Keeping the bike clean is definitely going to keep everything working well, but if you use your brakes much (hilly commute, lots of stop lights) they are going to wear much more this time of year and it is very important to keep checking them. Part of the cleaning the bike is removing enough grime to better check wear.  And nothing hides behind the grime better than brake pads.

There are many different styles of pads; some depend on type of bike and brake. But you can reduce it to two main styles of pads that you’ll find on any bike. You have ones with inserts, or the whole unit as one (internal backbone ones). The insert type is usually a bit easier to replace and requires less fiddling than the whole pads do. The down side to the inserts is that you wind up with more rim damage if you let them wear down to nothing.  V-style pads and holders tend to be very thin and wear a bit sooner than some of the road or internal backbone pads, and if you have them be especially attentive.

Now sure, wait until they wear a bit or start making noise, but then rather than wearing out something that costs $5 to $20, you wear out something that’s going to be at least 10x that, even more if you can’t find the exact rim or can’t rebuild the wheel yourself.

Yes, rim wear is a real thing. And I don’t like it. I think I’m through maybe a half dozen rims from wear (not that many, I guess), but I made a change after the fourth rim that has greatly changed the wear rate on the rim – I’ve switched to a very specific pad. A pad that is much gentler on the rim but still has excellent braking characteristics. Kool-Stop Salmon. There are no other pads you should be considering unless you have carbon rims.  Not sure there is anyone who commutes on carbon, and anyone who does probably has a handle on the brake pad situation, but if you have rim brakes and aluminum rims those salmon pads will keep the rims intact for much longer.

Chain wear and brake pad wear, two very important things to monitor that if ignored wind up being very costly. Check the chain with a tool (or measure, but the tool is better as it actually checks the roller wear, not just wear on the pins and plates) and visually inspect your brake pads. As a rule, get the brake pads changed when you still have between 1-2mm of pad before the wear line or insert holder. You could change them sooner if you like but if you get a pair at 2mm wear maybe they’ll wind up at 1mm when it is time to change them.

If you’re one of the smart/lucky ones and have disc brakes? Well you gotta get those changed before the metal backing touches the rotors. The beauty of the disc brakes is you never wear out your rim and you’ll just not be able to stop if it winds up metal on metal, not really costly for the equipment as much as very scary. Visual inspection to make sure there’s pad left on the discs is a good idea. Washing and cleaning is the perfect time to check those.

The only downside really to the salmon pads is they can be a bit dirtier than some of the black compounds, but man i’d rather spend time washing the wheels than replacing the rims. But that’s me personally and I can replace the rims myself (as I have plenty of times).

I was reminded of this when I got a puncture flat on the studded winter tires on a busy two-lane road without a shoulder on a 33*F slushy rainy morning. These tires I have are 700x35c tires and if the the cold and wet wasn’t enough, the carbide-tipped studs made sure it was an extra painful experience and yes it was a bit dirty even after having recently washed the bike (riding in wet slush will do that). It was a perplexing flat tire. Not a snake bite (impact causing a pair of holes as the tire is compressed against the rim hard enough to poke a pair of holes in the tube), and not a leaky valve. It was a straight up puncture. Something worked through the gap in the tread blocks and it was flat.  I did have a spare tube, but it was for 23-25c tires. Did it work? Yes, it worked just fine. Butyl tubes are pretty elastic and usually can work for a huge range of sizes.  But plus sizing. Plus sizing of the tubes is a trick that will buy you time to clean something out of your tire, that will both keep air in the tire longer and be more resistant to snake bite punctures.

What is plus sizing? Simply put it is using an inner tube that is one (or more) size larger than typically you’d think to use. Now. Yes. You can get too big. A tube so large that you can’t make it fit. That’s obviously kind of a problem. If you can’t get it in there, well that’s not going to work. But usually you can get at least one size up in the tire. At the very least make sure your tire size is the very smallest listed on the box.  Say you have a 700x28c commuter tire (smallest tire width I’d consider for commuting), don’t use a tube designed for a 700×23-28 or worse an 700×18-25; find a 700×28-35 if you can, or a 700×30-38 and stuff one of them in there.  Yes a 700×18 will work, if you have a flat getting home pedaling is way better than walking or waiting for a ride. it will work but it won’t survive as long as a proper size or a plus size, best to take the skinny tube out when you have time and a warm dry place to do it.

Yes, you DO get a big benefit from plus sizing, especially as a bike commuter. It does come at a slight weight penalty but we’re talking a handful of grams. Not significant compared to the added puncture resistance. Puncture resistance comes from not stretching the tube out quite as much, you wind up with a thicker walled tube that has much more elastic potential, and when it comes to snake bites that’s a good thing. Even with some punctures, maybe you hear the repetitive clicking of the glass in the tire, if you have a plus size tube you stand a good chance of getting that glass out of the tire casing before it can actually wear through the tube. Now benefits for a commuter don’t stop there. No, the thicker wall of the plus size tube is less porous, means holding your tire pressure longer, means less frequent need to top up the tires, and less risk of snake bites because the tire pressure decrease caught you by surprise.

