Community > Non-Thorn Related

Winter here? What's your set up for winter.

(1/3) > >>

sd:

 Had a few zeros here already. Put Spikes on my kalkhoff power assist and my Santos Travel master. Found I had lost a few studs on one rear tyre easy enough to replace with the right tool. Ordinary touring tyres on my Thorn. Looking for my winter gloves. Know I left them somewhere in the house....somewhere. I will start with some thin garden/work gloves and then move onto my proper gloves (if I can find them!) Leather (treated with Mink oil) Gortex lined and heavily insulated. Water has never passed through them. The mink oil paste is a little on the sticky side so trying mink oil mixed with neetfoot. Jacket wise I tend to use walking jackets, cycle jackets are in my opinion overpriced and inferior to a good walking jacket. Although I do miss that rear pocket, you can fit so much into it!

John Saxby:
Serious cold today: -12 last night, -22 windchill this morning. Rain, snow and 70 km/h winds last night; sunny today, tho' :)  No bikes to be seen in this neighbourhood, as you might guess.

No cycling for this lad for a while, partly be design -- I'm still recovering from preventive-maintenance foot surgery, and that's going OK. Being confined to barracks isn't much fun, though I have caught up on correspondence, journals, etc.

Cycling matters betw now and Xmas will be:

(i)  Conversations with my LBS about refreshing the late-70's 6-spd Sekine I bought for my wife 40 years ago, which our daughter wants as her city bike in downtown Toronto. It's still in remarkably good nick. Brakes and drive train are good, and bars, saddle and fenders are good-to-OK. Paint needs some touchup on the upper downtube (it's a step-through) and at least one wheel needs to be replaced, though we may go for two, as the old ones are 27" (tires are 32 x 630), and there are not many tire options in that size. The bike has a lovely metallic aqua and silver finish.

(ii)  Fitting my Raven into a bike box to take Down Unda in mid-January for a two-month stay with our son and his family in Queensland. The Raven's gearing will help me manage the 15-17% grades on my favourite route into the NSW border ranges, and I hope that the 'glider and the Marathon Supremes offer some protection against the fine sand in the air and the glass shards on the roads. My ti-framed Eclipse is geared a bit too high for the hills, and the chain and my Marathon Racers didn't fare very well during our visit this past Feb/March.

(iii)  Then, from early Dec onwards, some regular work in the gym and on the skating rink to recover a bit of muscle tone from 5 weeks' enforced idleness.

jags:
Thank god we don't extreame weather  like you guys i just could not handle it.
only extra stuff i take is gloves rain jacket overshoes.

anto.

martinf:
After a very mild autumn, first frost last week, so I'm thinking about putting the Nokian Hakkapeliitta w240 studded tyres back on my Thorn Raven utility bike for the winter in case we get icy weather. Not frequent here in South Brittany, but it can happen any time between November and March.

Winter gloves (cheap fibre-pile ski goves) have already been used on my work commute, but I haven't yet been cold enough to ferret out the thin merino wool bonnet that fits under my helmet and keeps my ears warm.

I also have a pair of cycling shoes that are half a size bigger than my normal shoes, so I can use them with thick wool socks. 

mickeg:
I use 2.0 width Marathon Winters on my Nomad in winter.  I vary the pressure in them based on conditions, higher pressure for minimal ice and snow.  But if there is much ice or snow I lower the pressure to get more studs gripping into the ice.  But I find if there is over a couple cm of snow on top of the ice, the studs do not dig into the ice and it get get slippery. 

First two photos, you can see how the studs will not dig into any ice if there is a thick enough layer of snow over it.  First photo, there was freezing rain and there is a layer of ice on the pavement.

I have never lost a stud.  The tires came with a note that you should ride carefully at first to set the studs better into the tire.  I did that.

I kept records on several dozen rides on what the temperature was and what I wore for clothing and how it worked.  I then got systematic about that and put together a list of what to wear in 5 degree (Fahrenheit) increments.  With that cheat sheet, I find that I rarely am wearing the wrong stuff in cold.  Judging what to wear in cold can be tough, your toes might be freezing while your fingers are sweating.

Below freezing I usually switch to hiking shoes or hiking boots instead of bike shoes.  I use M324 pedals so that I can use SPD clips on my bike shoes or hiking shoes on the other side of the pedal.  And ski goggles help a lot with the cold wind. 

The chemicals they put on roads for ice are highly corrosive, I have a couple chains that are so rusty that I have set them aside for winter use only. 

Navigation

[0] Message Index

[#] Next page