Winter Riding "Often or Not" Is it safe?

Just curious how many E-Sr's routinely ride during the winter with an E-bike? Do you use studded tires and if so what is your experience with them? DO you use them in snow that is more than an inch and if so what is your limit? Just ordered a set of Nokkian Mount & Ground 160 studded tires and plan on using these for the rest of the Fall/Winter/Early spring riding season to commute 40 miles roundtrip to work. Looking to see if any one else has a similar commuting experience and if so how the deal with the cold weather. Tomorrow will be my first Sub-freezing ride into work so it should be interesting, but I have equipped my bike with a heated jacket so I am hoping it will not even be an issue.

Currently have 800 miles on my build after a month and a half and it is still going strong. I am hoping to continue right through the winter except for maybe a few heavier snow days. Any pointers, like don't do it, will be greatly appreciated.

Posted a couple picks of my ride into work this morning with Thunder & Lightning which is rare for this time of year especially in the morning, luckily avoided most of the rain.

I'm in NYC so it's different but I've been riding through winter for many years, the last three on an ebike. I don't ride if there's snow or ice on the bike paths/roads because there just isn't enough room between me and the cars and the ice is nasty stuff. I do have a studded tire on the front although I didn't bother last year. Since it's an ebike I don't care about rolling resistance so they should be used if you have them.

As for dressing for winter, layers, and big panniers for changes along the way. I must have pretty crappy circulation because my hands and feet get cold so I have some kind of pougies on the handlebars to keep my hands inside with pretty heavy gloves or even mittens. At the bike expo this last summer I found folks selling the Bar Mitts (http://www.barmitts.com/index.php). I haven't had a chance to use them yet but they certainly seem like they're going to be great.

For the feet I just out and out cheat and have a seven year old set of Hotronic foot/toe warmers. Those were still working great at the end of last winter so I'm hoping they're still good for this year. Good battery on those guys. I tried everything else, loose socks, many socks, big boots, stopping and flexing the toes, every combination. After 10 miles my toes just got cold. Not with the Hotronics. I just flip them on the lowest or second setting and my feet are fine.

If my eyeballs start freezing (<20 F) I just don't bike. I find that under 20 F the grease starts freezing and the gears get hard to shift so it's a pain. But I never noticed that the bike battery took any significant performance hit.

Oh, don't wear cotton. Any cotton. It holds water and then gets cold. No TShirts. The base layer should be some wicking stuff - I generally use some cheap Target C9 stuff. A nice middle layer that varies in thickness depending on just how cold it is. And mostly a windbreaker on the outside. With a lot of pedaling you're going to start opening zippers after two miles or so. We put out a lot of heat biking unless the battery is doing all the work.

Yeah its huge fun and its safe.

You need at leat a 4KW setup to drive in fresh snow up to 20cm deep on flat ground.
Best are tires with >200 spikes.
Snow mud is a bitch my wh/km rise big time and i slowed down. you can see up to 50wh/km for only slow driving.

Cars here drive slow in snow they are disalowed for spike tires gives me advantage and slower cars are always safer.
Buy yourself snowboard googles a rainproof hose for snowboarders too and a good jacket too. When its under 0°C i use 12v heat gloves. i love them and would never drive without.
The only weakpoint will be your batterie it must be keept above 5°C for good performance the best option is to buy these 12v heatplates for sideview-mirrors or similar and isolate your batterie pack. a temperature gauge in batterie is advisable.

Your brakes can get glitchy if they catch much snow i have therefore warm-saltwater used.

When I get snow, I jump on and go for a fun blast through it. But mostly on dirt, so the crashes are not so harsh. No studs, just knobbies, so some crashing is more or less inevitable.

Batteries on my bike not set up so great for cold, so the voltage drops amazingly. Starting with them room temp really helps.

But for transportation in the snow day, I'll take my Subaru. Here it nearly always melts very fast, and splashed with slush all the way to the store and back is no fun.

gear up. be free. ride your ebike.

search the forum for "snow" and "studded", you'll find stuff, like Snow e-Biking Videos.

studded tires are awesome, for less than 6" snow, slush, and even esp ice (from way back):
[youtube]SFZEgE0bfeQ[/youtube]

word of warning: if you go through any salt, wash up afterwards, or else:





i never thought twice about riding in salt, but nowadays, i really wonder if it's worth it. certainly not if you can't rinse off...

