Consecutive bicycle work commute number 2271:

Woke up to hear the wind howling. That never is a good sign. Although they have been predicting it to be super windy today for a week, so it wasn't a big surprise. The temp was currently 27°F, but is supposed to consistently drop throughout the day until it reaches subzero temps tomorrow morning.

There was a dusting of snow on the ground, with a possibility of more snow falling. It wasn't supposed to be significant amount, so I was still contemplating taking the road bike. The road bike cuts the wind much better than my other bikes, and seeing as I was going to have to ride straight into the gale I wanted all the advantage I could get.

But, I decided to go ahead and take my mountain bike with studded tires. I unloaded everything out of my backpack and reloaded it into my panniers, then departed. I'm glad I made the choice to switch bikes. What I couldn't see from my living room window was that under the dusting of snow was a layer of sheet ice. I'm guessing we had a little bit of rain before the temp started to drop, which then froze and got covered up with snow. I didn't have any trouble with the studded tires, but I would have been in a very precarious situation on my road bike.

The wind was everything advertised. Blowing steady at 20 mph with gusts topping 40 mph. Riding into it with the slow mountain bike meant it took me 38 minutes to ride the four miles to the client's office.

The temp is supposed to drop into the high single digits for the ride home tonight, and the wind speeds are going to increase to 30 mph steady with gusts pushing 60 mph. Thankfully it should be a tailwind so I'm not expecting it to be any worse than the ride in.

I almost rode in today. My alarm is set for 6am but I woke up at 4am. At 4:30 I decided to get up. I took my time getting ready, and I left at 7:06 rather than my usual 7:40. It's as cold as it's been in a couple of years, 22º when I left, and I knew that the worst that would happen was that I would have pain from cold on one or two parts of my body for only a few minutes. But I fear something unspecified going wrong. I'm looking into why I have these fears. So I did the safe thing and took the train again. On cold days, I wear cycling tights under my trousers. The school building is overheated, and that makes me irritable so I took the tights off before classes began.

Jeremy, I like that picture. When the streets are snow covered here (if it ever happens again), I'll take a picture. When we get snow, the traffic makes it very hazardous, and I tend to avoid riding when it's like that. For all of our infrastructure improvements, we still have too many very bad drivers.

No ride today

I think that weather that hit Tundra Man finally got over east a bit to hit us in Wisconsin. It was 1 °F this morning with a tangy 21 mph wind gusting to 40, so feels like -21 °. I would have bundled up and made the short bike commute, but I have to meet my wife at the lawyer's across town over lunch to sign our will. I didn't want to do the bundling/unbundling four times, so I took the cage today. They're projecting the high temperature to be 4 ° today, but the wind will make it feel well below zero the whole time. Tomorrow, it's supposed to get up to 15 and Wednesday, 24, then staying in that range, which is more seasonally appropriate.

Tom, is what you're experiencing more than the usual anxiety that causes cyclists to stop riding during the deep winter in northern states? "Nah, it doesn't seem like fun. I'll skip it." I get that too, but I luckily also have this sense of guilt that keeps me going. Yesterday, I was halfway through watching the first football game with my daughter in the family room. I could tell the Patriots were going to win and it was going to be another hour and a half. AND it was 3:00, the light was fading. I didn't get out much the day before, just sat around eating and watching football, and I got to thinking: "If I'm going to get out at ALL this weekend for a ride, I'd better do it now." So I layered up and went down to the garage. About 5 minutes later, I knew I made the right decision.

I came back feeling pretty winded. Looked at my Strava ride stats and saw I'd only averaged 12.4 mph despite a Zone 4 effort. It wasn't windy, either. Like it or not, I'm losing fitness from only getting one proper ride in per week. I think the best I can do is keep the fitness loss to a minimum over winter, since I'm unwilling to ride the stationary bike. I need to keep it up as much as possible and quit eating so damned much if I don't want to put on 10 lbs. this winter. On the bright side, I picked up 3 Local Legends from people more local to those segments who've stopped riding for the winter.

Love your entire post. You really describe the winter conundrum for us in cold latitudes (I too am unwilling to ride indoors - tried many ways to make it interesting over the years and just couldn’t do it. And for my pals on Zwift, hats off to you all - I tried but just didn’t like the vibe unfortunately). But since committing to ride to work everyday the past couple years regardless of weather, finally I feel pretty good all winter and no longer have to get BACK IN SHAPE AGAIN IN THE SPRING. I made an investment in better winter clothing, studded tires, and moved from 8,600’ to 5,200’ (the weather didn’t keep me from riding daily so much as the 2.75 hour ride home after work - which I loved but not 5x/week). So for now, if the snow is too deep to ride or there is a bunch of melt chem on the road, I drive. But other than those breaks in the commute I’m feel so much better. I like that you saw the light fading and thought if you were going to get out at all, better do it. Man I get that thought in the winter!

