Winter Is Coming - Biking in Cold Weather

ruffruff said:
Ya lets's get back on track! -35F wind chill here today! No riding for me! But I will go sit in the heated spear house!

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What’s generally the catch of the day there? Last time I went ice fishing, I was only waist high. Good times but we didn’t have the luxury of a shack. Spearing fish is something I’d like to take a stab at.

If it warms up by the afternoon, I'll try and head out but we received more snow overnight here so I doubt I'll be riding the trails.
 
Arborists jackets are wonderful for cycling. They breathe and allow for freedom of movement in all weather. They have padding and abrasion protection and pockets that can be opened with gloves. I have used one for four Winters. A base layer of cashmere helps on cold days. High quality stuff. It still looks new. Oh, that Vado thread was a joke meant to last 72 hours. It was about the fun of passing slow bikes that are overrated and over priced.
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So when did you say you were for the ride below 32 F for the last time Uma?
Regarding "smoking", go and buy yourself a motorcycle and you will "smoke" any e-bike. I did not think the e-bike speed was that important in cycling.
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As for me, I only experience issues with the blood circulation in my left leg when riding at low temperatures. For the torso, I only wear a merino long-sleeve shirt and the Helly Hansen Men's Crew Midlayer Sailing Jacket. A wonderful thing for the temperature, say, down to -3 C. It is lightweight, breathing, wind- and waterproof, short enough to not interfere with the saddle and giving a great freedom of movement. Actually, I unzip the jacked a little when riding above the freezing point.

Helly Hansen Midlayer Jacket

It seems sailors know what cold, wet, and windy weather is like!
 
Stefan Mikes said:
So when did you say you were for the ride below 32 F for the last time Uma?
Regarding "smoking", go and buy yourself a motorcycle and you will "smoke" any e-bike. I did not think the e-bike speed was that important in cycling.
---------
As for me, I only experience issues with the blood circulation in my left leg when riding at low temperatures. For the torso, I only wear a merino long-sleeve shirt and the Helly Hansen Men's Crew Midlayer Sailing Jacket. A wonderful thing for the temperature, say, down to -3 C. It is lightweight, breathing, wind- and waterproof, short enough to not interfere with the saddle and giving a great freedom of movement. Actually, I unzip the jacked a little when riding above the freezing point.

Helly Hansen Midlayer Jacket

It seems sailors know what cold, wet, and windy weather is like!
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😤 You go Popeye!
 
Prairie Dog said:
What’s generally the catch of the day there? Last time I went ice fishing, I was only waist high. Good times but we didn’t have the luxury of a shack. Spearing fish is something I’d like to take a stab at.

If it warms up by the afternoon, I'll try and head out but we received more snow overnight here so I doubt I'll be riding the trails.
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You are only allowed to spear Northern Pike. They are a very boney fish but the meat is tasty. My buddy pickles them and bones dissolve and they end up like firm hearing.
 
it was about 25 today. my tubeless tires were low fun day to fill them they were fine yesterday so I guess. the cold got them. I had a docs appointment but I got a call at 6:30 am tell me my doc was sick. I helped my bill wife walk to the dentist then rode to work. no biggie riding but it's hard to keep warm walking.
 
When I was a kid there in the 60s, one year we were able to walk onto the roof of our house by building steps in a snow drift.
Shallow pitched roof on a Mid Century style house.

Great place to grow up - and as it turns out, was living less than a Km from my normal bike buddy Louis.
Of course we didn't meet until we were well into our 60s and living in Calgary.

I do remember riding my bike there in the winter occasionally, but absolutely nothing like we do today.
 
RandallS said:
When I was a kid there in the 60s, one year we were able to walk onto the roof of our house by building steps in a snow drift.
Shallow pitched roof on a Mid Century style house.

Great place to grow up - and as it turns out, was living less than a Km from my normal bike buddy Louis.
Of course we didn't meet until we were well into our 60s and living in Calgary.

I do remember riding my bike there in the winter occasionally, but absolutely nothing like we do today.
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Montreal I’ve heard has great bike infrastructure, relatively speaking. It consistently ranks first of all major Canadian cities. Edmonton (our fair capital), for the most part, looks like it could use a bit of TLC though I’ve heard that their council is seriously considering expanding the bike network over the next few years. Interesting to see this fellow make his commute from the west end to the downtown core on an unusually warm day in January.


