Agreed, 100%.

I've just been doing it so long and so regularly that it's become my comfort zone.

We all work within our own comfort zones. I feel trapped and claustrophobic inside a motor vehicle these days, even one as large as a city bus, which I had to use for two days earlier this month due to a mechanical. I couldn't wait to get back outside. It's the same with cars. I feel completely uncomfortable inside them--even if I'm the one who's driving. Given that once upon a time I drove sports sedans and Car & Driver was my favorite magazine, it's been quite a transformation.

For those who wonder how I've chosen to manage the issues that No Motor raised, first are the studded snow tires. I've never fallen in the winter. Well, except that one time when I took the studs off a day or two too early...

I too keep my bikes inside both at home and at work. Flooring choices help a lot. Lino at work, hardwoods at home. (And a landlord who, when I asked if he had any objections to my pushing a slushy bike through the hallways replied, "It doesn't track in more than people's boots, right?")

I have a trainer mat just inside the door where I take off my boots. It also catches drips from the bike while it stands there waiting for me. After a quick rinse, it's hung over a boot tray to catch the drips. No rinsing facilities at work, so the bike just hangs and drips into a boot tray. At break time I tilt it a bit to drain what's collected in the fender.

http://www.brucew.com/images/bikefor...-in-bath-2.jpg http://www.brucew.com/images/bikeforums/kit/step2.jpg

I love the chainstay/wheel U-lock while hanging on the wall indoors at home.

I look at a week or a few days off bike commuting due to bad weather as an opportunity for my muscles to fully recover and build strength. When I come back, I feel great and well rested. I hit it pretty hard every ride, so a break does me good. I'll be back out next week for sure with the studded tires. Still going to be really cold, but not single digits.

Rode this morning, partly through the Central Park. No other moving bikes in sight. :D

my main complaint is that it has been too cold for my gloves and I'm too cheap to put bar mitts on my commuter

For someone who has to ride through some bad neighborhood, the colder, the better :D. Just please no ice and no gusty wind.

But when it warms up into the mid 20s and the snow is falling, it is really, really beautiful!

Just think how pretty that is going to look tomorrow when its 40°F colder! :cry::cry:

I've only been out on my road bike twice this month/year so far (and a couple addition short rides on my mountain bike). I am getting a little stir crazy.

I have watched a couple cycling movies. And I spent a day putting new tires, chain, brakes, and handlebar tape on my main road bike. I may have to just break down and buy a trainer.

I've been working on my core strength. Twenty minutes a day (5 days a week) of sit ups, push ups, resistance and weight training. But I miss cycling. I've also been thinking... snowbird.

May I remind you of this quote, which I liked so much that I added it to the quotes column in my blog...

It's the most recently added one. Scroll to the bottom of the right-hand column.

As for core work, I've been doing most of mine at the kitchen table. :innocent:

Thanks for the reminder!

I've lowered my temperature limits this year... mostly thanks to some new gear. And I found and reconditioned a beautiful old Fuji mtn bike. I figure that although the big knobby tires might be a help.... it's main purpose is to catch the salt and crap I don't want on my road bike. It's just been so cold and with such messy roads.

I know I need to get out there! Thanks for the inspiration.

pshhh try 20's in the morning and 50's in the afternoon. I usually just leave a couple layers in my bag at the office for the ride home, then pick them up when I drive the next day.

I've been watching/subscribing to a bunch of "cam" cycle commuters on YouTube, mostly in London. CycleGaz, CyclingMikey, and Traffic Droid are my favorites. I've been watching those daily. But then I always end up wishing for a mostly flat commute where mine are endless hills.

I keep saying one of these days I'm going to end up trying to cycle on the left side of the road if I keep watching these. :P

That must have been a really nice ride. Great capture of the moment.

I think if we had a second car I'd give up on biking this winter. To many days of negative (with wind-chill) plus road conditions requiring studs. So I end up 'borrowing' the wife's car way to often, which makes my core suffer, which makes the next ride that much harder. This morning if I hadn't been told not to take the car on pain of death, I would have caved again. Went to put air in my tires, floor pump wasn't working, ended up deflating my tire to under 20 PSI. Turns out the pump was frozen, had to bring it in and hit it with a hair dryer, didn't know that could happen! Then, test the brakes, front brakes are seized, spend 2-3 minutes working on them to loosen them up from the cold. Finally ready to go, even with studs, have to walk the bike out of the neighborhood to the main road due to road conditions.

All in all, commuting time was 2x my regular commute (80 minutes instead of 40), and I got in an hour late from that and the other issues.

This is literally the worst winter I can remember in my 7 years of commuting. Turns out I can do bitter cold, or bad road conditions, but not both.

Now.... I just feel wimpy.

HA! No reason to feel that. Like I said, if we had a second car I wouldn't bike until March at this point. And I was under threat of death if I took hers, or wake her up for a ride.

Ah, but the sunshine today was magnificent!

Thought I'd get blown backwards crossing the Ford Street bridge--headwinds of 26-37 MPH and both panniers full. But in the granny ring and big cog nearly all the way to work (between the winds and brown sugar on hardpack) just meant I got to enjoy more time in the sun.

Okay, it's a sickness...

Rode 45km at lunch yesterday because it was glorious out. It hit 65F.

Today, most of my coworkers have already left the office before the snow starts falling.

The receptionist just sent an email to the whole organization saying the temp has reached 23 degrees. In a typical winter 23 degrees would be completely unremarkable. It's a few degrees warmer than average for this time of year. But 23 degrees is 20 degrees warmer than it got yesterday and 30 degrees warmer than the day before.

But TSL is right. To me this seems like a normal winter from my youth (back in the 70's and early 80's). Not that it makes riding any easier but it's a reminder that the years I've spent commuting by bike year round have been warmer than average.

It's been both cold and snowy so like a lot of places around the country we've had to deal with both poor road conditions and extreme cold. I just take it day by day knowing that each day the sun stays out a little longer and within a few weeks it will be high enough to burn some of the ice and snow off the roads even if the temps don't climb all that much.

Winter brings a lot of challenges and though over the years I've acquired the necessary equipment to deal with it, I look forward to the days when getting ready for the ride home means spending 5 minutes changing into shorts.

Rode in in the snow this morning and didn't even fall in ~3mi. One more thing off of the bucket list.

Move to Seattle... you can commute year-round, as long as you're OK not seeing the sun for months at a time. But we've never had more than 90 straight days of rain, and the last two weeks of August are usually beautiful.

No sun? So no change from Rochester. Although you may have us beat on continuous rain days.

When I recall how I had to apply sticky sunblock lotion every time riding bike in hot summer days, winter cycling has another merit.

I guess it's not a good time to tell you guys that I live in Hawaii?

So how cold is it there?