It may take a bit more work to get the plus size in there. Using a bit of friction-reducing compound definitely helps install them. Baby powder (cornstarch) or talcum powder (not corn starch) help significantly and is almost required for installing a plus-size tube to make sure it seats itself well as you inflate it. The powder can also make it easier to install a difficult tire on the rare challenging rim.

Plus sizing is a bit of a loose guideline but it is one I’ve been using with great success for over 20 years. Certainly for a race tire going with a super light weight tube can help in a race, but we’re not talking racing. Now for long-haul riders, having a slightly thicker tube makes it a bit more elastic and that gives you more vertical compliance, and that means more comfort – and most importantly – less fatigue, and chances are if you’re going for a long ride, without a team car following you, the savings of 20-50 grams per tire is eaten up by food, water, and other stuff you are likely carrying, and when you add up you and the bike, even considering it is rotating mass, it is well worth the tradeoff.

So check your pads, when they wear out slap in some Kool-Stop Salmon pads. One set of pads won’t kill a rim, and next time you change your inner tube slap in a plus size. If you want to be proactive go ahead and replace everything and keep the old stuff as emergency working backups.

Take care of the bike you rely on to get to work, and don’t let a preventable mechanical force you to use a less desirable alternative form of transportation.

-G

Fenders or no fenders, it’s getting trashed riding in the winter. For me it is the heavier than normal tires, the snow, or hauling a trailer as a traffic-calming device that add extra strain to the drive train.  Couple that with the snow and salt as scouring compounds and the mechanical bits on the bike will need some attention if you want them to last longer and work more reliably.

Unlike a car, the whole drivetrain of a bike is exposed to the elements. The car has everything encased and bathed in semi-permanent fluids. Not much is getting destroyed by the elements, The bike? Everything is exposed, and even if you have a Gates belt drive you’re going to want to give the bike some regular attention.

There are a million different opinions out there on some of these habits and suggestions I have, but the biggest deal is to keep the bike cleaned regularly and always keep the chain well lubed. Well-lubed and quiet will last longer than a dry and noisy chain. A dirty lubed quiet chain is gross and gives many mechanics and super type-A bike mechanics fits – but – well-lubed and dirty is better than dry and squeaky; just make sure you either clean it up before bringing it to the bike shop or bring beer (if it’s only a little dirty a six pack is fine, but if it is super gross, better bring a two four…).

I’ll try and break it down into a couple focal points. Cleaning the bike, lubing the bike, and between-cleaning protocols. All very contentious. But it is best to start somewhere. I did once and now I’m that old bearded mechanic who’s worked on everything, tried every lube, and rides in all conditions year-round. I’ve actually been dumb/patient enough to give a new lube a try for an extended period of time. I could probably do a whole column on chain lube alone, and hey that might happen just to get it out there. Not right now. Save the really juicy stuff for later when we don’t have hordes of salt-encrusted bikes squeaking all over the country.

If you’re lucky enough to live somewhere that doesn’t salt, chances are they are going to sand everything heavily and you’re more likely to wind up with sandy abrasive dirt sticking to everything, so pretend that it’s salt and treat more or less the same way.

Cleaning the bike can be done at many different levels. Ultimate inside, occasional outside, shower inside, sponge bath.

Ultimate is having a nice indoor wash station in your house. So no matter how cold it gets you can roll in, hang up the bike and clean it with warm soapy water, dry it and get it re-lubed and ready to go easily.  Now, if you have that set up? You probably are set with knowing what to do so we’ll kind of move on and just keep this as the sort of dream, you know to go with the hydro-disc brake internal geared hub belt drive drop-bar full-fendered Firefly commuter bike you have.

Most hoses are outside, frozen solid (especially if you’re like me and are washing the bike after cyclocross races and then you wind up forgetting to drain it and it sits all winter as a frozen snake, countless nice sprayer nozzles destroyed by ice, oops), so unless you’ve got your indoor set up, yeah well you’re going to want to clean it a bit differently.

Now if you get lucky enough to have a few random warm days or a hose that doesn’t freeze, wash the bike with light pressure, a bit of car wash soap (cheapest generic stuff works the best) and a brush, but don’t spray the bearings. Soap it all down, then rinse. There are a nice pile of different shaped brushes you can get for washing the bike, the best brushes are going to be natural bristles.  Think about painting. When you paint with oils you need natural brushes, when you paint with acrylic or other water based paints you need synthetic bristles. When you wash your bike coated in oils/grease/lube you’ll want to use a natural bristle brush because you can actually wash them clean.  Nylon bristle brushes just collect grease and turn black and get gross and stop cleaning pretty quickly.  Conical brushes are great for tight spaces, big wide flat brushes are good for the frame and bars and wheels, but you can make do with whatever seems to work. Wet it down, soap it up, rinse it off. Sometimes it is best to take the wheels off if you have a bike stand that holds the bike.

