Green Blogger Does Winter Bike Move. Sort Of.
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 02. 1.08
I am a fan of Vanessa of Green as a Thistle, who is making one change a day to green her life and documenting it on her blog. She has sold her car, unplugged her fridge, and made 338 changes in her lifestyle so far. When she announced that she was moving with a mover, I sent her Sami's post on bike moves and told her "bicycle moves are all the rage! put out the word and I volunteer to join." She took up the challenge and put out the call in the National Post where she is a writer, and on her site.
It was such a beautiful day for biking, too, considering that today is the worst blizzard of the year. Mike showed up with a rusty old Pashley. Mike runs Mikethebike, a used bike shop and delivery service promoting delivery of "lunches, groceries, office supplies and equipment- if we can load it into one of our cargo bikes, we will."
But the rest of us? A bunch of wimps. Even your correspondent, who had made a pledge to never drive downtown all winter, came by car because I was carrying a couple of boxes of books for a lecture that afternoon, my first drive alone downtown in three months. Mike did a couple of trips, but as a bike move, um, we failed. ::Green as a thistle
I applaud Vanessa too for being so pure green. I, unfortunately, like the author, belong more to the green wannabe wimp category. 'Pervenche', the bike I went to some great lengths to purchase a few months ago, has been sitting on my porch, because the weather has not been nice enough, meaning it has been drizzling and below 60 degrees - I am a California chicken -. This is the reality of America, folks!
http://lamarguerite.wordpress.com
"It's All About Green Psychology'
This is an awesome attempt though!!! VERY INSPIRING, YEAH!!!!
Marguerite . . .
Do not despair. I am in NYC and ride to the office 11 miles each way. I change in the bathroom prior to entering the office space. Everyone use to say 'where's your jacket?'
I ride in sub zero as long as it's not icy out.
I had Jury Duty today so I took the subway there and a bus back for fun. The bike would have been 20% faster.
Anyway -
Cold - for fun look at www.icebike.com.
I use long tights under a regular pair of pants. A short sleeve summer jersey, a long sleeve fall/spring jersey, and a biking jacket on top. Down to 50, I need nothing on top (of my head!), down to 20 I use the bendable ear band things. Under that I use a full hat. Under 10 - 0 I use the full bank robber stuff. Under 20 degrees I also put rain booties on my feet over my shoes... it helps with the numbness.
Rain ... J+G Cyclwear makes great rain gear. www.bicycleclothing.com . They are in Oregon so they know about rain and nasty weather. The breathable rain top can double as your outer jacket. They are very nice (the people and the clothes).
My old boss rode to work (only 5 miles each way!) for a season but she petered out. I bug her every now and then.
I lost 40 pounds riding to work.
There is no such thing as bad weather, only bad clothes. It is supposed to be 50 degrees F tomorrow here ... February beach weather!!!
Just get up early on a non-work day and putz around a few miles. Get to adjusting it and getting comfortable. Get a messenger bag that will hold a lot of stuff and you're good to go.
Once you are hooked you will feel silly on mass transit or in the car.
Good Luck!!
vsk
The biggest challenge of winter riding is when its freezing rain one day, and the next day its below freezing and your brakes and shifters are frozen!
The ride itself isn't as scary as it sounds... if you participate in winter sports like skiing and snowboarding, you have experienced the same amount of cold in those activities as you would in winter riding.
I encourage treehuggers to ride in the winter! All your friends will be jealous of your fitness come spring!
I used to ride my bike in Kingston throughout winter. The trick was to loosen your brake and gear cables so that they could still work in the cold, despite shrinking a fair amount. Whenever the weather was warmer, my brakes would not work though, so I had to be careful.
In Ottawa this last winter, I used my in-line skates almost every single day. The problem was not the weather but the salt that is used to melt the ice. In-line skates do not deal with large chunks of salt very well.
If you can skate/ride in the summer, you can probably do it on most winter days too. Just watch out for those aggressive drivers! In any city, in any type of weather, they are your worst enemy.