Winter cycling

[GruB]

My rear dérailleur froze one year.  I remembered a thread on here about peeing on it.  I did.  It worked just fine.

[mattc]

My rear dérailleur froze one year.  I remembered a thread on here about peeing on it.  I did.  It worked just fine.

Also works on frozen freehubs (not mine, but it happened on a Reading CTC off-road ride. Highly entertaining and educational.)

[John Henry]

Does anyone else find they bonk sooner in winter? I certainly do. So my advice is to carry plenty of rations.

And be realistic about speeds and distances, it's harder in winter so you need to recalibrate your ambitions.

+1 to all the good advice about bikes and clothes. Mechanicals are a real problem in cold weather, as you get cold fixing them (and it'll probably be dark), so try to minimise the likelihood of the happening, even if it's at the expense of riding a heavier or slower bike.

Merino base layers are just fantastic.

[Chris S]

I only have phone access to the thread at the moment, so can't be sure if this has been mentioned already, but it's possible to be too warm. This makes you sweat which is a bad thing. The Innuit say "Sweat, and you die" which is probably an overstatement in our mild climate, but the general principle holds.

[Oaky]

I had the rear brake freeze once (I think some water must've got into the cable outer and frozen in there while the bike was parked at Witham Station).  A bit of vigorous brake lever action freed it enough to ride, but I did have to stop a couple of times to re-free it whenever it jammed on.

[mrcharly-YHT]

I've had brake levers freeze, gear levers freeze, freehubs freeze and frozen slush stop the chain from going through the rear derailleur.

Merino base layers are fab, as said above.

[andygates]

Bottle freeze, beard freeze.  We'll need an Intrepid Adventurer gallery for frozen faces!

[Chris S]

Bottle freeze, beard freeze.  We'll need an Intrepid Adventurer gallery for frozen faces!

'Ere, 'ang on... some of us have to grow our winter plumage yet... 

[itsbruce]

Bottle freeze, beard freeze. 

And did you piss on your beard to thaw it out?

[LEE]

Does anyone else find they bonk sooner in winter? I certainly do. So my advice is to carry plenty of rations.

The difference in my calorie intake during my winter 200 and summer 200 is staggering.  Same ride just different temperature.  I reckon I eat at least twice as much when it's cold.  In Summer I hardly felt hungry for first 150km.  I guess that keeping warm is expensive in terms of energy.

[itsbruce]

Does anyone else find they bonk sooner in winter? I certainly do. So my advice is to carry plenty of rations.

  I guess that keeping warm is expensive in terms of energy.

Massively so.  This is why some cold-blooded creatures can get away with eating once every few weeks or even every other month.  Mammals have central heating and it's expensive.

[Chris S]

Does anyone else find they bonk sooner in winter? I certainly do. So my advice is to carry plenty of rations.

  I guess that keeping warm is expensive in terms of energy.

Massively so.  This is why some cold-blooded creatures can get away with eating once every few weeks or even every other month.  Mammals have central heating and it's expensive.

<blatant_stirring>
Not that I'm sore - hey, I'm middle-aged and beyond all that - but I was once lambasted on this 'ere forum for suggesting one uses more calories in winter to keep warm.

Apparently, it takes a commensurate number of calories to make you sweat like a concubine's eunuch and keep cool in summer, and all this "you burn more energy in winter to keep warm" is donkey doos.
</blatant_stirring>

[andygates]

Mammals have central heating and it's expensive.

Mamils too.  Stoke the boiler with chips and chocky! 

[nuttycyclist]

Riding in winter?   JFDI

Ride fixed

1.  Less componentry to wear out
2.  Less bike to clean - saves hours of cleaning that drive chain after every ride
3.  Better control over rear wheel in slippy conditions
4.  You've got a third brake - your legs
5.  Makes you ride more steadily, which is just what is needed for winter miles
6.  Makes gears seem a lot easier when the better weather arrives
7.  Its fun

I prefer gears in winter because that way you can sit still and head in a straight line over the sudden appearance of ice, whereas on fixed you're more likely to slip due to the movement of your legs and possible traction loss.

point 2 has reminded me that the MTB is still shoved at the back of the garage where I left it after the last snowy commute.  It wasn't cleaned at all throughout the winter.  I'm sure that a little oil on the chain will be all it needs - after all that's all it's had for years.

I just ride my bikes, I don't clean them.

[L CC]

Please can we delete this thread until October at least? It's just depressing.
All you 'JFDI' advocates clearly didn't spend as long as I did on their backside in snow/ ice.
pah.

[tatanab]

I prefer gears in winter because that way you can sit still and head in a straight line over the sudden appearance of ice, whereas on fixed you're more likely to slip due to the movement of your legs and possible traction loss.