Thanks Greg for the warning.

Saltwater corrodes aluminium and even V2A stainless steel can get weakened from it.

Next time i get brake problems with ice, i use spiritus/denatured alcohol.

I think it is better to avoid riding in snow and on ice.
Especially those speed savvy ebikers.
High speed = serious injuries when fall.

eBike or motorcycle I'm about as commited a rider as you will find - EXCEPT when it involves compromises in traction. Two wheels, not such a good idea to attempt commuting with serious snow and/or ice covered road surface conditions. And as evidenced above salt slush stuff is just begging to wreck your ride....

However, when it's relatively dry and surfaces clear you'll find me plugged into electric vest and winter stuff riding to work as usual. About the only thing that halts me is 15F or below as my RC Lipo simply sags too much at those temps.

unless you've tried good studs (like the marathon schwalbe winter), you can't imagine the traction.

did you see how fast i was riding on ice?

just walking on that stuff with boots was treacherous!

you don't have to ride fast either... but for me, riding to work on ice w/ studs is safer than walking 5 blocks to the metro in boots...

I commuted 20km round trip all last winter on my bike in Southern Ontario. I've been through deep snow, slush, icy conditions and stupid cold -20c not including wind chill. On slippery days I found studded tires to be essential, especially on the front. I found the grip of the studded tires in icy conditions phenomenal. With that said in the worst conditions I'd often ride on the sidewalk for safety. There were a couple days where the snow was just too deep to get anywhere on the bike, I'm talking greater than 6" of snow closer to a foot. I had a couple people shouting at me on bad days questioning my judgement but I never felt unsafe.

My hands were freezing when it got really cold out, but that was with cheap gloves or mitts, this year I'm going for pogies I think those will prove as essential as studded tires. My wife made me a turtle neck type thing from an old sweater that made a huge difference for keeping the cold out and I could pull it up over my chin for extra warmth on cold days. I found my eyes would get red and watery from the wind and extreme cold and my nose would run like crazy so I got a full face motorcycle helmet with anti fog that makes riding on cold windy days much more comfortable. I'm experimenting with do it yourself heated clothing and it's definitely nice to have, haven't got it the way I want it just yet but it's getting there.

The motor and electric stuff have held up well under these conditions. Some days I found my gears would be stuck or the free wheel wouldn't engage to pedal. I ride a cheap bike so I'm not too concerned about rust and what not. My current bike is going into its second winter. Bottom line is it's entirely possible to commute year round on the bike minus a couple days of the biggest snow storms.

I ride less mileage in the winter of course, but I ride every day of the year. Winter is hard on components, requires a lot of weekly maintenance, and a full rebuild at springtime.

I use no studs on the streets, they are snowy or icy only short periods of time before they are cleaned and salted. In the mountain I use custom studded, hard mud tires.

Safe is relative to one's personal skills and confidence. I find it safe most of the time, but some dirty traffic days are dangerous in the city, when cagers have poor vision and no brakes.

In november it just gets too damn cold for comfort. There"s good public transport out there so i don"t really need to ride to get places. My comfort limit is around +5C. This week has been warm, around +10C but next week is expected to drop a lot. I don"t like to dress thickly for riding. Cold is one thing, 20-hour darkness another. Sun"s up soon from ten am to two pm, i just hate it. With age it just gets worse. Colorado looks like Finland.

Yeah salt is bad (eat my Mavic downhill rim).
But with some heated gloves and a nice helmet winter riding is fun
So no hassle for me to ride in winter

My solution- moved somewhere where ice and snow are a figment of my imagination.
However, I do use heated clothing most the year as the outside temps average 14C (50F) and wind chill is wind chill.

Does Colorado use salt now? Back when I skied, and had my studded tire bug, I'd haul ass when I got to CO and left the salted New Mexico roads. Plowed packed and cindered road was great driving compared to salted and refrozen into black ice NM roads.

