taser

Do you ride when it's below freezing? Do you refuse to be slowed down by winter temperatures? What kind of looks do you get?

Do you have any pictures of you in your Polar Bear clothing?

-Taser

SesameCrunch

Being from California, I am a total weather-wimp. If it rains, I don't ride. If the temps are below 50F, I go indoors for spinning class.

Yeah, I'm a weather wimp.

Paul Braithwait

Am I a Polar Bear? Well. I'm left handed and I understand that so are polar bears (they kill with their left paw) and my hair is turning grey/white - so I must be!

fafnir

There were over 20 people that just rode today for a pub crawl in Minneapolis MN, the high today was 4 degrees Fahrenheit, not sure what the wind chill was. There was at least one person with a frozen rear hub today that was pedaling and not going anywhere. I didn't bring a camera but plenty of people were taking pictures.

jakub.ner

Indeed. I ride my Xootr Swift to work daily with temps at -20 Celsius regularly. This is a photo of my Swift with an experimental plow that I tried today. The idea was stupid, but the experiment was fun. I will remove the planks and make it a trailer. The Swift performs excellent regardless of conditions and what I throw at it.

rhm

Polar bear? I believe there are many Polar Bear Clubs of people who intentionally go swimming in icy water, sometimes chopping holes through the ice to get there. No, I am not a polar bear. I try to avoid swimming in freezing cold water and, with the exception of a skating incident over 30 years ago, have been successful.

That said, it was about 15 degrees Fahrenheit at 5:30 this morning when I got on my Downtube Mini to ride to the station. I found it rather cold. Should have worn wool socks!

EvilV

In England we never get such low temperatures as in the Mid West and other parts of North America. I think it is cold if the temperature is a little below freezing. We do get strong damp winds in winter and rain, and sleet and ice. These things make riding the bike a pain at times, though in the main, they are nothing much. Bad winds are always a problem for a bicycle - we (I) have so little power that there is none to spare for breaking through the winds.

cmcanulty

My coldest temp (not wind chill) was -30F in Marquette, Michigan. Below -10 is painful but once it is that cold the snow isn't slippery so you can ride almost in summer style. My hands and feet sometimes hurt even with double heavy mittens. Above 0 is fine, just very hard on the bike due to salt and sand mix they use in huge quantity on roads here. I have front and back lights that attach to my helmet and fenders.

-=(8)=-

I rode regularly, as in almost everyday, in Vermont for a few years.
-12 was the average temp when I would leave for work in the morning.
I had to carry lots of emergency clothing in case I got a flat or something.
Keeping toes, ears and feet warm was the priority. A few times the weather
beat out my cloths and I seriously worried about frostbite on the aforementioned.
After cycling in year 'round 70's-90's here in Floridistan, I dont think I could
ever do snow or even 30° regularly, ever again. When it gets down to 50 or 60
here, its serious stuff

kegoguinness

People at work think, no, concur, that I am nuts. Coldest ride was about 10 degrees farenheit.

Chop!

Here's a few pics from a sub zero ride down the Main river in Germany this week, signs warn that path has not been gritted & a terrible death could await you (or something like that! LOL!) & that's 3" thick ice in the river, I had gloves & mittens on my geriatric hands, passed 5 cyclists riding without any gloves! They'll be sorry in a few years time when their joints are destroyed! (voice of experience!)

badmother

Great pix! Some 5 yrs ago there was thick ice on a big near by lake, and only 1" snow on it. We rode on it a lot. They used cars to pull hanggliders and stuff up from the Ice.