Who has gone into Winter Mode?

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.
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Living near Boulder Colorado. home of coach Prime, I use a ski helmet on really cold days, but I am thinking about getting a face masked helmet for biking or a motorcycle helmet because of the speed I go when the trails are somewhat clear.

Several years ago, I went to a Goodwill store and bought an old pair of ski gloves [not the fancy type , just the cheap cloth ones]. They work better than the expensive ones my kids gave me.

Also checkout Jax for their flannel lined jeans and their flannel lined shirts. I also use one of those neck garters or thin pull up or slip overhead tubes to cover part of the nose, cheeks and ears.

I bring the battery in now that the temperatures at night get below freezing [HINT: I also bring in the batteries for my electric lawnmower and edger].

In late November until late March, I pretty much focus on skiing [hey, I live in Colorado which has the best snow in the world for skiing, and the best ski areas for moving people to different parts of our ski areas]. I do use stationary bikes at the YMCA and use weight training during the cold months. Hey, when you are 85, you have to work a lot harder to stay in tip top shape than when you were much younger.
 
Logan25 said:
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!
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Do you have studded tires on your eFatty? I bet that is an additional game-changer... They really dig into the hard-packed snow and ice, I hear.

Re. the bolded part, are you talking about from ski/hiking poles? It doesn't seem like they'd mess things up noticeably...
 
The Canary Islands are part of a larger archipelago called "Macaronesia", which also includes the Azores and Madeira. The etymology of the name comes from the Greek μακάρων νήσοι, "makárōn nēsoi", which means "islands of happiness", simply because of the good weather throughout the year.

While this may not be entirely true everywhere, the temperature is never lower than 15°C and rarely higher than 32°C (60 - 90 F). So you can ride your bike all year round... :cool:
 
at 8 am here it's 56°F so pretty good riding weather for this time of the year :)
 
I live in Winnipeg and also ride my e fattie all winter on trails packed down by riders using snowshoes plus other means to groom fat bike trails. We have the same issue with hikers and runners and sometimes even horses. Post holing refers to the hole made usually by the heels of the walkers/runners, not the ski poles they use. It makes the trails quite a bit rougher. A big part of the fun of riding groomed trails is the smoothness and where I ride all the tree roots and small rocks are covered making a nice flowing trail ride.
 
hugh said:
I live in Winnipeg and also ride my e fattie all winter on trails packed down by riders using snowshoes plus other means to groom fat bike trails. We have the same issue with hikers and runners and sometimes even horses. Post holing refers to the hole made usually by the heels of the walkers/runners, not the ski poles they use. It makes the trails quite a bit rougher. A big part of the fun of riding groomed trails is the smoothness and where I ride all the tree roots and small rocks are covered making a nice flowing trail ride.
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...so it's considered poor form to just put on boots and walk on groomed trails, rather than ski or snowshoe? This is an arctic climate thing I don't know about.
 
Yes it's poor form on dedicated fat bike winter trails. Groomed cross country ski trails even more so, in the provincial park where I mostly ride cross country skiers let walkers know they are not welcome on the trails. Fat bikers welcome snowshoers since they help pack down and maintain the trail, it's too twisty for skiers but walkers and sometimes horses really mess up the trail making it far rougher.
Interestingly I'm one of a very few fat ebike riders who ride the trails and I've yet to get a negative response from other riders. Generally if I meet someone on the trail and stop to talk for a moment the first thing I say yup it's e assist and I'm a cheater. That changes the narrative instantly and the almost universal response is - well it's good that your out riding.
 
They should put signs up for hikers to stay off to one side then. Because they are clueless if they haven't skied or fatbiked.
 
There are many signs on the ski trails and the one official fat bike trail but some just ignore the signs or feel entitled. Last winter I was listening to a couple of ladies and I use that term loosely telling some skiers to F off, they would walk where they please. And the park does have dedicated walking trails but some people.
 
hugh said:
There are many signs on the ski trails and the one official fat bike trail but some just ignore the signs or feel entitled. Last winter I was listening to a couple of ladies and I use that term loosely telling some skiers to F off, they would walk where they please. And the park does have dedicated walking trails but some people.
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Sounds like they need to get ticketed, or at least spoken to by someone of authority.

This feeling of entitlement not to be courteous or to break the law if they won't be caught & punished is the worst thing to happen to our country in the last 50 years. It's not just kids, either. :cautious:
 
I know, Canada is thought by some to be a country of polite people but thats BS and the covid years really messed with peoples minds
 
Smaug said:
Sounds like they need to get ticketed, or at least spoken to by someone of authority.

This feeling of entitlement not to be courteous or to break the law if they won't be caught & punished is the worst thing to happen to our country in the last 50 years. It's not just kids, either. :cautious:
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It's only a matter of time before individuals get tired of the entitlement BS and start once again to stand up and fight.

Just sayin..itsuh comin ;)
 
Speaking of entitled......

A man is stretched out on his back across four seats in a theater. The usher comes down and says, ”Mister, you will have to get out of those four seats. You are only entitled to one.”

The man only grunts and does not move. The manager comes down and says to the man, ”Mister, you will have to get up. All you are entitled to is one seat.” The man grunts and does not move.

Finally a policeman is called in. He walks down the aisle and says to the man who is still on the four seats, ”Get out of those seats!”

The man grunts, and policeman says, ”Okay, wise guy, where are you from?” The man moans and says, ”The balcony.”
 
You Americans don't know what a winter is until you have been to the Cairngorms in Scotland in winter LOL
 
Pinhead said:
You Americans don't know what a winter is until you have been to the Cairngorms in Scotland in winter LOL
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I'm gonna have to go ahead and disagree with you here:

Northern Wisconsin, USA stats:
1699646702933.png

1699646719862.png


Cairngorms, Scotland:
1699646751878.png

1699646771062.png


In Wisconsin at least, we have both hotter summers and colder winters. Cairngorms gets a lot more rain, but we get a lot more snow.
 
I have to agree with Smaug about the weather. Despite the fact that I live probably a couple hundred miles north of him my southern neighbors have similar weather to what we get in Manitoba. Winter here usually starts around mid to end of November and any snow that falls usually stays for 4 1/2 to 5 months. Although the climate has been a bit different lately.
 
I do understand that a cool wet winter is unpleasant, cold with snow and ice is worse for cycling. At least for transit.
 

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