But even if they don't salt the road, the dirt on the road is saline. So all the advice about regular cleaning applies.

ddk said:

My solution- moved somewhere where ice and snow are a figment of my imagination.
However, I do use heated clothing most the year as the outside temps average 14C (50F) and wind chill is wind chill.

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Small tidbit of trivia - NOT above 50MPH wind speed IIRC....

Riding motorcycles for 40 years has taught me not to ride in bad weather, especially in if there could be snow or ice. With my E-biker there just isn't enough rubber on the road. I live in Southern California so we can ride most of the year without much problems. The problem in bad weather isn't just how the bike performs, but also the traffic. Car and truck drivers cannot often see well in bad weather, but they also are subject to skidding in bad road condition.

I rode my bike every day to work last winter. Studded tires, when the snow gets really deep it slows me down a lot, but not as much as the cars. I have found riding in the winter does pit lots of aluminum, and it may have been cheaper to just take the bus.

I got a set of suomi w240 tires towards the end of the season last year and put only maybe 200 miles on them. The tires work great, make it possible to go out. I still wouldn't go with substantial snow on the ground, as cars have no brakes. As far as salt, sure you'll need to clean up. Maybe hose it down with Boeshield first. Range and speed are reduced of course, and the ride is rougher. I recommend the Minus 33 brand of wool clothing, cheaper than most and great performance. Got a surplus Dutch goretex cold weather suit from SwissLink for $40, it works great. Try some big plastic safety glasses to keep the cold wind out of your eyes.
In general its more difficult to go out, but if the alternative is sittin' around.....

My bike is my ride year round. Warm clothes, studded tires and a frozen river = good fun.

I love winter ebiking! Road rash is a thing of the past and knee pads and snomobile mitts , full face are your best allys. I have wiped at 50km/h without a warning(but it dosent hurt on ice cause you are sliding), before i got studded tires. with studs you are ice master

I ride in the winter but be careful, it's all too easy to fall off- I got some awful arm bruises last year after hitting a patch of black ice. That was on normal tyres but there are studded tyres for when it's bad, or there's also other tyes with softer rubber so they don't get so hard in the cold. I've got Conti top contact winters to try this year if it gets cold this year.

Been riding nearly everyday for three years now. Lots of rain here but not much in the way of ice and snow. Last time I rode in the snow, with my road tires, I crashed bad at near 25MPH. I was down in an instant and did the superman type of belly slide with my arms out in front for about fifteen feet. Several inches of snow kept the abrasion level at near zero but it took three months for my arms to heal up from that one. I used to just ride my pedal bike, with big knobby tires, if it snowed think I will stick to that from now on. Really not worth buying specialty tires to use a few days a year.

found the thread if anyone wants to see the bruise again. I hope it's enough of a reminder for me to stay upright this year.

biohazardman said:

Been riding nearly everyday for three years now. Lots of rain here but not much in the way of ice and snow. Last time I rode in the snow, with my road tires, I crashed bad at near 25MPH. I was down in an instant and did the superman type of belly slide with my arms out in front for about fifteen feet. Several inches of snow kept the abrasion level at near zero but it took three months for my arms to heal up from that one. I used to just ride my pedal bike, with big knobby tires, if it snowed think I will stick to that from now on. Really not worth buying specialty tires to use a few days a year.

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Sorry I have been a bit slow responding to everyones feedback. Busy as always, "like everyone". I have already ordered and just received my studded tires today, attached a photo. I am hoping to install them this weekend sometime, although a may not need to since they are calling for high 50s to low 60s all next week. That's Denver for you, but thats why I need to be prepared because it can change literally within an hour. Sorry to here about your meeting with the ground, it sounds painful. This is why I purchased my self a dirt bike style helmet since I have a little more than 40 miles per day there is plenty of opportunity for meetings with the ground. It's because of this distance that using a pedal bike would not be an option, but thanks for the feedback. Not sure why my photo, "no matter how I orient it" keeps displaying upside down?? Guess it doesn't matter, its not a great shot anyway.