The Midwest Polar Vortex Kit

We're having record cold temperatures in Madison over the past two days: air temperatures below -30°C (-22°F), combined with a nasty wind to make things feel even colder. I've ridden in some very cold temperatures, but this was clearly a new low. As I have gotten frostbite before (not recommended!) I've been very careful about limiting the risks of being outside. I've kept ride short and dressed warmly. So what does my kit look like for a 6 kilometer (3.7 miles) ride look like? Like so:

1. Cheap polyester tights (I think from Costco)
2. Ibex El Fito wool tights (no longer in production)
3. Lake MXZ-302 boots (no longer in production; replaced by the MXZ-303)
4. SmartWool mountaineering extra thick wool socks
5. HotHands chemical warmers
6. Neoprene toe covers (meant for outside the shoes but worn over the socks, inside the shoes)
7. Army surplus Arctic extreme cold mitts (without liner)
8. FoxRiver Extra Heavy Double Ragg Mitten
9. Merino wool sweater
10. Dickies 874 work pants
11. Wisconsin Bike Fed Forward cotton t-shirt
12. Swrve Milwaukee ES hooded jacket
13. Cheap synthetic buff
14. POC Fovea goggles
15. Cheap fleece balaclava with mesh
16. Bontrager Windshell skull cap
17. Pogies (not pictured)  

 Did it work? Mostly, as in I made it to work, didn't get frostbite, and wasn't too uncomfortable.

Weak spots:

• The goggles were useless, as they fogged up within the first ten minutes of the ride. I have yet to find a way to solve this issue. On the other hand, I find riding without goggles not too bad, even in these temperatures.
• My thumbs got pretty cold and I had to pull them into the main mitten to warm them up. Of course, that meant I couldn't shift any more. Eventually they'd probably have warmed up; in the morning I have a hard time getting my hands warm even in much milder temperatures. I may invest in better pogies at some point.
• The balaclava wasn't thick enough, and the skull cap slid up enough to make my earlobes very cold. I have a thicker balaclava that I can wear without the skull cap, which works better.
• My toes were warm enough, but on a longer ride they'd probably have gotten too cold eventually. Having roomier boots would help, but I've already maxed out my options with a size 15 wide.

A record cold ride? Sunrise in Madison

I can't really remember what the coldest temperature I've ever ridden in is. But today must have been close to or even below that: It was -19°F/-29°C when I woke up. The sun wasn't up yet, and so I decided to ride to the shore of Lake Monona to catch some good pictures of the sunrise. Yes, it was horribly cold, but the beauty of the ice fog, the sunrise, and the hoarfrost on the plants made it well worth it. No Strava track, as my phone battery quickly succumbed to the cold, but the ride was about 12 kilometers. Here are some pretty pictures!

Happy 2019!

 

I started the year with an excellent fat bike ride through Madison's snowy winter wonderland. Definitely one of the best winter rides I've had! I'm not a fan of winter, but today was truly magical. Happy New Year everyone.

Madison Winter Biking Survey

Bike racks in front of the Wisconsin Institute for Medical Research

If you live in Madison (Wisc.) and bike in the winter (or would like to but are deterred by something), please take the time to fill out the annual winter biking survey. The survey is run by Grant, a local bike advocate and member of several winter-bike-related city commissions. Having better data on where the problems of winter biking lie—and what works well!—will help improving the conditions for getting around by bike at this time of year.

Link to the survey

Southern Splendor on a not horribly cold day

Winter has come early and with force this year in Madison. Consequently, when the forecast predicted a day of temperatures slightly above freezing, I took up the rare opportunity for a longer ride. The route mostly followed the Southern Splendor ride by the Bombay Bicycle Club and proved to be an excellent choice. Lots of quiet back roads and a pretty, mostly snow-covered scenery.

For riding on the sections of bike trail I was glad to have my studded tires, as there will plenty of icy patches—on the Badger State Trail I rode past a guy who just had had a (harmless) fall. The roads mostly clear of ice and snow and merely wet and salty. I was wearing multiple layers of wool on my upper body, which turned out just right for the given temperature. I'm looking forward to doing this route again next spring or summer. Strava link.

Ice fishing in November? Where did I move to!?

The sun was low but still provided some warmth

“Ice ordinance” A little too early to ride out onto the lake

Lake Kegonsa

Crossing the Yahara in Stoughton

Badfish Creek

Memories of winter

Mercier Bridge with floating ice at sunset

Trail conditions: icy!

