneakers. My regular bike shorts under the long breathable poly sport pants underneath nylon fleece lined snow pants. Wicking t-shirt under long sleeve cotton t-shirt under poly long sleeve shirt. I have one more layer which is a medium weight turtleneck long sleeve shirt, but while shoveling I realized this would be too hot for the bike ride. And of course the windbreaker over all the shirt layers. On my face and head a thin nylon bellaclava. Sometimes I put my Halo headband over my ears as well but I didn't feel the need to do that today. And on my hands my thinsulate winter gloves with my long fingered medium to light work gloves underneath that. Especially since a few days before my hands got cold at 23f without the second hand layer under the winter gloves. When it's dry like it is usually here in Colorado Springs, this seems to work for me. When it's a little wetter that extra turtleneck layer comes in handy. I would have that turtleneck on if it were below 10. And I might put the neck Gator up over the bellaclava for an extra layer if it were below 10. Currently my limit is 5f but I have been flirting with the idea of riding down to zero now. However, it rarely gets down below five degrees in the morning here. It's definitely milder than in the Midwest. Anyways, that's how I dress but I seem to put out a lot of heat. YMMV.

We got another inch of snow last night. It was one of those mornings where clearing the car would've accounted for half my ride to work, as I had been driving last night and when one shuts off a warm car in the snow, the snow melts on it, then freezes to ice overnight.

I was glad to have the eFatty ready to rock. I took it unpowered. Yesterday, the tires were set to 12 psi in the garage, but it felt too soft, so when I came home for lunch, I brought them up to 15, cold. There was only the first block that looked like the photo below. The rest was wet pavement with occasional patches of inevitable salt slush. We'll see how well the Boeshield T-9 holds up to its marketing claims! Depending on your snow, you might try a bit higher pressure, Tundra_Man . 4-5 psi is only for soft, deep surfaces and is SO much harder to pedal than 10. 10 is also a lot harder to pedal than 15. When I run 4-5 psi unpowered, I never see double-digit (mph) speeds, I'm usually running some power at those pressures, but it's also somewhat of a Catch-22, since the bike is 80 lbs with its mammoth battery & motor.

Here's about how I run the tires, for reference:

Smooth pavement: 20 psi (rare)
Rough pavement: 15 psi
Grass or hard-packed gravel or dirt offroad: 10 psi
1/2" or less of loose snow, dirt or gravel on top of a hard base: 10-12 psi
Softer or deeper than the above: 4-5 psi

This is with the stock Kenda knobbies.

It was about 18 °F (-8 °C) this morning, but I don't wear as many clothes as BobbyG . I had on:

• Hiking boots over dress socks
• Dress slacks over sporty underwear*
• Wind/water resistant overpants over the slacks (un-insulated, but they do a great job blocking the wind and keeping me clean)
• Button-up short sleeve dress shirt over a regular cotton T-shirt
• Road worker's winter jacket over the dress shirt
• Ski helmet
• Wynd glasses
• Cheap, thin ski-type mittens, Green Bay Packers-branded.

When I get to work, I change shoes, take off the jacket, overpants, helmet & glasses and I'm ready to go without any further drama. I've finally gotten to where I can moderate my effort to not sweat despite wearing non-breathable clothes.

My eFatty has full factory fenders, which helps a lot to stay clean. My hiking boots don't even look bad.

[img alt="eFatty with full fenders for the win!
The trunk bag holds my D lock on the way in, and when I get to work, it holds my ski mittens and Wynd glasses."]https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikeforums.net-vbulletin/2000x1504/2025_12_02_snowcommute_e4c97c17eb74a7882469ba78862ba4511c3f06fb.jpg[/img]
The trunk bag holds my D lock on the way in, and when I get to work, it holds my ski mittens and Wynd glasses. Small amount of groceries on the way home.
I may invest in studded tires when the stockers wear out.

Check out the Wynd glasses, which are sold on Amazon. They have a gasket eyecup to keep the eyes from watering in cold wind, but with breaks in it to let just enough air through that they usually don't fog. At stops, they do fog, so I just push them down my nose a smidge and that's sorted.

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 2249:

By the time I rode the fat bike home from work yesterday evening, all of the streets/paths on my route had been plowed. What remained was the hard pack layer of snow/ice that is affixed to the pavement and probably will remain there for months. The good news is, my other (non-fat) winter bike with studded tires will roll over this stuff just fine. So this snow event only required one day of fat bike riding.

