vik 

I finally got my butt in gear and got my winter bike ready. The snow was getting me down, but now I can get back to riding regardless of the weather.

Pics @ VikApproved Blog

What are other people doing to get ready for their winter commutes?

wild animals

i live in oregon so mostly it's rain, then later it's freezing rain. i got a rain jacket, rain pants, gloves, a gaiter, and an earband. i plan to get some boots and more wool socks, and hopefully more thrift-store or target wool sweaters i have a bike-dedicated sweater (in other words, i accidentally shrank it in the washer) that is probably all i need though. i don't want to mess up my nice sweaters. i want to get studded tires for frozen streets, too. the other day i rinsed the frost off of my car (ssh!) and the water froze when it hit the ground, then i almost fell on it (and had to call my family in the house so they wouldn't fall on it later). anyway, i don't want to break my face on the ice. i probably want another, bigger, pannier too (to hold sweaters in!) but that has to wait.

if i win the lottery i might just get a used mountain bike and slap some fenders and studded tires on it, and ride that instead of changing things around on my current commuter.

DynamicD74

I live in North Carolina, U.S., so I'm just amazed at all the snow pics. We'll be lucky if we get any snow at all. (Trust me....if you don't get any....you want it!) Anyway, kudos to all of you for riding in the snow and ice! That looks fabulously fun, but a little scary, too! :-D

pinkrobe

Hey Vik! It's nice to see more Calgary bike commuters on the boards. I got my winter bike set up just before it snowed a week ago. It's a Brodie Unibomber rigid singlespeed mtn bike. I put the Schwalbe Ice-Spikers on front and rear and have it set up as a 44x17 gear-wise. Running the spiked tires front and rear is plenty of work, but I get lots of traction no matter what the conditions are like. My wife is running the same tires, and is slowly getting used to the extra rotating weight [900 g per tire].

I just switched back to my roadie SS commuter today, since most of the snow is gone. I have a north-facing hill on my commute which means the snow takes forever to melt on those aspects. For lights I run a HID helmet light and a Cateye TL-400 in the rear. The HID is equivalent to ~40W with a 4 hr runtime.

OT: I have to ask, where are you getting your frozen Paratha? I haven't seen that anywhere! We make curry often enough that I keep jonesing for some naan.

nukemm

I've dusted off an old Columbia jacket shell and scotch-guarded it to get it back to waterproof. I've also scotch-guarded a pair of track pants and an old pair of Nike's, installed toe-clips on my MTB, softened the shock a little to add forgiveness when I can't see under the puddles and hit a pothole, added more lights to the rear, got new gloves, and a waterproof trunk-bag from Nashbar to carry my stuff, in a little bit less hobo-riffic fashion than an old backpack wrapped in garbage bags...

pinkrobe

"hobo-riffic" - I'm going to use that in a sentence tomorrow...

BigMacFU

didn't see any fenders on there, that'll be nice when it gets muddy :-)