Biking in the Cold

I'm teaching in two places this semester. My home institution, Monmouth University, has graciously given me permission to teach at New York University, where I have the absolutely amazing privilege to run a graduate seminar on Medieval Ecocriticisms. What that means, though, is a lot more travel, and I'm trying not to drive if possible.

So  yesterday I biked 2.5 miles from my place on the Lower East Side to the NYU English Department, and then a few hours later, biked home again. It was probably at or close to the day's high of 17 degrees when I left, and down to 15 or so for my trip home. This morning, when I walked from my Long Branch rental to campus at Monmouth, it was five degrees.

I am not a hero, I am not an amazon, and I am not a monster. I'm just well prepared. For my bike ride yesterday, I wore a dress with warm leggings and a wool sweater -- and over that, snowboarding pants, a down vest, a warm winter jacket, down-lined gloves, a hat, and a gore-tex helmet cover. Plus Dermatone, a Swedish ointment that's kind of like lip gloss for the face (and, importantly, does not make me break out), to keep exposed skin from frostbite.

In the United States, our lives are organized, economically and culturally, in ways based on a historic sense of natural resources being endless. And on this large continent, for many decades we could reasonably believe that they were.

Twenty years ago I'd have said biking in single-digit temperatures was impossible. But I learned how to do it, and biking at 15 degrees yesterday was brisk, but not uncomfortable. I got cold hands and feet, but there are degrees of cold, ranging from tolerable to dangerous, and I was nowhere near danger.

Even as it's becoming clear that we not longer can operate on the assumption of limitless resources, we have built lives that are structured on that idea. Which means changing our lives means changing our ideas about how housing and communities and commutes are organized, among many other things. That's complicated, but it's not impossible. We can change our behavior, individually, and we can lobby our elected officials and hold corporations accountable. It's hard, but we can do it.

Also: Choosing to commute in the cold without the warm cocoon of a car is a good reminder that there are many people who don't have a choice: their jobs require them to be outdoors in all kinds of weather.

Winter Biking: Gear List

A friend writes that she hangs up her bike in the fall because she doesn't have the warm clothing to bike in the winter. She's thinking it might be nice to ride, but says she doesn't know where to start in terms of buying the gear.

So, if you'd like to lengthen your riding season, here's a suggested list. You might already own things that you can use for biking; a lot of my gear does double- or triple-duty for hiking, biking, and jogging. Some items are very bike-specific.

First off, safety. Winter is wetter and darker than summer, and drivers are less attuned to seeing cyclists.

• Traction. Make sure your tires still have good tread and make sure they're pumped up appropriately so you don't slip on roads that will stay wet longer after rain or frozen precipitation. If you want to ride on snow or ice, consider studded tires. If you've never ridden in wet conditions, start slow and brake early: wet brake pads take longer to work.
• Visibility. Motorists notice motion, so make sure you have good pedal reflectors, and wear reflectors on your ankles. Get a brightly colored vest with reflective stripes, in a size big enough to wear over all kinds of warm layers. Add reflective tape to the front, sides, and back of your helmet. (You have a helmet, right??) Get blinky red lights and put them all over your back: on the bike, on your helmet, on a backpack if you're wearing one. Use a white light for the front of your bike.
• Vision. If you're going to be riding on roads or paths that aren't lit at night, get a really good light for the front of your bike. This is a place to spend money to get a very bright light with an internal, rechargeable battery. (AA batteries drain fast in cold weather, and drained batteries produce poor light).

Secondly, comfort. Winter is also colder than summer, and wind sucks the warmth right out of your body. The tricky part is keeping the extremities warm without overheating.

• Hands. Lobster claw gloves divide your four fingers into two, providing better warmth than standard gloves and better grip on handlebars and brake levers than mittens. If in doubt about size, opt for slightly larger; the air inside will warm up and help insulate. Whatever you wear, make sure the palms and fingertips are covered with material that grips, not just plain fleece or wool, which will leave your hands sliding all over the place. If it's *really* cold, a pair of breathable-waterproof mittens large enough to fit over your gloves/mitts is helpful. Or you can do like New York City delivery guys, and tape plastic bags around the ends of your handlebars.
• Eyes. Need to be protected, night and day. Biking gear manufacturers make glasses with interchangeable lenses that you can swap out with clear ones for night riding. If you wear glasses anyway, you might want to consider a pair with transitional lenses that go dark in bright sun.
• Ears. Depending on temperature, a thin headband or a thin hat to go under your helmet. A gore-text helmet cover (and again with all the reflective stripes) will also keep your head warmer as well as dryer.
• Feet. Hiking boots or knee-high boots with thick wool socks will work, as long as they're not too bulky and as long as it's not too cold. Another option is neoprene shoe covers, which will also protect street shoes from salt and damp if you're commuting to work.
• Legs. You want both warmth and protection from precipitation or road spray, and the amount and the layers will depend on temperature and your own body. Lined hiking pants are a good starting point. Look for a pair that provides warmth, protects from wind, and resists water. Depending on conditions, you could add long underwear (non-cotton!) and/or rain pants.
• Upper body. Here, you want layers as well as the ability to zip easily at the neck as you warm up, or turn into or out of the wind. Avoid cotton like the plague. Start with a light wicking bottom layer, add layers of fleece or wool, top with tightly woven wool or a breathable waterproof.
• Face. You can get a fancy neoprene mask, or a cheap light-weight balaclava, or tie a bandanna over your mouth and nose, or pull up a scarf. Whatever you do, your glasses will fog up. Once you've been riding for 10 or 15 minutes, you'll probably generate enough body heat to keep your face warm, unless it's well below freezing.

