Any tips for Winter Cycling?

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Okay, I currently own a multi-speed mountain bike which I use for road cycling in the great city of Winnipeg. I am currently thinking of continuing to utility bike well past fall into the winter. Winnipeg is a city that gets dry, crisp cold air in the winter, is very windy, and is colder than Chicago (as a matter of fact, I believe it has the coldest median temperature of any 500,000+ populated city in the world).

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6_AdxTzlVG0[/youtube]

I've read a few tips from here

http://biketothefuture.org/commuter-cyc ... -rewarding

and here

http://www.naturalcycle.ca/files/wintercyclingtips.pdf

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8i7vcboSje0[/youtube]

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EhEW-45yi6k[/youtube]

Any thing else I should know? And, also, am I insane?

I would have tires with decent tread on them, as you are going to need good traction in the snow. Smooth tires would be bad Winter, as they don't provide much traction in snow.

hi M.P., the biggest problem i had when riding in very cold weather was trying to keep my feet warm. used two pair of very thin socks, sometimes three and as i was using toe clips, i had those neat nylon covers that went over the clips as wind breaks. i assume you're using newest pedals that you lock your foot into, so no covers for those that i know of. rides over an hour just turned into misery......so that's when i would run. live in a much milder climate than canada so not so drastic for me. people have gotten frostbite due to riding in really cold weather, so be careful.

the newest indoor trainers are really excellent, so you might look at one of those. i had the old roller trainer and would try to stay on it for 4 or 5 hours.....BORING......and watched a lot of movies doing it.

when you're cold and wet and miserable while you're slogging away, remember some of us would give almost anything to be able to ride along side of you.

Nope, you're not insane at all. Hitting the ground covered in snow wearing thick clothing is way better than hitting the dry concrete with shorts on. Make sure you don't oversteer since it'll cause rapid momentum shifting. Keep the corrections small and smooth. Make sure you keep yourself hydrated if you're biking for longer than an hour as the decreased blood volume can cause hypothermia and frostbite. Your biggest enemy isn't temperature but the wind. Exercise of course raises your body temperature from raising your metabolism, so worry about the wind freezing your skin.

I used to do it. Let's see...

Fenders are a double edged sword. In deep snow, take them off, however if you're just riding on the road and it's wet and sanded, with just some slush or whatever, then put them on. Without them, your back will be covered with dirt. You'll really need fenders if you plan to go anywhere at all where you care how about how you look.

What's gonna surprise you, though, road bike wheels/tires work better in the snow. In general on any wheeled vehicle, thinner tires with less contact patch work best in snow. First, there's the possibility (not entirely scientific) that thinner tires, since they're thinner, they can "cut" through the snow easier, where a wider tire has to "plow" it more. The more scientific reason is pressure. If you have the same weight on something thinner, the thinner thing will apply more pressure to whatever surface. If you need a metaphor for this, think of a bamboo garden stake, now think of a telephone pole, which one is easier to push into the ground? Car tires follows the same rule, if your car tires are 215mm across, for snow tires, you might use a 185mm wide tire. If they're 195, you might use 155 or 165mm, etc, if you don't believe me, go on tirerack and look at normal tires and snow tires and compare sizes.

I used a road bike when I biked in the snow, I don't think I was very successful with a mountain bike or I didn't try that much. If you wanna keep your mountain bike for the snow, it'll probably work, but it'll be way harder to pedal for the reasons above, especially through deep snow. Hell, mountain bikes in general I consider completely pointless overkill to ride around on the street unless your city looks like Escape from New York, so I do have that bias, keep that in mind. If you got the money to switch tires, look for the thinnest tires you can fit on (however slicks might not be ideal, but you don't need monster truck tires either, if you get what I mean.)

One thing I'd say, braking, brake early in the snow (or sometimes rain even), and use your rear brakes more. I'm used to using like 90/10 front brake when I ride my bike, so in winter, I fell a few times from braking too much with my front, as if your front wheel slides, you're almost guaranteed to fall, as you have no steering ability (in technical terms, this could be called understeer) however if your rear wheel slides out, you can steer it with your nonsliding front wheel. In motorsports, it's called oversteer, and results in drifting, powersliding, etc if it's sorta...allowed by the driver, you're gonna have to get used to the feeling when you're on your bike in the winter. I mean, most of this stuff, you'll figure out from trial and error, and just probably do it without thinking, but yeah.

As far as clothing, etc, wear what's comfortable, then again for me, I never had specific cycling clothing, I'd ride my bike anywhere in anything. You're gonna need gloves, obviously. I usually wore like, lined work boots/hiking boots in the winter on my bike. Oh, you're likely going to want a balaclava facemask, too, as the wind in your face from you travelling will beat it hard. I personally enjoyed wearing a windbreaker with just a long sleeve or thermal shirt underneath, or a hoodie. I don't know, winter dress will be whatever your preference is, but a balaclava is a great thing to have.