Key is to get all that dirt and salt off. Keep it all from building up, keep the shiny bits shiny and the rest in good shape.

You don’t need to do this full wash every day, or even once a week, but you shouldn’t go more than 10-20 rides between a good full bike hose down.

If you have a hose and say it was just a wet slushy ride and the hose isn’t frozen, a quick rinse before you get changed and head inside will dramatically extend the life of the bike bits and make a full soap down cleaning that much easier.

Now to help with between cleanings the best thing you can do is get everything nice and waxed down. The frame and any non-moving parts (avoid the rims and brake pads, saddle, and bars). Some people like a good hard carnauba wax, turtle wax, or other paste like stuff. Goes on nice and thick and lasts pretty well. Personally I prefer the can of lemon-scented Pledge. Now it can be store brand, no big deal, but the spray makes it pretty easy to cover all the surfaces, Then wipe it down.  You’re left with a nice protective finish with a minimum of effort.

Final bit would be lubing up the chain. I prefer the homemade chain lube. Three parts Odorless Mineral Spirits (not the green kind, the old fashioned metal can stuff) and one part synthetic motor oil (5W-30 works for me).  I make a gallon at a time and having that much on hand means not skimping on the fancy stuff. I use it in my Park chain cleaner too. Usually I will run the chain cleaner on the chain before washing it.  After the chain cleaner then the soaping and washing of the bike, the chain is always spotless with this lube. Dry it off with a rag after washing the the whole bike then give it a good coating. Wipe the excess off. Done.

So what if you don’t have a hose? Shower? Yup. Plenty of my friends actually double purpose their bath/shower for washing bikes and bodies. Maybe not ideal.  Probably want to clean the chain and dry it all off before getting it in there to minimize greasey residue. But that’s a good place for simple green (to clean the bathtub, not your bike). NEVER USE SIMPLE GREEN ON THE CHAIN.  EVER.  Ever ever ever ever. The degreaser has a higher affinity for the metal than the chain lube, you get simple green in the rollers and between the plates and it’s going to stay there and de-activate your lube and let the metal rub on metal. Not good. Cleaning the bathtub to keep your roommates in the dark? Yes, that’s a good choice for Simple Green.

Shower cleaning is tricky though, and a sponge bath may be easier. A bucket and a rag can clean most of the dirt off outside – soap it up, then rinse it off. Anything is better than letting the bike get all gross over the winter. An alternative to the bucket and rag is a spray bottle of a glass cleaner, spray and wipe. Not really ideal but it can help with the build up enough to make a difference.

For cables and non-moving metal parts, a coating of Boeshield T-9 is the best thing out there. It is a terrible chain lube (doesn’t last long and you get a nasty waxy build-up everywhere that is really hard to remove without heavy solvents or lots of work).

If you need to get all the water off the bike before it freezes a bit of WD-40 is magical stuff.  Spray down the derailleurs and other moving parts and it will get any of the last bits of water out so they don’t freeze when you head out in the morning.

Between washing and cleaning the bike, just keep the chain clean and lubed. Using that homemade lube it is best to put it on after the ride. The nice part of the application process is that it also doubles as a cleaning. When you get home put a nice, coating on the chain, work it in for 30-60 pedal revolutions, and wipe the excess off. Done. Bike is ready to go for the next day. Wipe any excess bits off, put a drop or two on moving parts and that’s about all you need to do.

Recapping:

• Clean the bike at regular intervals.
• Wax after full cleaning.
• Make sure the chain is lubed and quiet at all times.

Simple, no? The small amount of time invested in keeping the bike clean will pay back in reliability and longevity of the bits on the bike.

-GeWilli

Cleaning the bike is a good time to inspect the cables and housing. If you see cracks developing, make note and get them changed before too long. Also get a good chain measuring device; if you have a 10-11sp (# of cogs on the freewheel not total number of gears) this is one of the easiest to use: http://www.parktool.com/product/chain-wear-indicator-CC-3-2. Get it changed between 0.5 and 0.75 and you can avoid the costly replacement of a cassette as well. Let it get worn past the 0.75 mark and you’ll need to change everything or suffer through skipping and poor shifting.

