willydstyle

Do you cycle the same, more, or less, and what transportation (or non-transportation) modes end up replacing cycling?

SamSpade1941 

Ill freely admit I am not a foul weather cyclist. I dislike riding in the rain and will not unless I am caught in it. I had a bike crash in the early part of November after riding onto a portion of a trail that had wet leaves on it. Those things are super slick and the bike just got sucked out from under me. So unless I get caught by a storm while out riding most likely I will continue to avoid riding in wet conditions.

willydstyle

Yeah, I'm super paranoid about slick leaves and ice. My biggest hangups are infrastructure-related though.

My commute is mostly trails and bike lanes, with a few short sections where I have to mix it up with traffic. The thing is though that the bike lanes are narrow, don't have any buffer from automotive traffic, rarely get the debris and glass cleaned out of them, and the drivers around here have a hard time seeing me when it's light out, so riding in poorly-maintained bike lanes alongside clueless drivers in the dark is just not appealing to me. The trails flood in the winter and are heavily cracked and ridged by roots. So I end up riding my bike to the train (~3 mi total commute) rather than riding my bike all the way home (14 mi).

Walter S

I bike the same. Winters are pretty mild here. It might be 35F in the mornings and sometimes in the 20s. Not hard to dress for.

CliffordK

I'm pretty much car free... and away from public transport. So, the biking is the same, although I may not be out quite as frequently.

Currmudge

Temps...no big deal. Depth of snow...BIG deal. Side streets get plowed maybe 1x/year, and we get snow measured in feet every winter. Also, when snow packs down, it turns to ice.

THIS year, studded tires are going on tomorrow.

B. Carfree

On those rare occasions when our water goes to from liquid to solid, I prefer to not ride. When ice happens, I tend to walk a lot more for my errands and such and I just skip my usual morning joy ride of 35-150 miles. I have gone out for a few joy rides and been surprised to find sheets of ice as I crested hills, but not too often.

Rain doesn't cause me to make any changes at all. I rather enjoy riding in the rainy season since traffic tends to be lighter (except in December, but our rainy season runs from mid-October to sometime between April and July, depending on the year).

fietsbob

(I Don't do BF polls)


I'm going to Pump Up the tires on My studded tire Bike .. Ordered some Add On 'street crampons' for my shoes ..

will be here next week .. May get some beach sand to put on the porch-deck..

JoeyBike

I thought ahead and live in location with a mild climate. It almost never gets below freezing in New Orleans and snows about once every 5-10 years. Equipment-wise I could survive single digits for a few days. My wife and I used to do some mountaineering. I just wouldn't want to bulk up quite that much to ride my bike so I would call it quits at 0*F. Ice? I have a fat bike that runs of 5psi tire pressure. I imagine it would be OK too.

Therefore...I checked the "Bike the Same <7 Mile Commute" button.

cooker

I avoid biking on ice, and it turns out that also usually means not biking below about -5C/23F as there is typically ice or snow on the street if it is that cold, or the threat of it. So even if the streets are clear, I don't usually bike to work for about 1/4 - 1/3 of the year. My office was 8 km from work and it moved to 11 km from work 2-3 years ago and the public transit is more inconvenient, so I am finding it much more tedious to get to work by bus or subway now - over an hour instead of 45 minutes.

badger1

Much like cooker, me. Bike and I are pretty much inseparable March through November. Cold doesn't bother me in and of itself, but I will not ride once the roads ice/snow up until they clear. So, getting to/from work switches from bike to transit right around now.

That said, roads are still clear today (Dec 7), so rode to work and will add on an hour or so (loop) on the way home tonight. Snow expected tomorrow.

willydstyle

I woke up this morning and saw frosty streets and decided to just take transit rather than my normal bike/transit mix. I'm *really* paranoid of falling on icy roads, because it's happened to me several times, and it just seems inordinately dangerous when you're in traffic with cars who don't bother to slow down for icy conditions.

wolfchild

When I first became car-light many years ago, I didn't care about how bad the weather was. I just got on my bike every morning and commuted to work, no matter how much snow, how much ice or how cold it was out there...I did have a choice I could of driven my truck but I chose to bike everyday. When I was car-free for few years I never used public transit and rode my bike during the worst weather conditions ....But now I don't do that anymore, I will often drive on the very bad days...sometimes I still bike in bad weather.

