It’s January and I should be spending all my bike time on groomed bike trails through the north woods. After a incredibly late start to winter things were finally settling into normal winter riding conditions two weeks ago. That weekend was spent hiking and winter camping instead of taking advantage of the nicely groomed trails. 

And then the weather changed again. We had nearly two weeks of above normal temperatures and rain. Rain in January is extremely rare here. We had a record high, or two, with the temps running 30 degrees above normal. It felt like April. 

The groomed trails disappeared or became covered in ice. I hear many of them were still rideable, but studded tires were required. I’ve been riding my Surly Pugsley on snow for 11 winters and have never felt the need to spend money on studded fat tires. In normal years it gets cold enough we don’t get a lot of freeze/thaw cycles that cause icy trails except in the late Spring. I would estimate I have felt the need for studded tires on off-roads trails less then 1% of of the time over the 10,000 miles I’ve ridden on snow with my fatbike. But the past few weeks that would have been the only way to ride and stay upright. I might reconsider the need for studded tires on my fatbike if our winters become milder like this year. 

With icy trails I pulled out the all-weather A-train this weekend and rode the streets of Duluth. Ironically this bike has studded tires. No need for the studs because the roads were clear and dry. 

This is a series of posts aimed at the beginning winter rider. More seasoned riders may also pick up a few tips along the way. It contains tips and strategies for staying safe and warm when enjoying the outdoors during the most beautiful season…winter.

So you’re new to this bicycle commuting thing. You started riding in May when the weather was nice. Over the summer you increased the number of days commuting by bike, per week, from one or two days to five days a week. Congratulations! That’s a big accomplishment and it’s makes you feel amazing. You feel like you can now ride through anything. You enter the Fall months. It’s gets colder and wetter and less fun. But over time you figure it out. You’re still feeling good about it but you know winter is coming. You’d like to try riding through the winter, but how do you do it? To try and get more information you do an internet search for winter bicycling commuting tips. And a picture like this comes up:

Now take all of this with a grain of salt. Dressing for winter is a very individual task. The clothing and equipment that works varies from person to person. The money you can spend on clothing and equipment can be astronomical. Or you can use other outdoor gear you have laying around. I cringe at the picture you see above. I have been commuting in harsh winter conditions for many years and I can honestly say I have never, ever, looked like the picture above. I wore a balaclava (an item every list mentions) once…..I repeat….once on a bike commute and swore never to wear one again. I felt like I was suffocating inside the thing. My nose runs in cold weather and there was no easy way to to blow my nose with it on. It filled with my own snot….yuck! I wear a neck gaitor I can easily pull down to vent or take care of a runny nose. Balaclavas are not easy to get on and off if you are getting to warm.

My head runs very hot, even in sub-zero weather. If I wore a balaclava, ski goggles and a hood over it all, my head would be soaked with sweat by time I reached the top of the first hill.

Googles? I’ve  worn them twice in blizzard conditions. I find it quite un-nerving the way they block my peripheral vision. Specially when riding in traffic.  I felt like I was in a fishbowl. In the winter I rarely wear eye protection because of my hot head. I can fog any lens in any temp below 50F degrees. Yet, I have never frozen my eyeballs. Not even when I’ve been out in sub-zero temps for 10 or 12 hours during some winter ultra races. On rare occasions I will wear eye protection. Usually when there is sleet coming down. Or I’ll put them on for longer downhills if there is any type of precipitation falling from the sky. Also for winds over 30 mph (we get those a lot in the shoulder seasons living next to Lake Superior). I wear these:

These wrap around safety glasses offer as much protection as goggles without blocking any of my field of vision. And they only cost 7 bucks.