Commuting when the temps start to dip below the freezing point is one of the more environmentally and physically rewarding times of the year to make the effort.  Cars are at their most polluting and consume the most fuel until they reach operating temperatures, and in the winter any trip in the car is quite wasteful, and with the weather that we’ve had lately – specifically these “polar vortex events” – driving instead of biking the commute, the car may never warm up, and I can certainly go into the long list of why that is bad for the car. BUT lets focus on personal comfort. If the car isn’t garaged it is going to be cold getting in it. You could start it and let it idle for 5-15 minutes before getting in, but again, not the most responsible thing to do.

So you get dressed, jump in cold car, shiver until it warms up. Get to work, park. Walk in. So much coldness.

OR?

Start in the warm house, (I like to take my shower, especially in the winter, just before getting dressed to leave so that I’m as warm as possible), get suited up, hop on bike, start making heat as a by-product of your work pedaling, arrive nice and warm. Lock/park bike. And never be cold once, even on the coldest mornings. And it isn’t just being warm, being active when it is cold out gives you an extra burst of metabolism, which translates into being able to have that extra helping at dinner, or dropping that extra pound or two you’ve been trying to shed for a while. Exercise in the cold (even if you are completely bundled up) definitely cranks that metabolic furnace to high.

The reasons to commute by bike are rather exhaustive and not the point for today.

Clothing, that’s what is covered today, with a big but targeted brush stroke.

How do you dress when the temps dip down?

Weather. Weather. Weather.

If you haven’t figured it out by now you basically need to be your own meteorologist. Personally l start with http://forecast.weather.gov/ and their Hourly Weather Graph. It gives me a nice projection of all the factors for the whole day in one glance, temperature, wind speed and direction, and precipitation. http://forecast.io/lines/ is another source. Next place I check after the daily trends is the current weather, what is it actually doing just before getting dressed, and for that I find that http://www.wunderground.com/auto/wxmap/ works the best (especially when you add wind info to the weather stations).

Everyone has a personal threshold for tolerable temps, but on the bike you should be generating heat (if not, PEDAL HAHDAH), and dressing for a cold temp commute is just making sure you keep the heat in without sweating or letting the wind suck it out faster than you can make it.  Individuals with Raynaud’s may find it more challenging to keep hands and feet warm, but it is still not a completely insurmountable obstacle. When I was taking my daughter to daycare in the trailer every day our low temp cut off was 18ºF/-7.8ºC. That was the temp at which after 50 minutes her hot water bottle heat sources would be cool and her cheeks just a touch cold. Sitting there bundled up in a trailer even with waterbottles full of hot water stuffed in the seat and by her feet it’s tough to stay warm. I suppose we could have pushed it colder but never did, and only had to resort to alternative means of transport once or twice.

Right now? My cut off?

I don’t have one. Last week the 6ºF/-14.4ºC commute was no big deal. Actually wound up with too many layers on my legs and overheating on the way in, which balanced being slightly underdressed on the top half. Even I don’t get the layers just right all the time.

Since we’re talking cold, not cool, temps where you shouldn’t really see any moisture, I’m not going to address wet commutes, that’s a totally separate pile of words.

Breaking it down there are really four main areas – Clothing, Head, Eyes, and Skin.

Starting with skin. Yes, there are times when it will be cold but maybe your face will still have a bit of exposed skin, maybe just a nose or the cheeks.  I like to use non-petroleum skin protectant. Badger makes a few products, right now I’m using the one for hard working hands, a nice blend of oils and waxes that doesn’t suffocate the skin but still provides a good measure of protection against the brutal cold wind. Personally I strive to avoid anything with mineral oil, glycols, petroleum jelly/vaseline, and any lotions/coatings that have water/alcohol in them. Pure lanolin is a fantastic option but is a bit challenging to apply because it is so thick. A simple light coat of a nice saturated vegetable oil like avocado or palm or coconut oils actually works really well (also great for applying to your legs after shaving them). The goal is to provide a barrier to the wind while being very well tolerated by the skin. Exposed skin shouldn’t be left unprotected.

Eyes. Glasses work well.  The bigger the lenses the better. Those old Oakley M-Frames with the heater lenses are great, little thin glasses are better than nothing but you will have more exposed skin. Many go with ski goggles, and they are a great option when the weather really gets nasty but I don’t have any and generally have found even a clear lens to be sufficient protection. Just something to keep the tears from forming and freezing.  Take care of your eyes as it is hard to commute by bike when they don’t work.

Keeping with that area lets move to the head. How do you manage to keep the head warm? Some helmets, like a few Lazer models, have a nice plastic shell that snaps on, covering all the vents. This is a great way to decrease heat loss from the head. But if you don’t have a helmet with that option, simple packing tape works well to cover the vents. Go nuts and use reflective tape or bright duct tape for more visibility and creativity. But those same vents that keep you cool in the heat of the summer are your worst enemy in the winter, so cover ’em.  There are separate helmet covers made by Gore-tex and a few other companies that go right over your helmet and may be a nice option that is easily removable if your temp ranges are very diverse during the day.

