The warm sunny weather of fall ended abruptly with a major cold front that brought bellow zero temperatures and about 6 inches of snow over the week. This made my commute difficult but still doable with my studded cross tires, ski helmet, and snow goggles along with the usual winer riding gear. The cold was quite bearable and I enjoyed to challange of making the usually tame 10 mile ride to work in extreme conditions. Check out #icebikechallenge for more pictures in Instagram!
At last, this week we are thawing out and highs are going to be in the 40s rather than 20's so I will be back on my singlespeed commuter soon. I installed chains on my Old 26er so next major snow storm, I will be ready. 32cm is too narrow for fresh snow over 3".
Ride on all you brave ice bikers,
My coldest commute so far was -5 degrees F. The hardest part was having the legs to plow though the snow on the bike path and road shoulder before it had been plowed. Talk about a resitance workout! That's enough resistance to bog down a car with 100 hp an my little legs tired quickly despite all my training. Remember though, as long as you can hold onto your summer fitness with cosistant efforts every week though the winter, you will be fit and fast come spring. I really despise indoor trainers and avoid gyms like ebolla so this is how I keep my fitness and my sanity since I'm addicted to exercise and need my daily fix.
My Nokian A10 studded tires are only 32cm wide but they roll like a full knobby 2.1 off road tire. The benefit is that they hold onto icy road amazingly well and I actually feel a great reduction in resitance over packed snow vs. dry pavement.
I'm really glad I mounted studs on my cross bike vs. my singlespeed because I really need gears to overcome the various road conditions I encounter on each snow ride.
