temp1

I started taking my bike to work last spring because once again they raised the taxes on cigarettes, so to make my budget work I cut out public transportation. I have lost weight and havent felt this good since I was in high school (not that long ago I am 25), so far this year the smokes have been pretty good to me, or perhaps its the taxes. I ride a 96/97? Gary Fisher Tassajara and am looking forward to a new Cannondale R600 sometime this January because it is just too hard to keep up with the roadies on the Fisher and I do not like being passed.

So far I love winter commuting here in Chicago its a nice kick in the pants in the morning. I usually ride the bike path by the Lake to Michigan Ave. but I found out the lake does not always respect the artificial boundries imposed on it and reacts in cooperation with the temperature by coating the path in places with glare ice. So I took a couple of tumbles and found a new route.

One last thing, I have always loved the winter, in the past though I have mostly experienced it one step removed, usually through glass of some sort (windshield, bus window, or TV screen). Now however I am in it for at least one hour a day (in Chicago we measure distance in time) and I love it, I feel like a wild animal. It is better and not much harder than summer commuting. All you have to do is not stop, adjust in small incraments one day at a time and before you know it its 15F with 5inches of snow and you cant wait to get out in it. One thing I find helpful for the cabs that get to close is steel toe shoes, tap their sheet metal and they realize you are there, also suprisingly warm, cheers

Temp1

SpiderMike

Welcome to the forum.

Used to smoke, and I just gotta know... can you feel a difference also in the lungs during winter rides? It seemed to me like I was cleaning my lungs.

I like the comment on the steel toes. I clip in, so no steel toes on my answers. But that is why I put the toe spikes in.

Enjoy, and keep riding.

temp1

I smoke about 1/4 of what I did now that I bike every day, I dont have enough time to suck as many down, so I do feel better, and yes I also find it easier to breath in the winter, when I am not behind a bus sucking diesel fumes

Prosody

Hopping on a bike has always been a good remedy for tobacco addiction. I have smoked, but never when I have been biking. All I have to do is keep biking...

RegularGuy

Two thhings helped me to break a two-pack-a-day addiction: Reese's peanut butter cups and riding my bike. I've given up the candy. I still ride.