Now inside the helmet, there are specific winter liners you can get too, depending on the make and model you have, but you can often get away with a nice thin wool cap, or even a fleece cap under the helmet. It is important that it not be so thick as to make the helmet cease to be an effective protective device. You could always just get a giant toque and put it over the helmet too.  When it gets really cold I typically go with a balaclava under a wool or fleece hat under the helmet. Just enough protection and retains the heat generated in the core and the legs that flows up to the head. Some people go with a buff instead, though. A buff is just a tube of fabric made popular by one of those reality shows. You can use it as mini-skirt, a bikini top, or around your neck and face. Either under the helmet straps or over, either way is acceptable, and each has its own distinct set of pros and cons. I kind of prefer the continuous connection from under the helmet to inside the collar of the jacket and stick with the balaclava, when a hat isn’t enough…

Now I didn’t mention your hands yet, did I? Nope. We covered the neck up. Because now we are going to diverge greatly. Or basically break it up into two options under the heading of clothing.

Two? Yup. And while they are separate, there are no rules, you make what works. Mix and match and combine. Getting to work on your bike comfortably is the key here. No matter how silly you think you look you’re still going to be way cooler than the macho dude shivering from his car ride as he walks into work.

I break it down into cycling-specific and regular clothes.

Wait, what? Ride my bike in street clothes? Yup. The same reason it’s not great to wear street clothes in the summer is the best reason to wear them in the winter. They are warm. Now it is cold, so just a pair of jeans and a wind-breaker may not be enough. But add some fuzzy pink pajamas under your jeans and a nice fleece under the wind-breaker and you have a combo that will take you to work comfortably when the polar vortex hits.  Yes leg straps are important if you don’t have a chainguard, as are having pants that aren’t so tight that you can’t layer under them. Or maybe wear your super-tight stretchy skinny jeans under your relaxed-fit pants that fit before you started riding to work every day…

Layers. The outside one should block the wind. The wind and air moving through the clothes is what you need to fight, but the colder it is the colder that fabric will get, and you need a layer or two of good insulation to prevent that fabric from cooling you down faster than you can generate heat. Yes. You will be making heat. Finding the balance between overheating and freezing is tough. Sometimes it is as simple as pedaling harder or easier. You find yourself getting too hot? Slow down. Too cold? PEDAL HAHDAH! Maybe you want to have a combination, put some cycling shorts on under the pants for the chafing protection.

There is no one simple solution to wearing regular non-cycling clothes. You basically kind of have to figure out what combination of what you have that will work. Or maybe you head down to the Goodwill store or used clothing store to find a few layers that are just big enough to go over something you have.

Of course there are plenty of fantastic options that are cycling-specific that look like street clothes. Those Vulpine folks in England make that fancy and stylish waterproof stuff, but these may not be quite warm enough for single-digit temps. But an insulated pair of Carhart coveralls? You know? They might be perfect.

Gloves and jacket and shoes don’t have to be any different, cycling-specific may just mean more costly and not necessarily better. The big factor for me in a jacket that will work is, “Will it seal/zip up in the front and not let any wind in?” Just buttons or snaps isn’t going to cut it. Sleeves should be long enough and tight enough at the cuff to keep the wind from blowing up your arms; the collar needs to be just big enough to wrap around your buff or balaclava, but more importantly not obscure peripheral vision (like some parka hoods can), and lastly the jacket needs to be long enough in the back to keep you from getting a chilled backside, so again – layers. A shell with a few thin layers might be easier to drop a layer or two for a warmer ride home than one big giant thick jacket.

Hand coverings take over where your jacket sleeves end. The hand coverings should either go inside the end of the jacket or go over it. Think about shingles on the roof. You don’t want a gap. Best choice? Slightly oversized leather wool-lined chopper mittens can be a fantastic choice for the coldest temps. Mittens will always be warmer than gloves and when it is cold you may only be braking, and even with road bars there is enough dexterity to stop the bike. Shifting? You may have some trouble with integrated levers, but hey, we’re just getting to work here. Not trying to win the local gran fondo. I’m not the biggest fan of the pogies or bar mits that your hands slip into. Crashing with those usually means face planting or worse. Having nice warm thick mittens lets your hands drop the bike and brace yourself in the unlikely event of a pavement landing.  You do not need the fanciest cycling-specific gloves. Find something that fits, and works. My latest pair of gloves were on the sale rack at a big national outdoor company chain and were under $30 and they have been good down to near zero degrees F on the bike, and if I wasn’t in desperate need I might have been able to spend more time looking and found something even cheaper. Now if you have issues with circulation, investing in a pair of gloves or mittens with hand warmer pockets in them – or at the high end of awesome, battery heated gloves – might be required. I personally don’t use them but many people with Raynaud’s find they make all the difference.

