IR Baboon

Griddle, I'm a pilot by trade. I'm not afraid to fly, and its only as dangerous as you make it. I was more referring to embracing life and all it has to offer. Winter cycling is one of those unique things that only require you to reach out and grab it to enjoy.

Captain Blight

"Listen, buddy, I don't know how they do things where you're from, but 'round these parts people don't generally talk to heavily armed homicidal maniacs in that tone of voice." It works even better if you can cross one eye and make it twitch a little.

gerv 

They'll probably stop doing this after two weeks... perhaps a more entertaining office drama will happen before that.

wolfchild

Not everybody out there thinks that winter cyclists are crazy. I went to the store today to buy few things and as I went outside to unlock my bike, a man with a small child and his wife came up to me and started to ask me all types of questions about winter cycling. They were just a very casual fair weather type of cyclists and they wanted to know few things about winter riding. I told them that I was a year round cyclists and they thought that it was great. I was very happy to answer some of the questions that they asked me.

nashcommguy

+1 Have been cycle-commuting since February 1989 year round. The strangest comment in all that time was from a co-worker who asked derisively at the lunch table, "What are you trying to prove?" I asked, "Is there something in this that says I'm supposed to care what you think?" Followed by an uncomfortable silence for a while. Mostly, I try to answer questions w/t thought of encouraging them to try it out. I'm still waiting on my first convert.

stancho

Winter cycling is totally normal over here.

Fynn

If you it is 10F outside and you spray your bike down with water before mounting it naked and then ride 30 miles one way to work you are probably crazy. Otherwise if you are riding a meager 3 miles to work on a bicycle with proper clothing, you are very practical.

tligman

All year I've had a bunch of people asking me if I'm going to keep doing it when the weather gets rough, and as the winter weather started they were more surprised that I was riding than impressed, but I've been careful to point out that the weather here is only bad for a handful of days all winter, and "annoying" the rest of the time. Then one of the bad days hit and I got home in < 30 minutes while most of the people who drove to work needed 2+ hours to get home. Guy with the office across from mine took 30 minutes to drive home, but only after 2 hours of sitting in the parking garage trying to get out.

Two of them pulled their bikes out of storage to ride in next time the weather gets awful. The streets were like a parking lot, making the bike ride a whole lot safer, and my work buddy that I ride with and I just pedaled right on past them. It was pretty awesome My favorite part, however, was the parking lot behind my apartment building. Hadn't been cleared at all and the snow was almost up to my hubs. I rode through it like it was empty and clear and finally made it through the gate without pausing... of course then a girl walking a dog startled me enough to fall off, but it was great anyay

paul2432

You don't owe anyone an explanation (except your spouse if you are married). That said, if you want to explain then tell them about your preparations. I assume you have convinced yourself that it is safe.

Paul

AdamDZ

Yup, you are crazy by the society standards, me and others here too, LOL, he he he... but that's cool, they don't have to be your standards too Naysayers? Ignore them, they'll eventually get used to it and stop. A lot of that is envy and jealousy too, I'm sure.

AdamDZ

Ha ha! Great story. My coworkers admitted bicycle superiority over the city mass transit and driving in bad weather, but none of them has the guts to try cycling to work

Drakonchik

Tell them that many of your ancestors from times past had to do hard physical work all year round with very simple clothing and equipment and often walking or on horses and that you're only trying to be half as tough as your ancestors.

drewdiller

What I think is crazy is not dressing for the weather and frigidly hustling from a heated structure, to a heated vehicle, and into another heated structure. What if your heated vehicle breaks down, then what?

If you can get people interested in your gear and talking about it, it distracts from the crazy factor.

gerv 

Yes but Norwegians and Canadians are tougher than most.

AdamDZ

Something like that happened last Winter somewhere in upstate NY. An older couple's car broke down later during the evening, little traffic, out of cellphone range, inadequate clothing, no flash lights, no idea how to deal with the situation. I don't remember if both of them or just one died by the time someone has found them. And we're not even talking here about great outdoors. This was couple of miles from towns. They just had no idea how to deal with such situation and didn't have adequate clothing. They could probably walk to a town if they could keep warm enough. They just hopelessly stayed put.

I see that behavior all the time: total trust for the car in bad weather. I always carry warm clothes in the car if I drive out of the city in Winter.

Jim from Boston

After years of near daily year-round commuting, I've already got my reputation (in my own mind as "Road Warrior"). Now, one of my best motivations to ride on nasty days is to see how often I'm asked, "You didn't ride your bike today, did you?" It always seems to be asked that way, in the negative.

I left this morning at 5:45 AM on my 14 mile commute at 18*F with an approximate cross/tailwind of 15 mph. Just as I was typing this post, one of the early morning people at work asked me that question, in the usual manner. My reply was "I'm glad you asked me that."

When I stopped to buy a newpaper at mile 7, a lady said in a friendly way, "You're either great or crazy," and I told her it was the former. As she came out of the store she told me with encouragement to be careful. However, some of the rare petulant comments I have encountered at work are about the issues of safety for me, and the drivers. My replies to that are to emphasize my precautions and point out that my routes are really pretty safe--reverse commuting direction, early in the morning; and I usually take a train home at night.

tornado60

Just remind them your vehicle never fails to start because the cold got the battery, the fuel line froze, or something.

dcrowell

We just had a (minor) ice storm. It was enough to close the schools for three days though.

I had someone say something to me about riding my bike to work, and I said "I thought about driving, until I noticed my truck was covered in ice." That got a smile.

xtrajack

I had an appointment the other morning after work, that necessitated taking my wife's car to work. It happened to be on a night when it was unseasonalably warm, I was asked why I didn't ride the bike, I told them that it was too warm. The next night it was about 5 F, I rode in that night. My coworkers think that I am a mite touched.

arctic hawk

My winter round trip is about 15km. There are only a handful of days where riding is really really tough, if not near impossible (snowstorm/freezing rain) in which case, I run instead.
As for colleagues, they have seen me on the bike since 2003. Every year, after a major snow fall, I get the same old smell. It gets even funnier when the storm starts in the middle of the work day & all the self proclaimed "leaders" are lining up reasons why they should leave earlier from work to avoid traffic & for some odd reason, the complete opposite applies to certain others that can stay later.

nvincent

Honestly, I used to think winter riders were crazy too. I used to just ride from Spring to Autumn and then take the bus the rest of the year. But then I noticed a lot of immigrants on department store bikes riding through all kinds of weather. I thought maybe they didn't want to waste money taking the bus or they just weren't going all that far to begin with. But I thought they don't seem crazy to me and if they could do it on those cheap bikes, then I could do it too. I also hated taking the bus and I wanted to save some money. I tried it and it went surprisingly well the first time. The cold temperatures never really prevent me from riding as long as I'm bundled up. Only when it's a heavy rain or heavy snow do I consider not riding. My co-workers have called me crazy but I just think I'm a badass for riding through that.