Hey everyone, our most recent addition to the collective, Tim, wrote up a few quick tips for keeping your bicycle commute during winter. I (Jason X) added a few links to pictures and videos from around the internet to his original text:
Winter commuting by bicycle in Detroit
There are many challenges facing you when deciding to keep on riding when the weather gets cold, snowy and icy. You can make more excuses to add to Detroit specific problems of huge potholes, stop sign running drivers and the amount of broken glass and scrap metal that litter our streets. But, it’s still so much more fun getting where you’re going by bike, you just have to prepare for it.
Clothes:
- Make sure your hands, neck, face and feet have enough coverage.
- Cut off shirt sleeves or a baklava balaclava (ski mask) fit under a helmet nicely and can move around to cover as much face as you need.
- Wear gloves appropriate for skiing and maybe wool liners underneath on really cold days.
- Thick wool socks also work good under some kind of winter appropriate shoe or boot.
- For the rest of your body, just dress warmly but not so warm as to overheat. (you’ll get a feel for this as you ride frequently).
- (Jason adds: wear many layers with a windproof/waterproof layer on top when possible. Like Tim said, you want to start off cold. You will warm up as you ride. This is only untrue for hands and feet.)
Bike:
- Having clearance for some kind of knobby tire and fenders make things much better in the snow and slush.
- Choose puncture resistance tires, fixing flats when you can’t feel your fingers sucks!
- Many choose to do away with a derailleur and go with a single speed or fixed wheel to avoid iced up linkages and gears.
- Make sure you have decent lights because its dark a lot of the time
- Try wiping salt and road grime off chain often
- Its good practice to clean and re-grease all bearings on a bike after riding through winter
Riding:
- Just use common sense.
- Snow is slippery so don’t make any quick stops or turns. (Jason adds: use your rear brake mostly as this will keep your bike more stable on slippery roads.)
- Ice is beyond slippery so just ride across it like a statue
- Mellow out, your commute will most likely take a little longer in crappy weather
- (Jason adds: I ride a single speed bike in a lower gear than I usually ride which makes it easier to ride through snow and wind. I also spin more which warms me up, but it takes me longer to get places.)
Additional helpful links:
Ice Bike . org is all about biking in winter conditions
A tutorial to make your own “studded” tires for riding over ice.
Also, see Jack’s post on reusing plastic shopping bags to keep warm and dry in the winter.