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 2272:

-5°F this morning with a 10 mph headwind. I was kind of dreading the ride, but once I got going it really wasn't that bad. The pavement was clear enough to take a faster bike, but I wanted the warmth of my bar mitts and I only have those installed on my two winter bikes. So I took the mountain bike with studded tires even though I really didn't need the traction.

The temp inside my garage was in the 20s. Before I left I added about 10 psi more to my bike tires to compensate for Charles's law once I got out in the frigid air. I really didn't want the extra pedaling effort of underinflated tires, or even worse get a pinch flat.

Don't be afraid of the cold, be afraid of the weird guy who rides in the cold.

https://cimg3.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...1c30a2d727.jpg

Love the goggles and face mask! I am addicted my mine during the chilly a.m. commute. But finally hitting Bar Mitt weather here in Colorado as the highs are coming down below 40F.

https://cimg7.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...f9dea3e37.jpeg

This was the first commute with my new winter pants. I have such anxiety about having to change my winter bike clothes. I have a system as to what to wear in what weather, and sometimes a new, shirt, jacket or gloves will change the equation. The pants are simple polyester leggings (like the previous pair), but this time the ankles have some elastic built in. They seem to be just a little less warm, but they'll work. The previous pair was like a dozen years old or more.

IT was overcast, 19F with a light dusting of snow this morning. I grabbed the '97 Rockhopper with the Suomi Nokian W106 studded tires (discontinued!) I left them pumped near max and the bike rolled and pedalled easily. Went over the little green bridge and the 20 yards of packed ice on the far side.

Long, busy day at work, and I was looking forward to the ride home. I put on a podcast (one ear). The bike with the snow tires is a little slow, but again, pedals easily. And with the drop bars it is so comfortable. And then the snow tire wheelset has a bail-out-gear, which combined with the granny gear on the triple up front, makes the steep hills effortless, but slow.

A nippy one this morning

0 °F, 9 mph wind made it feel like -13 °F.

I had about 10 psi in the tires in the garage, which is right around freezing, but it's 32 ° colder outside, so they felt pretty soft by the time I got to work. I'm going to inflate them a bit before I head home. There is a little vestibule area right by the bike rack that is (over)heated where I can do the pumping.

I DID want some extra work on the way in, as my commute is so short, that's the only way I'm getting exercise. I pedaled the 80 lb. eFatty unpowered with < 10 psi in the tires. Stayed warm, except my toes. I got lazy and wore my regular hiking boots. Toes are just starting to get cold when I arrive at the office. Then I quickly changed out of those cold shoes. I'm expecting my heating packs for my toes to arrive Saturday; there will be room for them in my snow boots.

No lunchtime ride today; it's cold enough that the fun is sapped out of it. It's gradually going to get warmer today until we hit a high of 17. High of 25 by tomorrow. Woohoo! I consider this cold conditioning. When my clubmates are still in their pain caves pedaling their hamster bikes, I'm out on a nice warm 45 ° early spring day feeling great.

Thanks for asking. I think it's a large number of factors that lead to my anxiety and frequent decision not to ride. I'm thinking about it and might write about it soon.

I generally only wear goggles when the temp hits 20°F or lower. Sometimes I'll wear them up to about 25°F if I'm going to be riding straight into a heavy wind. At warmer temps the goggles are too warm and I sweat inside them. Also, I don't have a way to mount my Take-A-Look mirror when I'm wearing goggles, which I miss when riding in traffic.

The face mask that covers my mouth in that photo is actually the headband I wear around my ears when temps are above freezing and my balaclava is too warm. At about 5°F or lower I'll put it on over my balaclava and wear it to cover my mouth and cheeks. I can only do that for about four miles though, as it gets really warm and soaked with sweat so I wind up pulling it down.

The temp/gear chart I use for my head is:
<55°F - Headband to cover my ears.
<32°F - Balaclava
<20°F- Switch from glasses to goggles.
<5°F - Put the headband on over my balaclava as a mouth/cheek covering.

I've kind of wimpified over the last five years, as I used to wait until <50°F for the headband, and switch to the balaclava at the same time as the goggles at 20°F.