Panorama from the Bellevue Kondiaronk 

I got into a severe bout of winter unhappiness this Monday. After a few warmish days, the forecast for the coming week was all in the -20 to -7°C range—certainly not atypical for the end of February but depressing nonetheless. I made various plans to get me on the bike before an afternoon work meeting, only to discard them again quickly. In the end I was like, “Screw it, it's too cold. I'll just bike to work and that's it.” My commute is only 4km, but the conditions confirmed me in my decision: -7°C, but with a brutal 50 km/h headwind. Brr.

After the meeting I was all ready to bike home directly. However, an inner voice told me, “Hey, you're already out. Why don't you quickly check the trail conditions on Mont-Royal? You can still turn around if it's too icy …” And so up I went McTavish and des Pins, before turning right onto Chemin le Serpentine. Much to my relief, it was obvious that they do a good amount of trail maintenance there. It was icy but fairly smooth and the road even had been gritted a little.

And so I followed Chemin Olmsted all the way up to the lookout, the Mont-Royal Cross, and back down again. The surface varied between smooth ice, packed snow, and everything in between—very rideable with my Ice Spikers. The mountain mostly shielded me from the brutal wind, and so overall this was a very pleasant ride that pulled me out of my Winter Blues, at least temporarily. To be repeated!

February 16 – Vélo sous zéro: Winter fun and advocacy in one [updated]

[Update January 26: So a mere week after registration opened, all 500 spots have been taken already. Pretty awesome!]

For the first time, Vélo Québec and Environnement Jeunesse will organize what is kind of like the winter equivalent to the massively successful Montreal Bike Fest (primarily known for its Tour de l`Île and Tour de la Nuit): an organized bike ride through Montreal's streets in the middle of February. The aim of the ride is to both have fun on the bike, but also to underline the recent growth of the winter bike movement in Montreal and to advocate for changes to further support that growth.

Brush the snow off your bike and join Vélo sous zéro!

Montreal still lacks a comprehensive network of reliably cleared bike paths—the "White Network" formulated a couple years ago remains more ambition than reality—and consequently the number of winter cyclists remains relatively low at an estimated ten to 15 per cent of the summer numbers.

There has been progress, though: In Westmount, pressure from the local Walking and Cycling Association has led to improvements in clearing the de Maisonneuve bike path; in Outremont, a pilot project to clear the path along Cote Sainte-Catherine has just begun; and there is an active Vélo d'hiver movement on Facebook as well as in real-life.

Having a high profile bike ride in the middle of February will hopefully send a strong message that there is a lot of untapped potential for biking in winter in Montreal. After all, cities like Minneapolis and Madison in the US or Oulu in Finland have winters just a rough or even worse than Montreal and still manage to have a higher proportion of riders who stay on the bike year-round.

So come out and play in the snow! Registration is required but free. Vélo Québec is hoping for a turnout of 300 cyclists—but I say: let's aim higher and show that cycling in the winter is totally feasible!

The ride will start and end at the north end of Parc La Fontaine at the corner of Rachel and Chambord at 10 a.m.


View Larger Map

Ice bike outing

After suffering from a severe case of winter bike envy, I went ahead and bought a dedicated winter bike for myself, too. The bike is nothing special—a mid-range Norco MTB from 2001—but that we the idea: get a cheap used bike, have fun on it for a few months, and then sell it off again. The only modifications I made to the bike where a pair of Schwalbe Ice Spiker tires, swept back handlebars (thanks to Fitz & Follwell for hooking me up with these!) to deal with my inability to ride straight bars without pain, and a pair of pogies, which haven't arrived yet.

I went on a short maiden voyage a few days ago to see if everything worked alright, but today it was time for a proper outing. Montreal had a lot of snow this year and after a spell of bitter cold there was significant freezing rain, turning roads, sidewalks and trails into an icy mess—in other words: perfect conditions!

As the path on the Lachine Canal doesn't get cleared at all in winter and is too rough to ride on, I went to the shore of the St. Lawrence in Verdun. I was happy to see that the path had indeed been cleared and, better yet, cleared in a way that created a mix of compacted snow and ice. This was great fun to ride on!

The ice begins!

After a few kilometers, however, the surface suddenly turned into a skating rink. I guess they must have cleared the path at a different time or in a different way. Cautiously, I continued. The Ice Spikers did their job in keeping me upright but I felt that I didn't have much traction to spare. This wasn't as much fun and I decided to turn around after a kilometer. For the way back, I steered clear of the icy trail and rode straight across the park. The snow was still a foot deep but because of the freezing rain it had an icy surface strong enough to support me and the bike—at least most of the time...