Dahon.Steve

What about those that don't cycle for transportation anymore?

I've stopped riding to work because it became a hassle carrying extra clothing, changing clothes in public rest rooms before heading to the office. I'm almost 50 and can't take of risk of getting into an accident and breaking bones!

Transit options are abundant:

Rain/Freezing Cold -- Bus/Subway/lightrail
Snow -- Mexican Jitney van / Subway

Ekdog

Like you, I'm a big fan of mass transit, but I'm almost 60 and can't take the risk of not getting enough exercise, so walking and cycling continue to be important parts of my transport routine.

cooker

I encouraged someone to push his limits once, and he broke his arm. I don't do that anymore

mconlonx

When I was bike commuting in Boston, I tended to bike less and take public transit more. It doubled my commute from 25 to 50 minutes, but due to cold and ice, it was safer and warmer...

willydstyle

I guess you could say you cycle the same then

JoeyBike

I remember a story maybe 10 years ago about the mayor of Barrow, AK biking to work ever day of the year. That's above the Arctic Circle for those of you not familiar with geography. Not sure how many miles. Maybe someone with time can look it up.

wipekitty

When the weather gets a bit nasty, I switch bikes. For mud/sludge/light snow/melty stuff, I turned an old road bike into a fixed gear with cyclocross tires. For packed snow, glare ice, and crusty winter stuff, I put a pair of studded tires on an old mountain bike. If there is ice, I end up walking less because I have better balance on studded tires.

That said, my recreation miles and bike time go down a bit - winter biking is fun, but harder on my body than summer road biking. I also try to deliberately combine errand trips to spend less time around shopping centers on narrow roads (bike lane = dumping ground for snow.)

Roody

I'm pretty much like you. I find biking with studded tires to be safer than walking when it's icy. But I do continue walking, especially now that I find cycling more difficult due to health conditions. I also do less recreational cycling in the winter, but about the same amount of transportation cycling.

However, I do a lot of ice biking, so my biking time picks up during cold winters with low snowfall. I don't know what it is, but I LOVE riding on the frozen lakes and rivers!

wolfchild

Full of self-contradictions...How can you bike less and bike more at the same time ???...Ice biking is recreational winter cycling...So here you claim to ride less due to poor health and then you say you do a lot of ice biking, an activity which requires a person to be in really good health... Something just doesn't add up here.

wipekitty

I suspect that Roody just meant more riding in winters with low snowfall compared to winters with heavy snowfall. Being on the edge of the Lake Effect Zone, Lansing's winters can be hit or miss.

One winter when I lived around there, I biked everywhere. Another winter, I left my bike chained outside (horrors) all winter and walked...a lot. Personally, if I still lived in a lake effect zone, there's a good chance I'd succumb to the cult of the Fat Bike.

Regardless, let's get out and enjoy the snow, regardless of how we're getting around!

fietsbob

Last week I did Pump Up the Tires on the Old MTB, equipped with the studded Tires, ..

Safe , But , I dont live in Portland and the snow that turned PDX into a Body Shop Tow Truck Bonanza , never made it to the coast.

Roody

The best winters for ice biking are the very cold ones, when you feel more confident of the ice. There's typically less snow in very cold weather also, which makes the ice nice and clear for bicycling.

You're right abou the lake effect snow. Even inland here in Lansing, we often get an inch or two a day throughout December and early January--in addition to the regular weather systems that bring the big snowstorms. An inch or two isn't much--but it adds up pretty quickly! When Lake Michigan mostly freezes over, the lake effect snow finally stops. The plus side is that the Great Lakes moderate temps somewhat--so that our temps are a few degrees warmer than in Wisconsin, for example.