Who has gone into Winter Mode?

Smaug

Smaug

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Many of us in the northern parts of the world are setting their eBikes up for storage: discharging the battery to ~50% and bringing it inside.

Others (like) me are bundling up and preparing to go ride as often as we can throughout the winter, to help avoid the Winter Blues and stay in shape.

Today, it was 29 °F (-1.7 °C) where I live this morning. The high temperature will be 39 °F. (3.9 °C) So for this morning's commute, I hung up my heavily-vented bike helmet and donned the ski helmet. (Covers the ears, with a lot fewer vents, and they're close-able) I went to my mid-weight gloves; somewhere between running gloves and ski gloves. (Could've gone with ski gloves) Regular work pants and shoes, as my commute's only 2 miles.

What will you do?

If you type a reply, please say where you live. I'm in SE Wisconsin.
 
Thanks to this screwed up enviroment I no longer put bikes away or my motorcycle. I have been getting at least one motorcycle ride in a month, 12 months a year for 4 years now in upstate NY, and that shouldn't happen. Same with bikes (acoustic or e). I fat bike all winter...eFat on the hard pack snow on days between 25-30F is a blast.
 
RSU said:
Thanks to this screwed up enviroment I no longer put bikes away or my motorcycle. I have been getting at least one motorcycle ride in a month, 12 months a year for 4 years now in upstate NY, and that shouldn't happen. Same with bikes (acoustic or e). I fat bike all winter...eFat on the hard pack snow on days between 25-30F is a blast.
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Seems like you forgot to click your vote!

When you fatbike on the hard pack, do you need studded tires or are the stock knobbies enough? I might "have to" add another eFatty to the fleet...
 
I voted

I'll go as much as I can, but will draw the line with snow and super cold temps​

With modification, I don't mind snow I ride most days in the winter but don't usually ride below 18 F or so, it's hard to for me to keep my hands and feet warm below that. Living here in southwest Colorado though it is sunny a lot so even if it starts out colder it soon warms up. This morning it was 12F at 7:30 am now at 12:00 it's up to 33F.

I have a lot of good winter clothing for winter sports, what I really want is some heated gear starting with heated foot beds and gloves. I have a Gerbins heated motorcycle jacket and gloves but they are 12V and need to be plugged into the motorcycle. I thought about carrying my 48V shark battery on my rack and a converter but I also want to be able to use them for skiing, hiking, snowshoeing etc.

I bought two sets of Schawlbe ice spiker pro studded tires, our county road isn't paved and remains snow packed or icy most of the winter except for occasional thaws. I haven't put them on yet, as we could have a few more weeks of mostly dry roads. They look really great with every tread lug studded. https://www.tradeinn.com/bikeinn/en/schwalbe-ice-spiker-pro-hs379-dh-26-tubeless-mtb-tyre/137411664/p?id_producte=7008983&country=us&msclkid=2dbdd0f67dce140facd8b5c98f520e5f&utm_source=bing&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=Bikeinn USA SHOPPING_BING&utm_term=4581802410321527&utm_content=Bikeinn USA Marcas_BING
 
I’m in rural Northern New England and our winters can be pretty harsh, but I will ride as long as the roads are clear. I have a very good Keiser stationary trainer, so I don’t get too out of shape through the winter. I generally watch YouTube ride along type videos to make it more interesting. YouTube also has spin classes. The folks at GCN keep it entertaining.

I have had the Keiser for four years and I highly recommend it. They are often available as reconditioned for reasonable prices. Mine was like new, but at half the price.
 
I go all year round no matter the weather, but here in California that means temps down around freezing only. Wind chill freezing your face when riding at speed is a real possibility, but its not like I'm riding in Minnesota. If we're having a storm here on the coast, I have gotten hit with freezing, driving salt water before from a wave that breaks up close to the road when ordinarily its 50 yards away.

Oh and also on occasion we get mountain lions when the population starts bumping up thanks to too many deer.

I totally dig riding in snow, and go up into the Lower Sierras and ride there in the winter. But you have to have the gear for it. Fat tires are a must. Real ones not some Chinese specials.
 
