Monday, December 13, 2010

Cold, Snow, and Bicycles



I woke up Sunday morning to see the ground covered in snow and more coming down. I think we got a couple of inches by the time it was done. The kids were excited by the first snowfall of the season. I was a little concerned about what the roads would look like on Monday.

I got ready by swapping tires on my fixed gear. Out with the 23mm slick tires and in with the 32mm tires with tread. These are not specifically winter tires but I used them last winter and they seemed to do pretty well. The drawback to these tires is the higher weight and higher rolling resistance. Swapping the tires also gave me a chance to practice removing and reinstalling the rear wheel on the fixed gear.

Luckily the roads were in pretty good shape by Monday morning. The worst street was the street that I live on. It was better by the time I got to the next block. There were a few places where I had to ride on packed snow but for the most part the roads were clear. The bike lanes were unusable for the most part.

Another problem was the cold weather. It was 8 degrees for the morning commute, with a sub-zero wind chill. The ride home was in the teens, but there was less wind. I didn't have any problems, but I did have ice in my moustache by the end of the ride.

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