This morning I saw what appeared to be a school bus under tow by a large box truck. In hindsight, the bus driver was probably tailgating. But the gap was very close and didn't seem to change. I saw it from the pedestrian overpass of the freeway. I don't know why it has stuck with me.

I have ski goggles and a ski mask I sometimes wear when it gets around freezing here, but it hasn't much in recent years.

We noticed today that our employer has blocked weather.com and wunderground.com. WTF

15F this morning. No traffic. But looking forward to new winter pants.

Along Lake Natoma, witnessed geese fighting. I thought at first one of them might have been our local bald eagle getting lunch, but no, for sure two ordinary geese. Full contact, beaks clamped, true anger, not posturing. Watched the two of them wrestle off a bank and stumble down into the water while the surrounding flock was very agitated. After it broke up there seemed to be two of the winner's gang lingering ready to start up again while one of the loser's gang comforted him - though this is anthromorphic.

We got another couple inches of snow last night, but it was done around 6 AM, so they got it cleaned up in time for rush hour, and it also cleaned up the snow from the last dusting. It's salty slush now. Feels warm, at 26 °F. It was an easy commute in, as it wasn't too cold and the snow was all melted by salt.

It's supposed to gradually start getting cold again, and by Friday, when the temperature will get down to -11 °F, with the 17 mph wind making it feel like -34 °F. Will be interesting to see whether/how my bikes shift in that cold. The ones with any oil in the cable housings will freeze up solid, I'm sure...

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I took my wife in for her BMAC (bone marrow aspirate concentrate) injection to try let her own stem cells help her hip repair the torn cartilage from her car accident last June. We drove up to Milwaukee in rush hour. It was not bad, compared to Chicago's! They harvested bone marrow from her pelvis, spun it in a centrifuge to get the concentrate, then injected that into her hip joint. She's in a lot of pain now, got some of narcotic meds to help her out with it for a few days. If all goes well, she'll notice an improvement in around 10 days. If not, then by 6 weeks. If not, then we consider hip replacement.

I wish complete and rapid healing for your wife!

Gmorning! The last day I commuted by bike was Jan 13, nine days ago. Today I rode in, and it was uneventful, and that's a blessing. I've been pondering the reasons I tend to avoid commuting by bike, and I'm not done processing the question, but I think safety concerns play a big part. I might spend too much energy thinking about things that could go wrong, and I'm on high alert a lot of the time. A former therapist said that I'm hypervigilant, and it's not just on the bike, it's a lot of the time. I suppose that is the chief thing to work on. In looking at that, I'll process my safety concerns and see which are rational and which are merely feelings.

Thanks for the question, Jeremy. I really appreciate it.

Colder than expected morning commute. All reporting stations said 23F, but first two thirds of ride were 11-12F. I had brought an extra upper layer, but decided I didn't need it. Maybe because I doubled my socks. Not with my usually cold weather wool socks, but just two layers of cotton socks...just on a whim.

I forgot to check if the shifters on my main commuter were sticky in the cold morning air, but they performed flawlessly since last week's dry lube spritz. Eventually the temp reached 26F as I pulled into work. I mostly took the trails but hopped off onto the streets a couple of miles from the office to catch more of the rising sun.

The temperature on ride home hovered around freezing. It felt like I had a tailwind, but the weather apps showed little to no wind, and it was coming at me if it did build. I had to stop by the pharmacy by the house to pick up some prescriptions so I took a route that has me face the pharmacy as I approach it. I also tape reminders to my handlebars, which in the dark, don't always work. Google assistant used to have a location-based reminder option. I'd tell it to remind me of errands at the nearest long light and it almost always worked. BUt that feature went away. Now, if it's really important, I will run the Google MAps GPS navigation, set to "Cycling".

'Twas a nippy one this morning
Uneventful otherwise.
The coldest part was when I arrived and had to get out of my mittens to lock up the bike.
Tires feel a bit soft; haven't checked them in weeks, so they probably are.
https://cimg5.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...2ebe7de575.png
I don't have a wattmeter, so those estimated stats are BS.

8F, dark, the usual 7.2 miles, didn't feel much different from yesterday's 15F. Pinion gearbox working ok after new left shift cable, but the cable housing wants to pop out of the brifter, got to figure that one out.

Consecutive bicycle work commute number 2276:

-17°F air temp this morning with a -35°F wind chill. Per my wife's directive, once the air temp hits double digits below zero I do a split commute. So this morning I rode about 1.25 miles to a bus stop, caught the bus for a few miles, then got back on the bicycle to finish the .75 miles to the client's office. It really wasn't that bad, and it was kind of nice not to arrive at work all sweaty.

