Riding a bike in a Hamilton winter doesnʼt require extra equipment or special clothing.
An old-fashioned general-purpose bicycle lets me bike all winter long without doing
anything special at all.
On a sunny afternoon during last weekʼs False Spring, I took my filthy, salt-streaked
bicycle to the car wash. And as I rode home past the melting snow banks on my shining
bike I smiled to realize that Iʼd finally managed to bike through a winter.
I started trying to bike year-round about five years ago. But I never made it even as far
as February before this year. It was never the snow that made be give up; it was
always a rusted-stiff chain or frozen-stiff wrists and ears.
Special Winter Cycling Equipment
The Intertubes abound with tips and tricks for the winter cyclist: special lubricants to
protect your chain, studded tires, gauntlets and velcro cuffs to keep the wind off your
wrists, neoprene balaclavas, goggles, lean-tos and nylon sheds to keep the snow off,
winter cleaning regimens involving winter-grade hoses and no-freeze outdoor taps.
These solutions involve more time, money, effort and special clothing than I am willing
to devote to biking. Biking for me is not a hobby - itʼs simply my preferred way to get
around town. This year I was able to bike right through the winter not because of
anything special I bought, made or wore - and certainly not because it wasnʼt cold and
snowy - but because of something decidedly not special.
From Specialized to General Purpose
Last spring, I stopped riding a sports
bike - like most people roughly my age,
I rode racing bikes and mountain bikes
from childhood. For the first time, I
bought a general-purpose, no-nonsense
bike: a 50-lb. Dutch three speed with
sit-up handle-bars, full fenders and a
completely enclosed chain.
I bought this bike for its carrying
capacity and its ease of use; winter
riding was not on my mind. In fact, I had vague plans of using my old hybrid mountain
bike as a beater in order to spare my shiny new machine the muck of foul weather. But
it ends up that a few simple features of this shiny new bike make it perfect for winter
cycling.
The Not-so Delicate Cycle
The most obvious advantage over my other bikes is that the chain is completely
enclosed: I splash through carelessly through slush and leave the bike uncovered on
my driveway in any weather this side of a blizzard. All without worry of my chain rusting
up - something that has happened in a single snowy week to my hybrid.
Similarly, I donʼt worry about the cables or frame rusting. The cables are completely
covered in plastic insulation and the frame is powdercoated (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Powder_coating) multiple times. These two simple expedients help keep rust away and
yet they are
No (Special) Jacket Required
The upright posture of an old-fashioned city bike
offered a pleasant surprise as the weather grew
colder: without my arms stretched out to reach a
sport-oriented handlebar, my sleeves donʼt ride
up - so no wind on my wrists. And since Iʼm not
bent over, I donʼt have to bend my neck to look
up, which means that I can bike in the same
furry-ear-flaps hat which I wear when walking on my hybrid or road bike, the hat would be
levered off my head by the back of my collar.
Sitting erect also means that I can bike in my any
of my normal winter coats: I can wear a long
overcoat over a sport jacket without worrying that
Iʼm straining the seams; and if I wear a shorter
winter jacket, it will still cover the small of my
back and my backside completely.
So that was the secret: no secret at all; nothing fancy; nothing special. Just a general
purpose bike built more-or-less the way they were 80 years ago.