Lots of ice on the St. Lawrence. I was tempted to go ride the ice but only saw one other person out ice-fishing

I had to go slowly because one could never tell when the tires would sink into the snow and bring me to an abrupt halt. But hey, very enjoyable!

Sweaty but happy—selfie back home

Winter Bike Envy

Someone in our household has a badass winter bike. And it's not me.

B&M Lumotec IQ Cyo senso plus front light; no-name front basket

Schwalbe Ice Spiker Performance 559-54 (26x2.1)

Civia Loring with Avid BB5 disc brakes, Shimano Deore LX dynohub, SRAM iMotion 9 IGH

Handlebar Booties

Winter's toll. And a winter bike?

Winter is far from over here in Montreal. But because of a snapped gear cable I decided to do a spring tune-up on Wolfgang, my all-purpose, all-year bike. A lot of people have "winter beaters," but to me that never made too much sense: I really like my bike and don't see the point of riding an inferior quality bike at a time that places the highest demands on bike and rider. Especially, I wouldn't want to give up on my hub generator and LED lighting at the darkest time of the year. So far, this has worked well for me and the wear and tear of components didn't seem to be particularly bad. But somehow this winter seems to have been worse than previous, if not in weather but in damage to parts. My rear rim was destroyed a couple of weeks ago, after less than 10 000 km.

Busted rim

And during my tune-up today I discovered a whole bunch of other issues:

• my bottom bracket feels noticeably grindy
• the front brakes, Avid Single Digit 7, didn't turn that well around the brake bosses
• the Tiagra front derailleur is sticky and doesn't want to go to the smallest chainring any more
• all the cables and housing are in miserable condition and have to be replaced
• a lot of the bolts, despite being made of stainless steel, show a lot of surface corrosion
• one of the Shimano M424 pedals feels crunchy in the bearings

I'm not quite sure why this winter has been worse than others. I might have ridden more (last year I didn't ride between mid-January and the end of March because of a broken wrist), Montreal winters might be somewhat harder than those in Ithaca, and in some cases it is probably just accumulative damage.

This can't be good for your bike, can it?

It seems tempting to add a dedicated winter bike to the stable, and if I had the resources (and permission from the accomplice) I would probably get a bike with the following features:

• dynohub and lower quality LED lighting (e.g. the B&M Lyt): As stated above, I wouldn't want to give up on my dynohub-powered lighting system. However, for riding in the city I don't need a B&M Cyo or Philips SafeRide light. It's more about being seen than about seeing.
• frame with upright position: A frame that allows me to ride in a more upright position would help in snowy and icy conditions.
• SPD-compatible pedals: I also wouldn't want to give up on SPD pedals and I'm happy with my Lake winter cycling boots.
• plastic saddle: Whereas for long rides a leather saddle is an absolute requirement, for commuting a plastic saddle will do and also take care of the issue of having to cover your saddle---this season I managed to lose 3(!) saddle covers.
• drop bars: A lot of people prefer straight, Albatross, or North road bars for a winter bike; this makes sense from a balance and control perspective; however, my wrists are not built for any kind of non-drop bar, even on reasonably short rides.
• good and wide studded tires: Wheel size is not particularly important for me but good studded tires are a must. And some wideness helps with floating over snow.
• disc brakes (at least in the front): Rim brakes with drop bar levers can be pretty problematic in wet conditions, and most of the time winter means wet roads. Therefore I want disc brakes, probably mechanical ones like the Avid BB7 because of the drop bars. In addition, rim wear is not an issue with disc brakes.



Not a good studded tire

• 2-speed Sturmey Archer Duomatic kickback hub with low gearing: I'm not a single-speed or fixed gear person because my knees don't like me mashing up hills (and hills I like!); at the same time, derailleur systems don't particularly like road salt and constant wetness. A 2-speed Sturmey Archer kickback hub thus would be perfect: no cables, allows to use a 1/8" chain, and has more than one gear. I've never ridden a Duomatic hub so maybe it's not as good as I think.

I don't really see me building up this bike any time soon. But one may dream while wainting for spring...

Review: Innova 700x35C Studded Tires

Back in November, I published a "first look" article on my newly mounted Innova snow tires. After having ridden them for only a few kilometer they seemed like reasonably nice tires: cheap, not too heavy, not too much rolling resistance. Since then I have ridden the tires for approximately 1500 km and my verdict is very different now. The Innovas turned out to be a bad investment for me.

Before...

