Winter riding

[Squire93]

I am relatively new to biking. I started about 3 years ago in addition to my youth. Question: How do you handle the winter? I definitely want to ride however how do you deal with the elements; rain, snow, temperature?? Any help will be appreciated.

 

[calab]

Snow and ice is the problem, studded tires and ride cautiously, or just move to a warmer climate

I am relatively new to biking. I started about 3 years ago in addition to my youth. Question: How do you handle the winter? I definitely want to ride however how do you deal with the elements; rain, snow, temperature?? Any help will be appreciated.

 

[99t4]

What kind of winter are you asking about? Yukon, Swiss Alps, Sahara Desert, Chilean Andes? It all depends on your environment. Different mixtures of precipitation and temperatures depending. Want to give you the best information.

 

[Squire93]

Appalachian mountains southwestern PA. Mostly just thinking about riding on the "nice" days. When the wind is not blowing too hard and the roads are clear. Basically asking what kind of protective clothing would you wear or are there any special items you can use to protect yourself from the cold. Thanks

 

[ginekolog]

I use skiing clothes and snow boots. No problems up to -10.

 

[99t4]

Are you going to be pedaling? If so, how much effort? Enough to heat up your body from the workload?

At the least, good gloves and neoprene overbooties.

 

[amberwolf]

There's a number of threads that have good info that may be of use to you:

This list includes many that aren't relevant, but quite a few are:
https://endless-sphere.com/forums/search.php?keywords=winter*&terms=all&author=&sc=1&sf=titleonly&sr=topics&sk=t&sd=d&st=0&ch=300&t=0&submit=Search

 

[calab]

Look into heated clothing or make your own. I plan to sew some wire into my outdoor winter clothing this year. The biggest problem is wind chill so having handlebar mittens and bash guards helps with the wind chill. Winter boots, lined jeans and snow mobile pants then for the upper its all a matter of layers.

 

[dogman dan]

Some would say where I live has no winter, near El Paso TX. But my house is at 4500 feet, so while we may not see a bit of ice, we do get some brisk mornings. When I commuted, 20 degrees going to work was not unusual.

The clothing is a lot like skiing, which I did a lot. You avoid anything too hugely heavy, and dress more in layers. This is because the temp would change a lot warmer with every hour I was out. A big heavy coat might be the last layer, but your bike then has to have a way to carry a huge coat when you take it off. Panniers. A good pair of light nylon wind pants with zippers all the way to the waist is a good starting point. If you ride in so much cold you wear insulated overalls, they still need that full zipper to vent at least. But if you are wearing some long underwear, then some pants that let you move under a nylon wind pant works ok. You gotta at least be able to pedal enough to make warmth on an e bike.

Real roadies of course, need to cool off, even in bitter cold weather. But I'm assuming you don't ride that hard.

Up top, same sort of thing, windbreaker, fleece shirt with front zip, maybe a fleece vest under that, then a normal long sleeve shirt on the skin.

As for the rain and snow,, you definitely start with fenders on the bike. No need to wear the road all wet and slushy. On a nice day, you still deal with puddles. Here they are from automatic sprinklers, but I'd still ride through puddles once they thaw. If I was to need studs, I would not ride that day. Except for a possible short snow ride, just because any precipitation is such a novelty here.

Gloves similar. Good ski gloves on some days, but mostly just a nice deerskin leather glove would do for days above freezing. Those ski gloves in the panniers, there if you need em.

 

[scianiac]

For me a big improvement for winter riding was hippo hands / pogies / big sock things that go over your grips. A set of those and you can just wear some light gloves which makes the controls easier to operate and keeps your hands very warm. Other huge thing for me was a heat exchanger mask which allows you to breath comfortably in any conditions no matter how hard you are working or how dry and cold the air is, I built mine into a balaclava so that and some ski goggles and I'm good. Those two items, some warm boots and not too heavy on the rest with layers you can remove if you're doing any real pedaling. Traction wise studded tires are great but they are pricey or janky for homemade versions.

 

[MadRhino]

In cold winter countries, city commuting on a bike in the winter is dangerous and uncomfortable to say the least. The surface conditions are changing too fast, and too often. Cars are dangerous because some days they have no brakes, poor vision, poor steering, and drivers had lost the habit of driving with bikes around. Riding snowy or icy streets is not easy already, city trafic is making it even harder, on your nerves. Then there is special care, extra maintenance to the bike, riding salted slush especially. I did it a long time, because despite the inconveniences, it is the fastest mean to commute in the city. Now I don’t work much anymore, and the bikes are sleeping in the garage most of the winter. I save myself about half the maintenance of the year, and almost all of the street crashes that I used to do.

 

[markz]

I got out the cheap ass walmart ski pants that are ripped and torn from the crank and chain and headed to the fabric store to get some very cheap end of roll fabric and scored on fleece and 1/8" thick pvc lined fabric (table covering) to shove inside the cheap pants.

I ripped the inside seam to the crotch. Both fabrics are quite expensive if not in the sale bin, $10 total for 0.5m and 0.7m
I saw a normal price of $30/sq.m on the shelves with minimum order of 1sq.m. for each fabric. It took a few hours but I got the front half done from feet to crotch and my heavy coat will cover the what I didnt get. It took 2 hrs for the left side and is well fitted with no folds, the right side took 40 minutes and is a bit off with a few slight folds. The stock insulation of the pants is pathetic, but the stock covering fabric has good wind resistance but I wanted a bit more. The bottom as pictured needs more attention as it was the last section to be sewed. I hope there is enough ventilation with the pvc lined fabric to not sweat to bad. If need be I will rip it open again to do the back half but I think body heat retention will help.

Carhartt lined jeans is good for -5 to -10c with wind chill.
Lined jeans with cheesy walmart snow pants should be good for -20c

If I cant get the duct tape residue off the walmart pants I will buy some black fabric to cover.

 

[dogman dan]

Yes, if you don't have a chain guard on the bike, a pair of gaiters could be worth the money for winter riding, just as they were for skiing for me.

Make your own shit can be an option, Back when I ski mountaineered a lot, all you could easily or affordably buy was gear for riding the lifts. I used to ski in home made long johns made from fleece, and lycra pants over that, then if really cold or for overnight in the snow hole, zip on nylon pants. Put longer zippers on many pair of jogging pants. I was very lucky to have a wife that would sew for me.

Nowdays, I have a lot more money, and riding season for motorcycles is year round if the road is not froze. Love the heavy riding pants, with tons of armor inside, and zip in insulating liners. A bit overkill, but you can get zip on wind shell pants that are real nice, but not as expensive as the armored stuff.

So you might look for deals on motorcycle stuff,,, but next year in June when its on sale.