Saturday Commute

Posted on by

DSCN0048[1]

Graveyard in winter.

One of my coworkers was complaining about her car today, so I suggested she use a bike instead. She instantly protested, “That’s just for you, only you bike in winter.” But I had a great comeback. I had noticed earlier in the day that one of the newspapers on the stand had a front page picture of a guy biking through the snow.

She was completely speechless when I showed her man on his bike, riding through the snow. It was then that I realized that she really, truly thought that I was actually the only winter cyclist. (AH!) Maybe I should print out pictures of people biking in snow to show to when questioned about my winter biking activities. “Yup, I bike in the winter just like all of these people.”

DSCN0060[3]

My little Urban family, with the newcomer below my 550.

Guess who came in the mail today? My little light’s big brother. I opened the package to find a Urban 700 inside, which is a newer model than my Urban 550. Cool beans.

I may have been disappointed with my headlight’s performance in the cold, but at least there was stellar customer sevice behind the glitch. I could not be more impressed with how Light & Motion dealt with my battery issue.

Now I will have to find out how the 700 does in the subzero, it is predicted that next week will give me a few opportunities.

To work (10 miles)
3:30 am to 4:40 am

Weather
16F, 6 mph Northeast wind

I wore
Head: headband
Torso: thermal shirt, rain jacket
Hands: knit gloves
Legs: thermal pants, rain pants
Feet: socks, boots
Comments: I feel like as winter progresses my body is getting better and better at staying at an ideal temperature no matter what I wear. This was great.

From work (10 miles)
3:20 pm to 5:00 pm

Weather
13F, 10 mph Northeast wind, light snow

I wore
Head: headband, ski goggles
Torso: thermal shirt, rain jacket
Hands: knit gloves
Legs: thermal pants, rain pants
Feet: socks, boots
Comments: My lower face got cold from the snow/wind combo, but not cold enough to actually stop and put a scarf on.

 

18 thoughts on “Saturday Commute”

    • I hadn’t even asked for a replacement or anything just emailed them some stats about my light’s performance in the cold and they just said, “Hey we’ll ship you a new one.” They rock.

      Like

      Reply ↓

    • Lol, technically everyone who is currently biking in the Northern Hemisphere is “winter biking”. I got a kick out of reading some of the “snowflakes” of the people who signed up to bike to work on Feb. 13th. In AZ and NM, the reasons given that they love winter biking? “Its not 100 degrees, it is the best time for riding, I don’t sweat so much, etc…”

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply ↓

  6. I’m lucky here in my part of Germany, no snow on the ground… just cold (though at 38° F it’s not as cold as where you are), gray and really wet. I rode a whole winter in the mountains of Colorado, but that’s another story… Biked 9 1/2 hours last week, and will be riding every day for the next several weeks. You are not the only one! And your gear list looks great. I’m curious, do you bring your headlamp inside when you’re not riding? Keeping my batteries warm seems to help in really cold weather.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply ↓

    • Always great to know others are braving the elements out on their bikes!

      I do bring my light in with me, it is only mounted on my bike when I need it. Hopefully the new headlight will work better for me, but the nice thing is even if it doesn’t I will always be able to switch lights mid-ride and bike on!

      Like

      Reply ↓

      • Hope it does, too! I recall that I had an LED headlamp a couple years ago that drained batteries even when it wasn’t on. I had to take the batteries out and put them back in when I wanted to use it, what a pain that was! Anyway, stay warm and safe out there!

        Like

Leave a comment