Shoes? What pedals do you have? Nice flat pedals and you can just wear your warm snow shoveling boots. Clipless pedals and you’re stuck with the shoes you can bolt cleats to. I’ve got size 48 feet and have always had a problem with booties lasting more than a season before exploding at the seams. So I a few years ago I invested in some winter cycling shoes, and couldn’t be happier. There are different levels, some with more insulation than others, most people should be able to find a good intersection between function and price. Another option if you use clipless pedals most of the year is to put the combo pedals with the cleats on one side and the cage on the other. This gives you the flexibility to choose what you have on your feet, clipless shoes for most of the time and big warm winter boots when the temps drop. I always wear wool socks. I wear them year round. The thin wool socks are fantastic in the summer, never getting gross the way synthetic or cotton fiber socks get, going thicker as weather dictates.  Careful though. Too many socks or a pair that is too thick, when shoved inside a shoe, can actually be colder. Your toes need room to move, too much compression will reduce the blood flow and your feet are almost guaranteed to get cold. But sometimes winter shoes and wool socks aren’t quite enough. For me that temp is somewhere below 10 to 15°F/-12 to -9°C. And when it gets super chilly I’ll put a pair of old booties OVER the winter cycling shoes, just for an added layer of insulation. There are lots of people who have a specific shoe, and the cleat/pedal interface is critical for a myriad of reasons and going with a booty over a specific pair of cycling shoes is important. The most popular ones in Ice World here are the Endura MT500 overshoe, they are durable enough to hold up to a good pile of winters spent battling snow and slush and cold.

Let’s wind up, finally, with cycling-specific clothing. I’ve got a pile of stuff laying around. One of the best parts of being on a cyclocross team is that there is always a winter clothing option – long-sleeve thermal jerseys, winter jackets, tights…  all that stuff (summer teams sometimes only order short-sleeve jersey and shorts). So over the years I have accumulated a pile of layers that come out and get pulled into service depending on the weather. The colder it is, the deeper into the closet I reach for extra layers.

Two layers is usually enough when the temps are between 20° to 30°F/-5 to -1°F, especially if they are both thermal layers. A layer could be tall wool socks, knee warmers, and bib shorts, with a second layer of full-length tights or bib tights over them. Or two layers of tights. The combinations really are more dependent upon what you have lying around. Three layers for 5° to 20°F/-15 to -5°C depending on the wind (fewer layers when you have a tailwind, more when you have a headwind). Below 5°F/-15°C and you’re going to be looking for a windproof layer to go on top of the layers of tights.  That or load up with a couple layers of cycling specific and put on some jeans. Yes, the windproof layer for me comes out only at extreme cold. I find that with the tights I have they work really well in combination to stay warm, and putting the windproof layer on before that extra cold makes me overheat a bit too easily.

It is important, though, no matter what you wear, cycling-specific or street clothing, that you don’t get too sweaty, at least until you’re within a few minutes of the destination. Why? Well. Wet clothes conduct heat really well. and that means you will get cold. Not good. And then you’ll be sweaty and that nice shower you had before getting dressed that warmed you all up will be for naught. BUT. Being underdressed can be worse. I would urge that when being confronted with being a bit over-dressed, you then maybe unzip a layer if need be rather than being cold, and then hoping you can pedal hard enough to get warm. Sometimes that just doesn’t work. This is another reason why I always like to change clothes at work.  Even if you ride in wearing street clothes, have a change of fresh clean clothes to put on, so that if you did get a bit sweaty you’ll have dry warm clothes to wear at work.

Maybe this is too vague for some, but everyone is different, you actually need to experiment a bit to figure out what will work for you. My hope is this provides enough of a guideline to get you out the door at temps beyond your old comfort range, or helps you think a bit more about optimizing your current set up. The best thing to do is set up a simple database and record what you wore and how well it worked. Temperature(s), wind speed and direction, precipitation, clothing, too warm/too cold. That’s about it. Make it in a Google doc so you can edit it anywhere, and then once you have a good pile of data you can look through and see what worked last time. Over the years you’ll likely get a feel for it and won’t need to check back.

Now just get out there and ride. There really is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing choices. So much easier to put an extra layer on in the winter than to be riding to work in the summer in 100°F temps and wishing you could shed more layers.

-GeWilli

Oh and yes, one final thought. How do you take your lunch, clothes, laptop, stuff to work each day? If you’ve been commuting all summer with panniers, the winter is a great time to go to a backpack, the extra layer on the back helps keep the heat in, or go with both, add the backpack and the panniers for extra or heavier stuff-carrying. Backpacks also are great for attaching blinky lights or reflectors, increasing your visibility on the rides home in the dusk/dark.