...and after

The main reason for this are the steel studs. In the initial review I pointed out that steel studs have a reputation for not lasting long, and now I can say for sure: yes, they really don't. I admittedly rode more than usual this winter and a lot of it was not on snow or ice but just bare pavement. But the degree of wear just isn't acceptable. On the pictures you can see that a lot of studs have completely sunken into the tire. In addition, I have lost two studs in the front tire, despite following the manufacturer's advice to break in the tires by careful asphalt riding for the first 50 km¹.

The studs on the rear tire have completely sunken into the tread

The problem is exacerbated by the overall low number of studs. 110 studs make for light weight and low rolling resistance, but on a 622mm tire they limit the performance on ice. I got a taste of that when -- somewhat foolishly -- I endeavored to ride over a bike path covered in snow that had been turned into ice by freezing rain. I quickly realized that this probably was not a very good idea but once you're on the ice there is not much you can do. So I kept going at a very slow pace, but after maybe ten meters it was over. Wham! The front wheel slipped and down I went. I landed on my behind and aside from a painful bruise no physical damage was done. The mental damage, a loss of trust in my tire, however, was quite severe. In my post-accident analysis I've come to the conclusion that 110 studs is not enough for riding on uneven ice on a 622mm tire. A 35-622 tire has a circumference of 2168mm, meaning that the studs are about 40mm apart on each side. On uneven ice that's definitely enough to take you down.

Do I have anything good to say about the tires? Well, they have a nice tread which works well in snow. And as long as the studs were still reasonably new they worked well enough for Montreal conditions. Because of the wear issues I can definitely not recommend this tire; however, if Innova would produce the same tire with carbide studs, like the very similar Suomi Tyres W106, it would make a pretty good commuting tire for urban conditions with infrequent ice. For next season, I will probably switch to something like the Schwalbe Marathon Winter with 294 studs. 

Product details:

Innova TR5263 Snow tire
110 steel studs
700x35C (37-622), also available in 700x45C
Price 40-75 USD

¹ This is fairly common, however, even with more expensive tires from Schwalbe or Continental.

First impressions: Innova 700x35C Studded Tires

Update 2012-26-02: I now have posted an extensive review of the tire.

The first snow of this winter has arrived in Montreal, and it was quite a lot. As an avid follower of various kinds of weather forecast (yesyes, I'm soo boring) I was, however, well prepared. The night before I put on my new studded winter tires. I bought them sometime in spring, knowing that in winter it can often be tricky to still find studded tires in stock. The only tires in a suitable size -- my fenders only allow a max of 38 mm wide tires -- that my bike shop had available were Innova Snow Tires in 37-622. The tires have a pretty aggressive tread and a total of 110 steel studs, positioned in two rows near the tire's center.

The Innova website is pretty uninformative, and I also couldn't find much information elsewhere on the interwebs. I'm curious how the steel studs are going to hold up. More expensive snow tires from Schwalbe, Nokian/Suomi, or Continental use carbide studs which are harder than steel and should therefore last longer and will also not rust -- even though that is primarily a matter of aesthetics. In principle, the studs should be replaceable and I'm assuming that I could use carbide replacements if necessary. Measured width was about 33 mm on an Alex DA-16 (internal rim width 19mm).

Price

I paid 40 USD per tire at my LBS, which is a pretty good price for studded tires in North America. Last week I saw them at a bike shop in Montreal for 75 CAD each and on Amazon they sell for 64 USD (if you can fit 45mm, you can currently get them for 36 USD there). So they're not cheap when compared to normal tires, but in the world of studded tires they're probably the cheapest you can get. And if they prevent only one crash they're probably already worth it.

Ride quality

 I took the tires on a first 80 minute test ride on the night before the snow actually arrived. It is advisable to break in studded tires, i.e. riding them without hard cornering or braking, for a couple of kilometers in order to allow the studs to set themselves in the tire and avoid losing them prematurely. So I rode along the Lachine Canal bike path, which was mostly dry with some icy puddles. On dry pavement, you can clearly feel the increased rolling resistance of the tires. Up to now I have been on Vittoria Randonneur Pros in 35-622, which roll very nicely, and thus the difference was very noticeable. The best way to describe the feeling of the tires is "riding into a slight headwind." What is even more noticeable than the rolling resistance is the noise of the tires: people often joke that you can take off your bell when you're riding studded tires, and I have to agree: the sound is very similar to riding on fine gravel, even though I think the tires have gotten a bit quieter on the third day. There were some frozen puddles on the Lachine Canal path, and I somewhat cautiously tested riding over them. All went well and so I got a bit bolder: Braking on the ice also worked pretty well.