Figuring out the timing of the buses is a little challenging. Seeing as I only ride the bus when it's extremely cold, if I get to the bus stop too early then I'm just standing motionless until the bus arrives. If I get there early enough I get so cold it would have been warmer just to ride the entire way to work. Conversely, if I get to the bus stop too late then I'm either waiting 1/2 hour for the next bus, or just riding the entire way to work which is now longer than had I gone directly there from the house.

This morning I arrived at the bus stop a bit early. I looked at the bus tracker app (a new feature they added last year) and saw where the bus currently was on the route. I decided I had time and it would be warmer overall if I rode to the next prior stop, so I backtracked .25 miles. That worked out well, as I got to the stop about two minutes before the bus arrived so I didn't stand and freeze for very long.

Earlier this week some media clown wrote an article talking about how the north part of the U.S. was going to get such a bad cold snap that the trees would explode. Never mind the fact that this isn't the coldest temperature we've ever experienced, and the trees haven't exploded prior to this. Some people will do anything for attention and clicks. This guy is located in Texas, so it's obvious he doesn't know that -20°F is fairly routine in the Dakotas.

https://cimg8.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...bfe0e76404.png
Yes, it is possible for trees to stress crack due to cold temperatures. Yes, if by chance you're in the right place at the right time you might actually hear this happen. No, the tree isn't going to explode.

The high temp today is supposed to be -7°F. I'm going to weigh my mood and the wind at the end of the day to determine if I ride all the way home, or do another split commute.
https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...8ea6e4a3fa.jpg

Tundra_Man I hope you went and corrected that Texas guy in front of all his followers. :D

As I got to work on my commute, my goggles were starting to fog slightly. After I took them off, I saw why: my breath was immediately freezing on the bottom of the vents and clogging the ventilation a bit. I've found I need to leave my nose out, as if I cover it with the balaclava, it's a fog-fest. (picture taken after being inside a couple minutes, so a lot of it had melted already)

https://cimg2.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...88fee6fc67.jpg
breath was icing up on the bottom vents of the goggles, starting to cause a fog. (even with my nose out of the balaclava)

It's been and going to be a weird weekend.

No ride yesterday. In fact I never went to the office at all. I had a meeting at 6am, so I'd brought my laptop home. When that was done I rousted the kids. At 10-noon, I got the formerly-chemo kid out of school to go to his still-regular checkup at the chemo clinic. These will carry on for a few years. They are watching for relapse and long-term side effects from the chemo. Only an hour after that, I picked them up. They soon left with SWMBO to the Great Wolf Lodge in Socal, where they will link up with my in-laws. We have been to this place I think three times before, although the one in Manteca, and I admit I was dreading it. I don't really like resorts or cruise ships, she loves them, and the kids like the water slides and the interactive video game (Magi Quest). So when she revealed she'd forgotten to get boarding for the dogs, I offered to stay home and save us some money on kennels as well as resort-priced food and beer. It's the twins 9th birthday and they didn't really put it together that I wasn't going til the last minute, and they were a little sad, and I'm a little guilty. But fixing those feelings would have cost a lot of dollars

So today it's my day off and I'm a bachelor til Monday night - albeit with three dogs and two cats. I have a long list of honey-do's. It's weird to clean up and have things just remain clean

I remember commuting by bike when the temperature was 25ºF and below, and I was in a lot of pain. Some of you are riding in much lower temperatures, and I can't imagine it. I'm sure I could get used to it with practice and with the right gear. But it's hard to prepare for conditions that occur only occasionally.

Right? I feel a bit lame complaining that I had to wear tights because the temperature was in the high 40s last week! And then I bailed out yesterday because it "might" rain. It sprinkled in mid-afternoon. I called it a recovery day.

Today was a good ride in. Birds along the river - herons, geese, coots, mallards, even some widgeons today. Bar ends are nice when I want to get out of the saddle.

I get a chuckle when I see complaints like yours from places where the weather is milder than here. But you framed it well. And I imagine people in Wisconsin etc chuckle when they see my complaints, because they probably say we don't have "real winter" here in NYC.

Your description does sound nice.

Since it doesn't get cold where you are, I won't recommend that you get used to cold weather riding, but you might be pleasantly surprised about riding in the rain. You need to figure out which clothes work for you, and you also need to get used to it. But depending on conditions (not too cold or windy and no huge loss of visibility), it can be pleasant. And your routes might be much emptier in so-called bad weather.