Last night as I was getting suited up for the 17-degree F ride home in the growing storm I was grateful for the decision to swap wheelsets over to the studded commuter tires. Especially as I crossed over the Henderson Bridge in the unplowed bike lane, the bare car tire tracks a bit uncomfortably close made the 20 mph gusty crosswind pretty scary. Each gust was causing the tires on my bike to slip sideways grasping for traction. And that with lower pressing in the what I’ve found to be the best studded 700C commuter tires on the market.

The morning was totally dry and cold, but as always when commuting by bike you need to think about both directions. Weather is rarely identical going in as going home.

Tire choice though, there’s a myriad of things to cover with riding when it is 30 in the morning and 50 on the way home, but today – tires, winter studded tire options.

The beauty of commuting by bike is the continuum of options. There isn’t ever one right or absolute answer. Variables of skill, experience, equipment, cash, time, all impact what each individual will do.

Now one of the most important factor is your personal temperature threshold.

If your riding threshold is 40ºF/4.4ºC then studded tires generally aren’t something you will need to think about. But if you ride on untreated bike paths or live in areas with snow melt that freezes overnight on the shoulder or with the chance to encounter black ice, studded tires can be the difference between not riding, or riding and breaking a collarbone or worse. I’ve been riding with studded tires for the last good number of years when conditions demand , but I’ve also spent years commuting with just selectively picking routes or bikes (MTB vs commuter/cyclocross bike).

Riding in the winter on ice w/o studded tires is possible, low pressure, fat tires, and extreme caution is usually enough to survive, but it is still a bit of a gamble. And a risk I’m less and less willing to take as the years add up; I guess 20+ years ago commuting by bike, I was a bit less concerned with crashing and full of youthful confidence. And I was lucky. Mostly in that I never encountered it much then, later in Michigan everything was so heavily salted and there were few to no dedicated bike routes where studs weren’t needed. Out here in New England, the bike path isn’t plowed or salted, the roads get lots of melt during the day and the tire tracks where the cars go keep pretty dry with the salt and the vehicles but the plowed shoulder is usually a patchy skating rink in the morning and a slushy wet mess on the way home.

Weather is the key variable, I’ve had a few winters that the studs have stayed on the bike from January through to March and I’ve had a couple winters where I’ve needed the studs twice in the whole season and one of the days I didn’t use them.

That said, when it gets icy, the studs have made the difference between being able to keep riding to work, avoiding sitting in the cold car halfway in, or standing around in the weather waiting for a bus.  Cycling in the winter is great. Cold? Add more layers. Leave the house warm, pedal to stay warm, arrive at work ready to go.

Lets get on topic. Tires for the winter, studded tires.  The best can be very expensive in the $80-$100+ range per tire. Are they worth it? Let me answer by asking a few questions. What is your co-pay in the ER? If you have free health care, what is the cost of being off the bike while you heal, dealing with alternate transport, all that mess? Granted, money is still money and there are lots of options out there for less than the high end of buying the best tires and a whole second set of wheels to swap in and out when needed, but for the lifespan of the tires and your personal well-being, the investment is pretty trivial.

The most basic entry level setup would be one of the Innova studded tires on the front only. Usually about $40 or so, inexpensive but if you run into ice on a regular basis putting just this tire up front can keep just enough control to keep you upright. If the back end walks out on you it is rarely as catastrophic as when you lose the front end. As always with the studded tires, running a bit lower pressure when it is going to be icy is super smart, if you leave it on there all the time heading up to a bit higher on the recommended pressure range when the roads are ice free can minimize the trade off of the drag and noise of the studded tires.

Next level would be adding a pair of the Innovas, then you can sort of keep going up the scale in price and features.

The more expensive tires tend to also be more durable and may outlast the cheapest options three to four times over, easily offsetting the high cost of entry. Carbide studs generally are the biggest difference. Very long wearing compared to the less expensive stainless steel studs, and the rubber compound is often a harder durometer rubber that wears long and also holds the studs in more effectively. There are even higher-end MTB knobby treads that go to the length of encasing the carbide stud in an aluminum stud to reduce the weight penalty.

So when you take a look at all the options how do you choose?

Bike. What bike are you commuting on? Hopefully it is a CX/Hybrid or maybe a MTB for the winter. Road bikes with little frame clearance present a challenge as a commuter, good fenders are hard to find, hard to fit and generally more expensive, and topically they generally don’t have the clearance for studded tires. So your bike will determine diameter (700c/29er or 26) and your frame and fender clearance are going to be your width limiters. To a degree going wider is almost always better.

But snow throws a bit of a loophole in that guideline. Until you get into the 3 to 4-inch-wide fat bike tires, being wider than 35 can cause some serious traction issues in snow. A thinner tire will cut down through the snow to the pavement better than a wider one, and unless you weigh half what I do you will need all of that 3-4″ tire in a fat bike to float over it.

