rumrunn6

winter riding means being prepared for a wide range of conditions, right? sub freezing!, 20s & powder, 30s & rain, deep stuff, mushy slush, ice pellets, glare ice, glorious hard pack, sun, clouds, high winds, cross winds, you name it, we face it. NE still hasn't seen a bad winter in my opinion, no blizzards yet & still haven't had a giant dumping requiring roof raking. oops just jinxed us. who knows what the rest of February & dreadful March will bring our way. get your winter cycling in before it's gone! you know you'll miss it!

so far, this year, my favorite condition, has been 20s (F) & hard packed snow

parkbrav

I like sunny, slight breeze, 30s F

mcours2006

So what do I hate the least about winter riding? Clear, clean, and dry pavement at any temperature and no precipitation.

alan s 

rumrunn6

rumrunn6

rumrunn6

that does sound pleasant

wolfchild

Ice, ice and more ice, when the entire landscape is frozen hard as a rock...Seriously the hardest part to ride through is deep snow and deep slush. It's a lot easier to ride over everything when it's frozen solid. That's exactly what we had today in my area.

ZIPP2001

I've been enjoying riding with temps in the 20's and frozen trails.

Don't worry rumrunn6 snow will be back before we know it, winter isn't going away that easy.

rumrunn6

prophetic. think I'll put the Vredsteins on my car now ;-)

Jim from Boston

what are your favorite conditions?

Quote:

Originally Posted by rumrunn6

winter riding means being prepared for a wide range of conditions, right? sub freezing!, 20s & powder, 30s & rain, deep stuff, mushy slush, ice pellets, glare ice, glorious hard pack, sun, clouds, high winds, cross winds, you name it, we face it.

NE still hasn't seen a bad winter in my opinion, no blizzards yet & still haven't had a giant dumping requiring roof raking. oops just jinxed us. who knows what the rest of February & dreadful March will bring our way. get your winter cycling in before it's gone! you know you'll miss it!

so far, this year, my favorite condition, has been 20s (F) & hard packed snow

Nice descriptions @rumrunn6. 2019 is for me a re-building year after a bad 2018 (link), so since January I've been trying to ride, on abbreviated commuter routes using Commuter Rail. As I have frequently posted:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim from Boston

I have previously posted to this thread, ”Why didn’t I ride”

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim from Boston

My job; either too much to do, so I stay (comfortably) overnight and resume very early in the AM, missing my commute; or have to travel afar for a meeting.

Having a mileage-based training schedule however, effectively motivates me to make time to ride…

And to a lesser extent, family activities. …

I have the opportunity to commute a minimal 14 miles one-way during the week (Commuter Rail home), and round-trip on Saturday all year-round, for about 100 miles a week. During the nice weather, I’d like to put in about 150-200 miles to train and do long rides.

In reality though, I probably get in about 20-30 miles per week during the winter, and maybe about 75-100 during the nice weather (to include early evening rides).

You’re cetainly right about this being a friendly winter for riding. During the single-digit, last week of January, I was (fortunately) stymied by attending a week-long conference in Boston. At such conferences I usually offer to take visitors on an evening walking tour in downtown, but no takers.

I guess my favorite Winter conditions too are mid 20’s with hardpack snow. It’s best when the winter challenge is just enough to be comfortable, and: But not so bad as when my usually understanding wife chides me:

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jim from Boston

…“You just want to ride so you can write about it on Bike Forums.”

delbiker1 

55 F to 75 F, sunny, dry with a light breeze. I actually like riding in rain/snow as long as it is not real heavy and the wind not more than 15 mph.

lasauge 

Not much of a winter to write about here this year, but my favorite conditions to ride in during winter are days with no wind, temps above the single digits, and most importantly a consistent ground cover - icy, powder, or dry are all fine by me, what makes winter riding frustrating are the days when there's patches of ice, but not enough to make the studded tires useful, or the persistent patches of ice and deep wheel-catching ruts that the freeze-thaw cycle produces.

ironwood

Dry pavement, no salt, anything above , say 25F, and slightly overcast with no blinding sun, no wind, and some sporting event such as football or Nascar races or tractor pulls keeping the pick-ups and SUVs off the road.

parkbrav

Amen, may it always be so!

ironwood

Today came pretty close to an ideal winter day for riding. Temp was just below freezing, no wind, dry. I'm pretty much acclimated to the cold by now, and I put on a silk layer under all the wool: warm as toast.

rumrunn6

haha, right on!

fietsbob

Dry , about 10C that's the best winter high and the summer low around here..

noglider 

My ideal conditions are 80ºF, sunny, dry, and not too much wind.

Oh, you asked about favorite winter conditions?

pdlamb

80ºF is getting a bit warm, 65º is better. Had that last week.

noglider 

Sure, it makes little difference to me, as long as I can wear shorts. I guess my minimum temperature for that is around 55º. I'm really OK in most temperatures, most of the time. Basically, I'm just an insensitive guy.

rumrunn6

hehe thanks for the chuckle

Jim from Boston

Quote:

Originally Posted by ironwood

Dry pavement, no salt, anything above , say 25F, and slightly overcast with no blinding sun, no wind, and some sporting event such as football or Nascar races or tractor pulls keeping the pick-ups and SUVs off the road.

+10 to overcast, especially in the AM, or PM around sunset with the sun directly at about eye level. It seems that sometime in early February though, I start to notice some welcome radiant heat from the sun.

I generally accept wind as it comes, though I record:

noglider 

@Jim from Boston, where do you get wind speed and direction? I haven't found an accurate web site. Maybe it's hard to do here, as the wind speed and direction varies from one spot to another because of how the terrain shapes the wind. There are some spots that normally have wind in reverse direction at almost all times, so I'm observing eddies.

gecho

I really enjoy towards the end of the season where there is some melting during the day and all the slush turns to ice as the sun goes down. Riding around with my studded fat bike tires making loud crunching noises. Early morning the deflating snow drifts have set up hard enough overnight to ride on top of.

Generally during the winter I'm just happy if the wind is light, which is a rarity.