After I got home from my evening activities, I went out into the garage and pulled the other winter bike down from storage so I could get it ready for the season (it's an old Giant mountain bike.) By this time of the night the temp was 9°F inside my garage. Note to self: I know you're busy, but figure out some possible way to do this task earlier in the fall when the garage temp is above 50°.

I expected the chain to be rusted, and my expectations were met and then some. The chain wasn't just rusty, it had become one solid piece of metal. I probably should have just dremeled the chain off the bike and replaced it, but I didn't have another chain on hand and I wanted to ride the bike in the morning. This chain was brand new last year and only had about 180 miles on it. That ice melt stuff they put on the roads absolutely destroys bare metal in a big hurry.

So, I soaked all the links of the chain in WD-40. Then I went link-by-link and broke them free and wiggled them back and forth until they were moving again without being stiff. It was slow going as the part of the chain that wraps around the jockey wheels and cassette was also rusted solid, preventing the chain from rotating. Extra WD-40 was sprayed into this section of chain to try to free them. As I went around the chain, many of the links were too seized for me to break them loose with my fingers, so I needed to use a couple pairs of pliers to get them moving. Once I had gone through every link, I then went back through and oiled each individual link of the chain and worked the oil into the joints. It took about an hour and my fingers were numb by the end of the session. But the chain was functional again, if not aesthetically pleasing.

It's probably sacrilige to some bike mechanics, but on my winter bikes I lube the chains with 30 weight motor oil thinned slightly with mineral spirits. Lighter oils will last about one single ride before the road chemicals strip them, and then I'm out in the garage in arctic temps re-oiling my chain. The motor oil will last 75-100 miles before re-oiling is needed, so it reduces the glacial grease affairs to about every week and a half. The downside is after a few lubrication sessions my chain looks like something that was found while cleaning up after the Exxon Valdez disaster. But my winter bikes are far from showpieces so I live with the mess.

This morning I woke up to an air temp of 4°F. This was actually better than the zero temp that was predicted when I went to bed the previous night. I took my mountain bike as planned, and immediately noticed how much less effort was required to pedal this bike compared to the fat bike. The same effort that it takes to maintain 5-6 mph on the fat bike will net me 9-10 mph on the mountain bike, even with the studded tires.

The single digit temps didn't feel as cold as I had anticipated. A lot of that was due to the fact that the wind was less than 5 mph. I dressed about right, as I arrived at the office slightly sweaty but not completely drenched.

One interesting thing to note: due to my current role in the theater production, at the moment I have a beard. I've never worn a beard (my wife hates them) so I don't have any experience with them while winter commuting. By the time I arrived at the office my mustache/beard was soaked with moisture, I'm assuming from my breath and other fluids running out of my nose. In the frigid temps it had all frozen solid. It was weird feeling this crunchy thing stuck to my face. So that's a new one for me.

Speaking of the theater performance, a small group of the featured performers are making a promotional appearance at 5:30 PM today. I get off work at 5:00, so I'm not going to have time to ride home before I have to be at the venue. So I'm going to change into my fancy clothes at the office and ride to the venue to do the promo appearance. Then afterwards I'm going to ride back to the office and change into my biking clothes for the remainder of the ride home. It's going to be a cold ride from the office to the venue and back without all my usual winter riding apparel. I also need to be extra careful about not letting any of my nice clothes touch the gunky drivetrain. Thankfully the venue is only about 3/4 mile from the office.

Thanks, BobbyG. I have a no-cotton-socks rule for myself since foot sweat tends to encourage fungus. Other than that, doing stuff like you do would probably work for me. But I've tried, and the length of my ride seems to matter a lot. Somehow I've solved the cold feet problem but not the hands. Fortunately for me, my commute is now short, and even if it is very uncomfortable, it isn't uncomfortable for long. Being out in the cold for a long time can get very painful. I remember a few years ago riding next to the river with such pain in my feet that I was grunting and hollering while moving along. And as you know, it's very humid here which seems to accentuate the cold feelings. I've been to Colorado a few times, and it's shockingly dry there.

(Can you guys see the pic? It seems to work when I attach it in Edit Mode, but when it posts, it's just turned into a string of BB code.)