A light coating of dense wet snow over ice can be super tricky even with studded tires. The snow can pack down enough to prevent the studs from gripping. One of my only falls with the studs was before I realized what I was riding on and with a little bit too much weight on the front I shifted and the bike went sideways and I face planted on the ice. Fortunately the front of my helmet got most of the action, my chin hit and scraped up a touch, and my nose got a wee bit of rash from sliding on the ice under the snow but I avoided any serious injury that time, and with the new knowledge of the conditions I managed to make it into work without falling again.

So width, or diameter, 700 x 35-40 is just about the perfect sweet spot though. 26 tires often will be fatter but knobbier and those knobs do help cut through the snow.

Over the years for year-round commuting I’ve found no more durable, flat-proof, long-wearing tire than the Schwalbe Marathon Plus. Hands down. Nothing works as well for my commute, and until I tried those, I was going through tires pretty frequently and getting flats pretty regularly despite my best efforts (Continental tires with Mr Tuffys, even). Currently I commute on one of my cyclocross bikes; I find it to be the perfect bike for commuting, with clearance for studded tires, option for multiple hand positions, efficient, not terribly heavy, room for fenders, etc. Since 1990 when I first started commuting by bike on a routine basis, I’ve been on pretty much all different bikes, from mountain bikes to road bikes, and I really do feel strongly that a nice CXy bike is the way to go. But the best bike is always going to be the one that gets ridden.

So in a roundabout way the success with the Marathon Plus on my commute led me naturally to choosing the Marathon Winter as my studded tire. And I really do think it is about the ultimate in traction for commuting when you run across ice on a regular basis; the reflective sidewall is a nice bonus and appreciated. Now I say Ice, but how about Snow? To be best in the snow just get a fat bike, but if you think a set of studded tires is heavy and will slow you down, don’t get your hopes up that you’ll be getting to work on time with a fat bike. Fun, but slow.  In all but the deepest wet snow these tires have been fantastic.

The Nokian Suomi Hakkas A10s are a good popular options for many people. Billed more as a road tire with a solid center strip of tread, they are still a bit wide for most road bikes (700×32). They do make less noise than the Marathon Winters when pumped up to the max pressure and roll with a bit less resistance and are lighter. I have gone head to head on a lumpy frozen path of shiny glare ice with a friend riding the A10s and he was crashing and slipping out left and right even with low pressure, all the time on the same surface I had no issue with traction running the Marathon Winters.  That may have been an extreme case scenario and isn’t typical of most of our commute, and in general for most commutes the Nokian may be a very good choice.

The biggest key to selecting the proper tire is to know what you are going to see on the bike day in and day out. You know your conditions better than anyone else.

One thing many people may want to consider is getting second set of wheels as dedicated snows. The big advantage is being able to make a choice in the morning before you leave for the day. Was the ride home dry? No melt? Swap in the regular commuter tires. Looks like ice? Take the minute or two and swap in the studded tire wheels. Having a second set of mounted wheels with studs both minimizes wear on your fancy studded ice/snow tires and the time it takes to get them ready if you switch back and forth regularly, but it also gives you the hidden benefit of having a backup set of wheels in case of mechanical through the whole year.  Wheels take a significant amount of abuse and even if you can fix it yourself, a second set –while potentially costly – is next-level commuting stuff. Swapping studded tires on and off can be painful, those metal bits in the tire can do a number on your hands. I have my studs mounted on a set of old wheels that have been rebuilt a few times, not maybe my favorite wheels but they work and the studs hang out on them most of the year. Since I keep my chain wear in check and replace it at the 0.50 wear mark, usually I leave an older cassette on there so the swap is really a very quick process.

It can be a very significant investment and if you ride on streets that are heavily salted and plowed you may never have a need for them. But if you only encounter a few patches of ice in the morning, studded tires on your commuter bike can mean the difference between arriving safely or face planting on the pavement.

Oh, and always wear a helmet. Studs aren’t magic. You have to keep your weight over them and if they let go, crashing is never good. Helmets. Wear one.

-GeWilli

Some additional thoughts:

Now if no studs, how might you vary or think about tires? Run what you have.

A little tread is always better in snow or sand than a slick tire but most people have what they have, not much choice other than what came with the bike.

My advice is usually to ride what is on the bike until it wears out. At that point you will have a very good idea of the conditions you face day in and day out. Sad truth is that few bikes ever get ridden enough to wear out a set of tires.

Going with a larger diameter gives you the ability to adjust the pressure based on the conditions you see, even with a skinny road tire changing the pressure 10-20 psi can make a huge difference. When you need more traction lower the pressure, higher pressure for when the roads are clear and smooth.  Try to stay within the range on the sidewall but remember, that Max pressure rating is just that. It isn’t where you need to run the tire all the time and can actually decrease the lifespan of the tire, decrease your comfort on the bike and be less efficient.