Another tip I’ve noticed on multiple winter cycling lists is: Don’t bring your bike inside where it’s warm. Keep it outside so that any ice or snow doesn’t melt. Bringing it back and forth between cold and warm air causes condensation inside your frame. My response is, “Yeah, so what”!! If that’s a problem then you should also add to the list: Never ride your bike in the rain. What happens when you ride in the rain? Water gets inside the frame. That’s a non-issue. Of course it helps if you have your steel frame properly treated with Frame Saver or some other rust inhibitor. But even if you don’t, it would take 15 or 20 years before a frame would fail due to damage from condensation.

If you never bring your bike inside, then you’re probably not cleaning it. The one single thing that will help your bike survive winter more then anything else is frequent cleanings. Any day that you ride in wet conditions, winter or summer, your bike needs to have the chain cleaned, dried and lubed. If you are using rim brakes, your rim sidewalls and the brake pads need to be cleaned as well. If you leave your bike outside and never clean it, components will start to work less and less efficient each day. In harsh winter conditions they will begin to not work at all. Derailleurs will fail to shift and brakes will not stop you. To properly take care of your bike in the winter, bring it inside.

Another one from those lists: Buy a beater for riding in the winter. This one can be good advise, but it’s not the only way to do it. A beater can be good for many reasons. If you lock up in a high theft area, or you have a short commute. If you live where winter is short.

I tried a beater for some years. The idea is not to expose your expensive summer bikes with expensive components to winter conditions. Many locales use salt and/or sand on the roads. This can destroy components. But guess what kind of components it destroys the quickest. Cheap stuff. I learned you can extend the life of components if you clean them properly. It takes a whole different level of commitment though. Of course my definition of beater and your definition of beater may be different. My beater was a 1987 Specialized Rock Hopper. An old mountain bike. After many years of winter riding, it is still in use. But I’ve replaced it with a different bike for winter.

I define the length of winter based on when the first snowfall happens and lasting until they clean the streets of all the sand and salt in the Spring. Where I live winter can start as early as the last week of October and stretch until the last week of April or first week of May.  That means winter can be six months of the year in Northeastern Minnesota. I got tired of riding a beater daily for six months out of the year. I wanted to ride a bike that rode nicer then a beater. Over the years I learned to build up bikes with components and drivetrains that were impervious to the salt and grit. I ended up designing a bike and having it custom built specifically for use in the winter. When it was all done, my winter commuting bike became my most expensive bike I ride. The exact opposite of a beater.

This bike can run all winter without having to be cleaned thanks to an internally geared hub, a belt drive, disc brakes, sealed BB, sealed bearing headset and a corrosion resistant frame made from aircraft quality stainless steel tubing.  Yes it’s over the top. And yes, I want to make sure I have a secure spot to lock it up wherever I go. But it’s an extreme example to show you that you have other options other than riding a beater around all winter.

Can you tell I’m not a fan of “lists”? I suggest you use the lists as a starting point. And then find out what works for you.

Four seasons of cycling. I’m fortunate to live in a place that has four distinct seasons of weather. Winter lingers the longest in our climate….as long as six months out of the year. That’s okay because winter is my favorite season. In 2016 I continued to ride bicycles through all four seasons, in all kinds of weather. However, the way I ride has been shifting for several years. With a job change and physical complications, I have moved away from using bicycles as transportation. I use them more for recreational pursuits these days.

Back in the years between 2005 and 2012 I wrote another blog. It had a good following. I won’t mention the name of the blog because it isn’t out “there” anymore. Although there are a few backdoor ways to see some of the posts.  I didn’t have a particular theme when I started writing that blog, other than bicycles. It ended up chronicling my transformation from a three season bicycle commuter into a hard-core-ride-in-any-weather four season commuter. Also in 2006 I was one of the first people to buy into the concept of fat-tired bikes. My number of views on blog posts would multiply by 5 times when I wrote about fat-tire biking on snow back then. With that blog I became the guy who would ride to work in any weather no matter what, every day of the year. I once had a streak of riding to work every day that lasted 22 months. The streak only being broken by my wife’s serious illness that required me to drive to work several days while she was hospitalized.