The next morning I rode into work once the snowfall had mostly stopped. I tried going my usual route on the Lachine Canal, but they don't clear the snow there at all and riding through deep snow wasn't too awesome, even with the new tires. At the next intersection I therefore turned onto the streets which were more or less snow-free. On the more snowy parts, the tires performed reasonably well -- I would say better than the Ritchey Cross-Pros I had been riding during the past winter, but it's hard to tell. On the way back, the roads were mostly snow free, but I did go across an icy pedestrian bridge near Atwater Market. Here the studded tires were great, and I think not having to worry about icy patches that can often be hard to spot is the main advantage of studded tires.

Since then it had gotten warm again and I have taken the tires off. The next snow and ice will come soon, though, and I will probably post an update at some point.

Product details:

Innova TR5263 Snow tire
110 steel studs
700x35C (37-622), also available in 700x45C
Price 40-75 USD

Ride report: 150 cold kilometers

It's time for the annual winter trophy again, and this year I'm member of a pretty hardcore team. My last two weekends were spent with conference and work travel and I had fallen behind quite a bit. The weather forecast for Saturday looked okay -- about 5 degrees and dry -- and so I decided to do what could be the last really long ride of the season. I combined a bit of a previous route with some new bits, resulting in a 150km course that would be almost exclusively on bike paths and lanes.

I made up my mind of where to go last minute, as per usual, and only got on the road around 11:30. The only crossing of the St. Lawrence that hasn't been closed for the winter yet is the Jacques-Cartier Bridge. The offramp of the bridge is only a few blocks away from the Route Verte 1, which led me out of Longueil first on bike lanes/cycle tracks and then on bike paths more or less away from traffic. There was a steady headwind coming from the south which kept my speed at around 20 km. Once I reached Chambly I made my first stop of the day on the beautiful shore of Lake Chambly. One of the things that suck when biking in the winter is that you can't really have any longer outside stops, and thus only ate a Clif Bar (as an aside: their new coconut-something flavor is great!). I had done this part of the ride before on the 100k-ride with the Biketopus, but now I crossed the Richelieu river instead of continuing along the Chambly Canal.

On the OpenCycleMap I had found the Route des Champs which leads east toward Granby. The description on their website promised a mostly paved, partly gravel route and so I was quite shocked when I got to what I thought was the trailhead outside of Chambly: the trail was basically an old railway bed with the tracks removed. I tried riding on it for maybe 50m, but it was almost impossible to ride on the loose rocks. At the next intersection I stopped and considered my alternatives. Only then did I spot the actual trail only 30 meters to the north, parallel to the busy highway. Phew.

The Route de Champs was very nice to ride on: very long straight stretches, few intersections, and a nice hardpacked gravel surface. The Route des Champs meets the Route Verte 1 in Granby, but that would've been too far and thus I turned south in Saint-Cesaire, now following the Yamaska River on a very quiet country road with surprisingly good pavement.

In Farnham I then turned west again on the Route Verte/Monteregiade and took another Clif Bar stop, which was highly overdue -- I could already feel some bonking symptoms. The Monteregiade, built on the right-of-way of a former CN railroad, is lovely to bike on and for the first time on the ride I had a bit of a tailwind. After less than an hour I arrived in St. Jean-sur-Richelieu and took another rest stop at the gas station (note to self: never again buy grape-flavored Gatorade). I was a bit disheartened to see a Route Verte sign saying "Montreal 60 km," but once I got going I felt pretty good again.

It was pitch black at this point, but with my trusty B&M Cyo lights riding the gravel trail along the Chambly Canal was very pleasant. The ride back to Montreal was not very eventful and after almost exactly 150 km and 7 h 25 minutes I arrived back home. The 29 Winterpokal points (at least temporarily) catapulted me on the third place in our team.

The toll of winter

I've said it before and I'll say it again: salt is bad for your bike's health. Don't believe me? Well, then check out the following pictures of Wolfgang.

These brakes no longer move by themselves.

Hopeless...

Okay, not directly salt-related, but anyway

Due to my wrist injury, Wolfgang was sitting outside for several weeks and when I tried reactivating him, it was pretty hopeless. The chain was stiff, the front derailleur only moved when being kicked with the foot; and the rear canti brakes didn't reset themselves anymore.

So I switched the chain, which also required me to put on a new Shimano XT 11-34 cassette, replaced the Tektro Oryx cantis with an Avid SD7, and replaced some of the brake and shifter cables. Quite annoying, but that's the price you have to pay for riding all year on well-cleared roads in Upstate NY.