Winter Bicycle Adventures

So... you may have heard the rumors I've started winter bicycle commuting. The rumors were true!

Lucky you for stumbling upon my humble blog about my adventures thus far, see I have this thing where I do things with little planning or consideration for my personal safety then reflect upon that... that's where you win big. I make mistakes so you don't have to.

That being said, let's get started. So about 2 weeks ago now I got my bike repaired after FaceGrate '08 and my new DangerHelm so I could go back to commuting. (Yay.) Then shortly thereafter we got our first snowfall of the year. (Boo.) Regardless I decided this was the perfect opportunity to try out cycling on the snow. I hadn't gone to the winter cycling course at all or really got a feel from anyone on what it was like aside from cold and worrisome due to the slipperiness but undaunted I mounted my trusty Trek fixie, Gertrude and made my first attempt. The bruise I recieved from it still prettymuch covers a quarter of my leg and my hip hurt for a while as well as my jaw from hitting the snow and pavement. See, I didn't think about how you shouldn't lean to turn so I just turned like normal and I was probably going too fast for the condish outside.

Take two went better, I was going slower so less damage was sustained to my exoskeleton.

Take three I didn't fall at all and even went down a hill.

Take four was a 11 mile trek home after working at The Front in Minneapolis at 3am in really cold temp. I took a break at the Uptown Diner because I was wearing my chucks and had only one pair of socks on and was worried about losing a foot to the cold. I enjoy that place so much and was able to read some as well. After the coffee pickme up I hardly had any problem during the rest of the trip the leg around Lake Calhoun sucked! I would reccomend avoiding the lakes because the air off that thing was hard and cold.

Take five was a trip to west 7th and Davern from the same club in NE Minneapolis at 3am Sunday morning, I upgraded my face covering and wore boots with 2 pairs of socks and longjohns. Way better! I still almost froze, you really need one of those cycling jackets. See when you wear jeans and a regular jacket you get that area at your lower back-ish section that doesn't have much thermal protection... I almost literally froze my ass off that night. I'm pretty sure it was at or below zero and I was shaking all over when I got to the destination. That sucked pretty hard but it was a good learning curve.

All in all, I love riding Bicycles so I am not likely to stop any time soon. However I do need to get some better gear and not just try to hipster my way through. If you are on short commutes you'll be fine as long as it's not below zero but if you don't have the right gear when it hits that freezing temp you are really messing with fate on the longer commutes.

Anyone want to get me a gift certificate to Freewheel bikes? ;)

Peace, love and Barbarians,
Josh