2016 is the year I finally came to the realization I’m not that guy anymore. I’ve always have had a hard time recovering from hard efforts. This dates back to high school when I road raced in the summer and ran cross-country in Fall. I ended up quitting both due to my inability to recover. I recall being so burned out from three years of road racing I needed to take a break. I never went back to it. I quit the high school cross-country team in the middle of the season in Senior year because the coach had us running competitions twice a week and interval training on two other days. I couldn’t bounce back from the competitions, let alone the competitions plus intervals. I told the coach this. He didn’t listen. I quit.

In my mid-20’s I decided to run a marathon. I trained for a year. At the peak of my training I was running twice a day, 20 miles per day, six days per week. I was also working a 12-14 hour night shift for a trucking company as an Operations Supervisor. I got so burnt out that one night my body shut down. I overslept for 8 hours. In the process I turned off the snooze alarm every 9 minutes, in my sleep, for 8 hours. My work was so concerned when I didn’t show up for my shift they sent someone over to my apartment to check on me. I slept through their knocking on my front door and bedroom window. I slept a total of 16 hours.

I mention all these examples, there’s many more, because as soon as I say I have a hard time recovering, people instantly provide me with the name of the latest recovery drink that works for them. This includes my doctor who is a cyclist. I have this conversation with him once a year at my Annual Physical Exam. I’m sorry, but this isn’t solved by a recovery drink. I don’t have a clear reason why this happens. I have many theories that go through my head: it’s hereditary, it’s complications from years of un-diagnosed Celiac Disease, I’m not a natural athlete?? Who knows.

What I do know is that it gets progressively worse as I get older. Two years ago I started to discover I was having a hard time feeling fresh for my weekend recreational rides after five days of work commutes.

Not only was I not feeling like I had fresh legs, I was exhausted by the end of the week. At that time I decided to put more of a priority on my recreational riding. I haven’t owned a car since July of 2002. The use of our one car in our household wasn’t an option because my wife uses it. I decided I wanted a little more freedom then the local bus schedules allowed for without buying a car. In May of 2015 I bought a new bike that had a motor other then my own:

For the past two summers I’ve done a mix of commuting on this and my bicycles. It has changed the way I ride. For the first time in many years I felt I had fresh legs when I headed out for a leisurely ride on the weekends. I wasn’t riding my bicycles as often, but every ride I did was fun, rather then a slog.

A job change occurred that further changed the way I use bikes for commuting. After working the same job for 14 years and having a secure place to lock up my bike, and a place to change and keep my clothes, I now work somewhere without any of that. The only bike that works for this job situation is my folding Brompton. But even then I take a chance where I’m leaving it during the day.

2016 was the first year in as long as I can remember that I didn’t log my daily miles. I always had a goal in mind of the number of miles I wanted to do each year. This led to a lot of rides I would do just to keep my daily average up. Removing the pressure of a yearly goal also increased the “fun” factor of the riding I was doing. If I felt like going for a 10 or 15 mile ride instead of a 30 mile ride, that was fine. This was a whole new way of thinking for me. It really set me free in way. The reason I know that is because for the first time in a decade or more, I enjoyed my riding. Every ride became enjoyable. I tried new kinds of rides. With the huge expansion of mtb trails into my part of town, I was able to enjoy some dirt rides. A form of riding that would definitely cut into my yearly mileage goals in the past. I found a lot of pleasure being out in the woods on a bike.

In the end, these were huge changes. I honestly can say I miss my daily bike commute I did for 12 years. I long for it for like a lost love. But I’ve come to the realization my body is changing with age and I can’t do what I used to do. I can’t even do what other fit people my age can do. I made the conscious choice not to compare myself to what others can do and to what I used to be able to do. I focus on what I can do today. The important thing is, I still love my bicycles and I still love riding them. I’m looking forward to many more fun rides in 2017.