Cold bike ride

[NYEngineer]

So here’s how my ride worked out. When I got time to go, the temp at my house was 27 degrees F. There is ice and snow everywhere. I drove ten minutes to the beach and my thermometer on my dashboard read 36 degrees. There was almost no wind at all which made for a fantastic ride.
It was so nice there was a handful of people in wetsuits surfing.

 

[Number_35]

View attachment 45472

Awesome! To those of us who don't live in the NYC metro area, it seems incredible that you can experience such magnificent desolation so close to such a huge city.

 

[NYEngineer]

Yep. An hour and a half on the train after work every day puts me out in the quiet. It's actually pretty incredible.

 

[Fattylocks]

Awesome! To those of us who don't live in the NYC metro area, it seems incredible that you can experience such magnificent desolation so close to such a huge city.

I see a row of houses in the background.

 

[Fattylocks]

I used to ride all year round. Studs mandatory when the single track trails would pack down to ice.

 

[NYEngineer]

I was riding on Fire Island. VERY empty in the winter. I won't ever go there in the warm weather.
Those houses are empty right now.
I park in the east most parking lot and ride east on the beach. For the first mile or so there are people walking to take pictures of the lighthouse. Once I get past where people are willing to walk distancewise, I have the whole place to myself. Very relaxing.

 

[NYEngineer]

We had stellar conditions this weekend. We have not had decent snow in two years so there was a brief learning curve as we started. Gonna be 44 and raining tomorrow so great that we got out when we did.

 

[Number_35]

View attachment 46306View attachment 46307
We had stellar conditions this weekend. We have not had decent snow in two years so there was a brief learning curve as we started. Gonna be 44 and raining tomorrow so great that we got out when we did.

Awesome! Glad you got your snow finally.

It's warming up here too, though there's enough snow that we won't lose all of it for weeks yet.

We had a good ride yesterday - 10 km each way to our first in-person church service in months. It was around -8 to -10 C, with a brisk south wind and bright sun. After weeks of prolonged cold, there must enough heat sucked out of the ground that the side roads weren't very slushy yet. The main roads are pretty much bare and dry.

 

[Kurtatron]

Those serene winter days with deep blue skies are my favorite. I miss being able to ride my bike into work during winter. Once I got a dog as a single person, I could not manage riding home on a bicycle for lunch breaks in a timely manner. I am so impressed by the European Amsterdam bikers that bike all winter long. To be honest, I wish I lived in that country so I could bike all year long also!

 

[zzyzzx]

 

[4WD]

Here is one I spotted in a cold country … but not in the winter

 

[Number_35]

Minus 16°C is not that cold for here in January, but it was clouded over and we faced strong crosswinds both ways.

Rode to La Gotta, an Italian grocery and deli, and enjoyed lunch and a hot drink

Did about 13 km (8 miles) all told.

My bride is giving a thumbs-up; a Trudeau salute would be completely out of character.

 

[MRC01]

Dang, and I thought the 14* F we had last week was cold. Not anymore!

 

[Jim K]

I do a lot of biking , but not in cold weather.

 

[Brons2]

My lower limit these days is probably around 40F, but, I have ridden down into the single digits F at a ride start when I was doing ultradistance events. The Texas Hill Country can have very interesting microclimates in cold weather, at the top of the hill close to freezing but around the creek bottom much, much colder.

SW Austin to Fredericksburg is not very fun when you start around or lower than freezing, you will freeze your (rear) off going downhill and sweat going uphill. A lot of short steep rollers. When you start getting wet from the uphills is when the misery starts.

 

[Number_35]

I do a lot of biking , but not in cold weather.

I rode to work for a couple of years in the late '90s with homemade studded tires, gave it up for couple of years, and then rode a couple more years ('02/03 and '06/07), gave it up again after a few falls, and finally got the fat bike in 2015. It was revolutionary for me.

It's way better for me to be out and active than staying in all winter.

With the right winter clothes I don't get cold. The fat studded tires keep me right-way-up.

 

[Number_35]

Dang, and I thought the 14* F we had last week was cold. Not anymore!

One gets used to it. Friends in NZ who had relocated from Norway said they found the winters very mild for the first two years, and thereafter felt the cold like anyone else.

 

[Number_35]

My lower limit these days is probably around 40F, but, I have ridden down into the single digits F at a ride start when I was doing ultradistance events. The Texas Hill Country can have very interesting microclimates in cold weather, at the top of the hill close to freezing but around the creek bottom much, much colder.

SW Austin to Fredericksburg is not very fun when you start around or lower than freezing, you will freeze your (rear) off going downhill and sweat going uphill. A lot of short steep rollers. When you start getting wet from the uphills is when the misery starts.

That sounds unpleasant! The other thing is that after sweating climbing a hill, you create your own windchill descending.