Last advice, uh... plan a little extra time to get places obviously, it is winter and you are on a bicycle, you're not going to go any faster. Oh, keep your bike maintained, too. The road salt will eat up chains and stuff if they're not well oiled all the time.

Other than that, have fun, most of my best cycling memories are in the winter. I gotta get back out on my bike again...

EDIT:
One advantage an MTB would have is if you need to ride over a really large packed snowbank or something, it might work better there, where it could if you do it right, work more like a snowshoe, whereas the road bike tire will sink in more. Just started watching your video and saw that, and yeah, but me I'm usually willing just to walk over stuff like that. Oh, final last thing, cars. Cars are a lot harder to negotiate with in the winter, as with the snowbank the shoulder is mostly gone. I got hit in the winter... I mean last year in CT, we had like 5 foot tall snowbanks, biking on that would have been almost suicidal, as the roads were getting dangerous and narrow for cars.

Nope. My bike is a "XTI 21DS Supercycle" that was purchased used.

I certainly have heard quite a few interesting suggestions so as to "breath" your feet while defending them against the cold. One site suggested using plastic bags to defend against wind hitting the feet.

It looks like this (this police auctioned one IS NOT mine, btw):



I was told that, given it's peculiar frame, it'd be difficult to winterize.

you can fit toe clips onto those pedals. they are very easy to get used to and let you get your foot out very quickly. there are commercial covers for clips or you can make your own. great for blocking wind and letting your feet breathe.

i think you'll find that you'll be spending a lot of time cleaning your bike. slush/salt just murders the components and must be washed off daily.

like i said, running starts to look really good at some point

ride safe

ok, a thought, i have several boxes of bike stuff stored in the garage, if you want i can dig through them to see if i still have clips/covers. if i do, they're yours. i'll never be able to use them again. let me know.

The biggest problem for me when winter riding was cold air in my lungs. If I rode too hard, and ended up breathing fast and hard, I would get way too cold on the inside.

I half solved that with a balaclava facemask. The only problem with a balaclava, if you don't wash it daily, bacteria, and you'll catch cold easier.

Thanks for the offer, but how'd you get them to Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada?

My city's roads look like the type of roads that experience a highs of 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit) in the middle of summer and lows of -30 degrees Celsius (-22 degrees Fahrenheit) regularly in Winter. It's a city whose two seasons are Winter and Construction and I regularly ride on a street which has rises mounds in the far-right lane in summer (along with considerable depressions and potholes). I've also driven over broken glass with ease and scratched the side of the sidewalk with my tire's rim while not tipping over countless times (with a road bike, I'm certain I would've fallen countless times). Immense piles of salt dumped on the roads during winter should take a a toll on the roads as well, in addition to corroding my bike.



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Winnipeg#Climate

Point taken.

gosh
i guess a tenderfoot like me has no excuses then, as up here in the great green northwest it seldom drops below 40 during the winter's day. but it rains a lot most winters. is it smart to pedal in the rain?

on a side note i've found that wearing a jock strap during the cold months is a smart move, as it keeps the jewels from freezing.

If you don't mind it, yeah. However if you don't have very well adjusted brakes, then you have less stopping power. That, and you have the same risk of catching cold/etc as walking in the rain for the same amount of time.

Overall, people have and had to do it. I'm sure many Chinese have and still do cycle in the rain all the time.

How effect is a rain jacket (and pants) and a wool undersweater at limiting the cold-inducing effect of rain cycling?

for normal people with normal metabolism and a normal body temperature regulating mechanism, your suggestion is just what the doctor ordered. but for me, who sweats profusely with minimal exertion, the problem with clothing impervious to rain, is that sweat does not readily evaporate out from it [even from goretex], neither does body heat. speaking as one susceptible to overheating from having a history of heatstroke, i can't let myself get too hot. or else. and the rain is warm enough here, even in the winter months, that it would have to be pouring down before there was any sweat-abating cooling effect. the first few minutes pedaling is freezing but i get warm rapidly, too warm. my normal fair weather [anything above 55 degreesF] bike wear is a open-armed net undershirt and hospital scrub bottoms, grippy shoes for the pedals, sweat-absorbing cotton gloves, socks and nothing else. below that temperature down to the low 40s, i put on the jock strap to keep willy warm, and a long-sleeved shirt with windbreaker and heavy gloves are added, but i always get too hot before long so i have to remove the windbreaker after abouty 15 minutes or so of pedaling. below 40F i wimp out, it's just too damned cold to avoid wearing full swaddling which makes me overheat in no time. i drip sweat even when its freezing out, if i'm doing anything above strolling. it wouldn't be as bad if my sweaty bod wouldn't be periodically freezing.