I voted other…I used to MTB all through the winter in western Washington, going to try the the fat tire e-bike in the snow here in North Idaho this winter. We will see how it goes. Not worried about staying warm as much as maintaining some semblance of traction, we have some pretty good inclines to navigate.
 
'bout to order a set of these, after freezing my toes off last night on my road bike. (36° ride for 1.5 hours)

 
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I had something like that years ago. They weren't as high top but they were neoprene shoe covers that had a hole for your cycling cleats. They weren't great but they helped a lot.
 
About 10 days out of the year, when it gets really, really cold, I have to wear long pants, and sometimes an extra t-shirt under my polo shirt, or a windbreaker jacket, and for extreme weather, both.

Frequent torrential rain is a bigger problem, attention to waterproofing is important.
 
munirider said:
I had something like that years ago. They weren't as high top but they were neoprene shoe covers that had a hole for your cycling cleats. They weren't great but they helped a lot.
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Well, if they can just keep my toes from going numb down to about 30, I'd be happy. Below that, I think I'll have to switch to my hybrid bike and wear proper winter clothes. Talking with another cyclist friend he pointed out that road bikes are not great winter bikes for the cold climates anyway.

We had a couple inches of snow yesterday evening that stuck overnight and a bit of ice here and there, but I still bike-commuted this morning after doing the mental math:
  • Commute is 2 miles
  • Scrape the car and drive: 15 minutes + gas (at 15 mpg for a short distance in these temps)
  • Walk: 42 minutes
  • Bike carefully: 11 minutes
Another nice thing about eBikes is that we can run the tires a bit low and the efficiency hit we take is not as painful as it would be on an mBike; it's mostly seen in fewer miles on a charge.
 
Smaug said:
Many of us in the northern parts of the world are setting their eBikes up for storage: discharging the battery to ~50% and bringing it inside.

Others (like) me are bundling up and preparing to go ride as often as we can throughout the winter, to help avoid the Winter Blues and stay in shape.

Today, it was 29 °F (-1.7 °C) where I live this morning. The high temperature will be 39 °F. (3.9 °C) So for this morning's commute, I hung up my heavily-vented bike helmet and donned the ski helmet. (Covers the ears, with a lot fewer vents, and they're close-able) I went to my mid-weight gloves; somewhere between running gloves and ski gloves. (Could've gone with ski gloves) Regular work pants and shoes, as my commute's only 2 miles.

What will you do?

If you type a reply, please say where you live. I'm in SE Wisconsin.
Click to expand...
Anchorage Alaska! We ride all year as a matter of fact I like winter trails the best
 
Papa K said:
I voted other…I used to MTB all through the winter in western Washington, going to try the the fat tire e-bike in the snow here in North Idaho this winter. We will see how it goes. Not worried about staying warm as much as maintaining some semblance of traction, we have some pretty good inclines to navigate.
Click to expand...
I just bought a Norco eFattie in Kimberley, BC for winter riding. We have a good ski hill 10 minutes from my house so there’s no shortage of snow here. Our mostly rider volunteer group has now accumulated 3 snow dogs and we all put in close to half our time in the nature park snowshoe packing, shovelling, and clearing blowdowns or repairing the post holes the ahole hikers and runners make after we groom a trail (easily 3 hours to groom and probly 30-50 hours collectively to shape and pack the trail so it’s safe for the snow dogs to groom). The other half of our time we get to ride most of the blue trails we’ve ridden all summer. My first year with an EFattie (I’m 73 and finally caved ), and it’s a wonderful game changer. I grew up in Winnipeg, Manitoba with lots of -30 C so the cold doesn’t bother me - our winter is moderate with lots of days in the -10 to 0 range, but I’m good riding to -20. One of my kids was a Burton rep - so I’m geared up for winter - remember - there’s no bad weather, just bad clothing. I ride a hard tail Norco Bigfoot fattie for the last 4 years, and the traction was an issue on steeper inclines. Had one snow ride already on non groomed trails and just walked up the inclines - buy the fattie and ride the hell out if it , GAMECHANGER!
 
I've gotten very familiar with weather reports and the organizations that do weather reports. Being retired I can pick my time to do my bike grocery shopping and other chores. I ride between the raindrops all winter and if I get a little wet on the way home no biggie. No riding below the high 30s for me though. I had enough of that and as a student in chicago.
 
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