Again, if you're already walking or jogging outdoors (or, who knows, cross-country skiing or canoeing) in cold weather, you may have some gear you can repurpose for winter biking. I've acquired most of the stuff I use for winter biking over several years. I see fastest wear on gloves, but other that (and bike seat and tires), I very seldom need to replace anything because of wear.

But chances are you'll need to buy at least a couple of items. If you're on a budget, the first place to spend is on a good headlight; you can get away with a dirt-cheap vest or pinney and inexpensive tail-lights. Money also helps buy warm gloves.

I've deliberately left off the names of shops or manufacturers from the above list. But I will say that everything I've ever bought from Pearl Izumi has been great quality and very long-lasting. Schwalbe makes great tires, including studded ones; having used their punctureless tires, I'll never go back. If you're wondering where to shop, US readers could try Eastern Mountain Sports, Campmor, Sierra Trading Post, Bike Nashbar; I don't have enough experience with shopping elsewhere to make recommendations.

Questions? Anything I've forgotten? Let me know. And happy riding.

How Am I Biking In This Weather?

Slowly.  And carefully.

If roads are wet, I slow down.  If they're icy I slow down even more.  Wet brakes don't work very well, and ice, slush, and snow make falls inevitable.  And it's much better to fall while moving slowly.

In the on-going effort to encourage drivers and pedestrians to notice my presence, I thought about getting an air horn. 

A decade or so ago, hiking in Maine's Hundred Mile Wilderness, the proprietors of a lodge tied an air horn to a sign a mile away on the other side of a lake. A blast or two brought them chugging over in an outboard motorboat, and they brought my hiking companions and me to the lodge so we could pick up food and supplies we'd mailed there before starting the trip.

Then I saw a biker using an air horn near Penn Station.  Notice I said "saw," not "heard."  The blast, piercing in the Maine woods, barely penetrated the cacophony of midtown Manhattan. I gave up on the air horn and bought better lights instead, investing in rechargeable, painfully bright lights for both front and rear.

The other challenge of winter biking is keeping warm.  Or at the very least, avoiding frostbite and hypothermia.

I've spent a lot of time outdoors in the winter -- skiing, snowshoeing, stacking wood, shoveling, hiking, sledding, walking, skating, jogging. I find biking to be the most difficult to stay comfortable -- though it must be said I've never hunted in the winter, or gone ice fishing.

The goal is to keep hands, feet and face warm, but not overheat the core, so you're supposed to dress so you start chilly, or ride slow so you don't break a sweat.  That's the theory.  In practice, I can't manage it much: either I sweat, or I have cold fingers and toes.  So I keep several blazers and a can of deodorant at my office, and carry a clean shirt.

I don't own super-duper high-tech warm winter gear, so it's all about layers. At 40 degrees, dress wool pants or tights covered with rain pants, a shirt, a sweater, a windbreaker.  At 30 degrees, I add long underwear, or rain pants if there's any precipitation in the forecast; at 20, sweatpants over the dress pants; at 10 degrees, rain pants over all three.  For upper body, same deal: wicking layer against the skin, one or more layers of fleece or wool depending on the temperature, and wind/waterproof neon-yellow jacket.

For the feet, wool socks, heavier as it gets colder, and leather boots, which I lace looser than I would for walking or hiking to make room for insulating air inside.  For the hands, windblock fleece covered by wind/waterproof mittens for the coldest weather.  A headband for my ears in milder weather; a lightweight hat as it gets colder, plus a waterproof cover over my helmet all winter long.

I use glasses in all weather to protect my eyes, but the rest of the face is tricky: I sometimes cover up with a scarf, but the glasses fog up, and if it's cold enough, the fog freezes on the glasses.  Bad visibility in bad conditions is, well, a bad idea.  Below about 25 degrees, I use Dermatone, a Swedish miracle product that's basically chapstick for your whole face.

Biking in winter weather isn't as much fun as biking on a nice sunny 75-degree day.  But driving in rain and sleet and snow is pretty awful, too.  Riding a bike in cold, wet weather isn't as bad as it sounds: it's fifty percent clothing and fifty percent attitude.