Bicycle Commuting in the Cold

I can drive to or from school in the time it takes me just to bundle up for biking the seven-mile commute, but at least I think I’ve reached a reasonable wardrobe for these cold days.

Down to 45 degrees I wear nothing special, just shorts and a teeshirt under my windbreaker jacket, light gloves, and a handkerchief under my helmet. Down to freezing I add running pants, a hooded sweatshirt, wool socks, and my trusty thirty-dollar Gore-Tex mittens from Cabela’s. Below that I add long john tops and bottoms.

My ride last Tuesday was in 17 degrees noted by the National Weather Service for its low wind chill figures–but I get the chill all the time, riding. And I think the wind that morning was behind me; I had a great ride, although my toes and fingers did get a bit cold.

There’s a certain light challenge to wintertime riding, too. I have a good set of headlights and a great taillight, but that doesn’t mean I don’t get spooked when, say, I’m puttering up the gravel road leg through a wooded meadow and I hear a rustle just behind and off to my right. Once I about jumped out of my skin even as I realized it was just the horned Holstein I call Satan that often stares when I pass by.

Most of my coworkers find me insane. My principal told me just the other day, “You know I drive near your house on my way here. Of course, you always get here before me, so if you call me for a ride you’ll get to sleep in.”

I have hitched rides occasionally (not from my principal, though), but usually the attempts at saving me from myself are as futile as the sliding doors at Lowe’s I saw one day opening, shutting partly, opening, shutting partly and so on for as long as its moving afternoon shadow fell in its motion sensor’s path.

While I just say thanks and chuckle, I’ve often thought of the speech I’d give if people were really interested in why I ride: “Well, I sort of enjoy it, I hate jogging but need exercise, I save money buy not having to own a second vehicle, and I’m saving the planet. And I usually feel great afterwards, and energized.”

It’s a good speech to have in the forefront of my mind, since I have to keep reciting it to myself, on cold days.