I'm a proud inaugural member of bike sharing here in Chicago, and as much as I can I did try to sneak in reasonable rides in the winter.
(*Sadly, if I took 2 more rides during the medal period, I would have qualified for Silver.)
This winter has been particularly brutal, but it was good to get a better understanding of what my cold weather gear would need to be. It also set some thresholds on what I would tolerate for winter riding.
Here's some factors that I use to determine whether to #DivvyOn or not:
- Wind Speed: Despite (or because of) Chicago's lack of hills, this makes a big difference in overall comfort level when riding
- Road Conditions / Quality: The current weather is less a concern than the state of the road. The weather may be clear, but if the roads are icy or slushy, it's not very safe especially when drivers are expecting less cyclists on the road.
- Weather Intensity: Extreme anything is only great for action sports, not so great when it comes to temperature, precipitation, snow or wind, or a combination of all of those factors.
I'll eventually talk about how I gear up, and how I commute in later posts.
#3dc
-- wake.eat.sleep