Originally Posted by
JW in AK
I don't ride outdoors in winter. We get down to only about 3 hours of daylight and can have stretches of more than a month when the daily high temperatures don't get above -30 degrees. I've seen the fatbikers out there in the worst of it but it doesn't look fun. I've got studded tires for my mountain bike to ride in the shoulder seasons when temps might be in the positive teens or single digits but once the thermometer goes negative so does my attitude about zooming around on a bike.
I had a paper route out in Westgate. Foot only. The great thing about winter in Fairbanks is no wind. Biking would introduce unwelcome wind. Frostbite scars used to be a sign of the true sourdough. One can toughen the body against cold, just by exposure. I have a riding buddy down here who grew up in an igloo on the Kobuk. He used to swim under the ice during breakup. Gotta do serious stuff to prove yourself if you're a white guy out in the villages. Down here, he'd show up for a ride when it was snowing in MTB shorts and no gloves. I wouldn't put long johns on under my blue jeans until it was colder than -11°. Gotta harden up.
I've gone wussy now. No rain riding when it's under 40°. We did a 75 mile ride on our tandem a few years ago when it poured all day at a steady 36°. That was the end of that.