I've found the opposite.  Many years ago there were two of us approaching an underpass which we knew would be very icy.  Being on fixed I rode smoothly through, with suitable care.  My companion freewheeled down the slope and when he picked up the revs to climb out the back wheel slipped away.  Not a problem, just unwanted excitement.

I just ride my bikes, I don't clean them.

Now that I agree with.

[GruB]

Please can we delete this thread until October at least? It's just depressing.
All you 'JFDI' advocates clearly didn't spend as long as I did on their backside in snow/ ice.
pah.

You and me both.  I had to check myself yesterday as I thought perhaps it was time to fettle the lights onto the Etape ready for the commute on Tuesday    But as it is still only August, I thought again.

[LEE]

Personally I don't mind riding in the cold but I just won't go out if the roads are actually icy or snow-covered.

There's no point in breaking a collar-bone just for, what would be for me, a particularly nervous and unenjoyable ride on ice.

If you are forced to commute in such weather then that's different, but it's not obvious from OP whether they are talking about a necessity to cycle in winter weather or just how to better enjoy a nice ride on a frosty morning.

I'm fortunate enough to be able to choose not to cycle through the worst of it.

[onb]

 Its still summer FFS ,not withstanding that ,I think when its very cold keeping warm hands and feet are an absolute must ,on the recommendation of another forummer I bought winter boots last year and they were a revalation ,also as has been said before good windproof gloves with if it very cold a base layer glove .Besides this if its very cold a windproof top helps to prevent heat loss especially on long descents .

[Manotea]

From Manotea's Little Black Book of Hardcore Homilies

Winter is your Friend. That's when you build the fitness that will take you through the early spring rides which are the base of the Audax year and next year, PBP qualifying period. It's also the best time to lose weight; the very act of breathing cold air steals energy from the body.

This leads nicely to...

If you're feeling cold, eat more and work harder. I'm thinking abouting putting this on a T-Shirt. The process of digesting real food helps generates heat; burn that fuel in your muscles to generate a whole load more.

I must get around to publishing the full list.  

[nuttycyclist]

Please can we delete this thread until October at least? It's just depressing.
All you 'JFDI' advocates clearly didn't spend as long as I did on their backside in snow/ ice.
pah.

Not at all.  I'm getting excited.

The night's are drawing in, the temperature is dropping to something more comfortable, the leaves on the trees were starting to turn as I rode through the woods this morning, the fruit is hanging heavily on the fruit trees.   

It's fantastic!   Autumn is on its way, the best time of the year.  Then, soon after that, we'll be back into the winter wonderland loveliness 

<goes to look at the winter photos thread again>

[Greenbank]

Living in London has its benefits, the latent heat stored in all that asphalt keeps the roads clear for more time than out in the sticks.

It also makes it much more binary. The roads are either clear and ice-free, or under at least 1" of snow/ice, there's rarely any in-between. I either take a normal bike with 25mm semi-slicks or get out the hackbike with studded tyres.

[LittleWheelsandBig]

Then, soon after that, we'll be back into the winter wonderland loveliness 

...when all the plants look dead, how enticing!  Luckily we'll be riding in the dark more often in Winter, so won't be able to see them so easily anyway.

[Wascally Weasel]

You people are sick, sick I tells you!

Here I am bemoaning the fact that as I’m not riding back until 8pm tonight I’ll need lights and some of you are already pre-delighting in winter misery.

To loosely paraphrase Richard Adams, I don’t enjoy the winter weather I enjoy feeling proof against the winter weather.  I think it was only this year that I reckon I had built up enough spare kit for the weather not to bother me, and the experience base to know what I needed when – decent overshoes, spare shoes, base layers, arm warmers, ¾ length bibs (which on me are practically full length) and a pair of thick trousers that I only needed on one day of the year.

It was especially good being one of the few people who could get through Richmond Park in the worst of the snowy weather.  The bad part is that work will expect me to be able to get in and I’ll lose my snow day.

That said, I do agree with Manotea though – I didn’t miss a single commute this winter and I’m faster, fitter and stronger on a bike than I have been for years, despite an almost two month layoff following a crash (unrelated to winter weather).

Oddly enough, last night I dreamed it had snowed heavily and I woke up full of anxiety that I hadn’t put the fat, chunky tyres back on the MTB ready for winter. 

[TimO]

Living in London has its benefits, the latent heat stored in all that asphalt keeps the roads clear for more time than out in the sticks.

It also makes it much more binary. The roads are either clear and ice-free, or under at least 1" of snow/ice, there's rarely any in-between. I either take a normal bike with 25mm semi-slicks or get out the hackbike with studded tyres.

That's quite true, I was surprised how much snow there was still around on the Freeze Your Bits Off Ride and Camp, when most had already melted in London and it's immediate environs.