For a city of our size, I can get to any part of town with relative ease mostly utilizing the paved/winter maintained MUP’s and access to the trail system of pathways is also conveniently close from my doorstep. The municipality also does a good job of plowing snow in timely fashion. Bike lanes though are a joke as most are covered in snow during the winter months and so never get used until the big melt.


Randall, not sure how you make your way around Calgary by bike during the winter season so feel free to chime in. Actually, if anyone else wants to give their take on urban winter biking in their neck of the woods, have at it.
 
No cycling this weekend, in fact no outdoor stuff at all except for some very very quick dog walking (the old greyhound doesn't do serious cold, or snow, or really winter in general). Friday night temps are going down to a nasty -30C but with a wind chill of -45. That's really unusual for this region, it's been years since we've seen numbers like that (and you know how folks get complacent).

On the positive side with nothing close to melting the dry packed snow everywhere but the highways is really nice to ride on (with studs). Now if we could just have a good stretch of -5 -to -10, no wind and sunny ...
 
mclewis1 said:
No cycling this weekend, in fact no outdoor stuff at all except for some very very quick dog walking (the old greyhound doesn't do serious cold, or snow, or really winter in general). Friday night temps are going down to a nasty -30C but with a wind chill of -45. That's really unusual for this region, it's been years since we've seen numbers like that (and you know how folks get complacent).

On the positive side with nothing close to melting the dry packed snow everywhere but the highways is really nice to ride on (with studs). Now if we could just have a good stretch of -5 -to -10, no wind and sunny ...
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Feb 2 - Ground Hog Day...

Major windchill here which means no ride for me too. However, it appears that Wiarton Willie’s prediction of an early spring may have some merit as our temps here are expected to climb starting tomorrow and should continue to be relatively stable for the following two weeks. 🤞 Studded tires on both the vehicles and bikes won't get swapped for another two months.
 
Snow clearing in Montréal this week. Tonight's group ride was fun. Several politicians were there and a reporter from NPR. That is like our CBC or BBC radio. One politician used a swear word, so that is like a GOOOOOOL in South America. I led the ride connecting schools with shopping, safely, demonstrating transportation without cars. Snow is nice to look at. It is like a high maintenance super model you can see in a magazine or from a distance. It lasts a few hours on the mountain tops 100 Km to the North, lovely to see.
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PedalUma said:
Snow clearing in Montréal this week. Tonight's group ride was fun. Several politicians were there and a reporter from NPR. That is like our CBC or BBC radio. One politician used a swear word, so that is like a GOOOOOOL in South America. I led the ride connecting schools with shopping, safely, demonstrating transportation without cars. Snow is nice to look at. It is like a high maintenance super model you can see in a magazine or from a distance. It lasts a few hours on the mountain tops 100 Km to the North, lovely to see.
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Cool Pic PL. Thanks for sharing. I read that Montreal has exceeded their snow removal budget by $20M and that they’ve removed over 16M cu meters of snow so far. That bests their yearly average of 12M cu meters or 300,000 truckloads! o_O

Glad to hear that your ride went well and hope that your efforts are rewarded. 👍
 
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We are at the (hopefully) last days of the freezing weather during the daytime. Also, only mild snowfall has been forecast (the coming Saturday). The next days will mean rise in the day temperature from 0 to +6 C, which makes me happy. Above +4 C my feet do not get frozen! I will also be able to wear more lightweight clothes.

I cannot praise the Helly Hansen sailor's jacket more. The merino wool shirt and the jacket were enough down to -6 C and these could hold the wind as well. HH has a cult following in the UK (I was told). Do you get HH ware in North America?
 
I recently got the Savior Heat gloves that some recommended either earlier in this thread or elsewhere on the forum. I’m very happy with them so far: they really are quite effective. The gloves are pretty warm even before turning the heating function on; with it on, it really make a difference in comfort. I don’t know how they’d do in truly deep freeze conditions because I’m not comfortable riding in such conditions. It was “only” about 30 degrees Fahrenheit when I used them, but there was a strong wind and I was going 10-15 MPH for about 45 minutes, so the wind chill was quite significant.

I will note that, at least in the conditions I was riding in, I didn’t notice that much difference between the high and low setting. In other words, the difference in warmth between “off” and “low” was huge and was immediately noticeable. The difference between “low” and “high” was much more subtle. There was a difference - I rode for a while with one glove on high and the other on low, and the hand with the glove on high did feel warmer - but it wasn’t dramatic.
 
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