The Snowstorm Challenge

Buffalo had quite a little snowstorm recently.  Four people were astonished I rode the whole 3 miles to work regardless of the forecast and two more offered me a ride home, but slow and steady makes the grade.  For those out there contemplating riding in moderate snow, there are a few things to consider.
Studded tires are a waste in anything but ice and even then they are not 100% helpful.  You still go down on the ice, but since you slide, there is no road rash and fewer bruises.  You can't go nearly so fast, so even if you strike something, it is not a big deal.  The most important things are to not take chances turning in front of cars or being on streets where if you go down you might be hit by a passing car. The cars take a long to stop and on ice, they don't swerve very well.

That is a 15lb bag of cat food on the back rack for traction.  Just kidding about the traction.

NO RAINPANTS or SNOWBOARD MITTENS this afternoon! 34 degrees!

Business First called me for an interview today. It was an interesting experience. I wrote down some notes to self of things worth mentioning: since I work with so many people each year (teachers and students) and they know I ride a bike to work, when they see a cyclist they think, "Hey, I wonder if that is Ms. xxxxx, maybe I should be careful". This is probably the greatest advocacy cyclists can be involved in. For every one person on a bike, they have scores of fans; family, friends and neighbors. All these people are more careful of cyclists than they might be otherwise.
As for the cycling scene in Buffalo? It is improving. Hardly anyone ever honks at me, even though I continue to travel at least 2 feet out from parked cars (probably jinxing myself, but I have never been hit or doored). Hundreds more bike racks (thanks Green Options) and a school district which has never hindered my ability to commute.
Cheers to living in Buffalo!

Long winter

So. Seemingly long winter. On an unseasonably warm Saturday, my husband bet me the snow was done. 4 days later and 8 inches deeper I laughed at him. It was one of the few days I have driven this winter. Nasty 2 inch ice and 5 destinations detered me.
This morning I took this picture of my lonely bike in the Co-op bike rack, gloating because I was the only stalwart one out in 18 degrees, when someone else rode up.





I am reading "Bicycle Diaries" by David Byrne. In the preface he remarks that the state of cities is improving as people begin to realize there is more to life than sprawling lawns and parking lots. This seemed too much to hope for, but maybe not.
Walking through a business section near my home, there was a man looking for boot laces, which couldn't be found in the nearby stores. Employees recommended he go to a chain store in the burbs, but I jumped in and recommended a chain store in the city (better of two evils). The man commented that that would entail getting in a car (+1 point). I told him it would not and he agreed he could use the bus (+1 point for thinking on it rather than knocking the idea down).
A second note: a friend told me her son refuses to allow her to drive 3 hours to retrieve him from college, because it is a foolish use of gas. He wishes gas was $7.00 a gallon. He won't eat meat because of the resources it sucks.
So much hope and optimism.












To top it all off: blinding sunshine in large quantities. Had to remind myself why I don't move to Portland.

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Two months of winter commuting

I shifted jobs, so to speak. Instead of being responsible for one building, I am part of a team responsible for 6 building. I try not to switch buildings during the day, but instead to make multiple appointments in one building and stay there all day. I am not opposed to cycling from one to another, but when the temperature dips below 45, I have to switch clothes and it is time consuming to dress and undress. The time between buildings is not a problem. Gruesome detail: in a pinch, if you arrive stinky and have a change of clothes, you can use hand sanitizer to freshen up. Works by killing the bacteria causing the odor.
I recently purchased Foxwear tights and a NTS (next to skin) polar dry long sleeved top. Very impressive. Keep in mind that the guy is almost a one-man-band. He take the order, sews the stuff, and ships it. The tights are polar tech 250 weight, water/wind repellent and warm. Sometimes I wear them by themselves, but combine them with Gore rain pants if it drops below 25 degrees. The top has no zipper (and I would not recommend against getting zippers on polar tech- the guy struggles with sewing them in flat). It is the 2nd thinnest grade, pale yellow with black stitching and performs almost as well as my smartwool. I often layer the two, with the polardry next to my skin. Pricing is great and he will make it like you want it. I asked him to give me a little extra in the looseness of the tights and to make them 2 inches longer than the inseam measurement he asked for. I like to tuck my tights into my boots. So nice.
I also bought a Gore sunshine yellow jacket. Wind and water repellent, I got caught in a shower and arrived dry underneath.

Do they know who they're dealing with?

November 1st? Are they kidding? It was November 20th and I was out there daring a snowplow to run me down.



BTW- the white SUV in the photo belongs to a guy who turned around and came back because he thought I took a spill while riding on the sidewalk. In truth I was just lying on the ground trying to set the camera up for a timed photo.

Oil Lubricants

Sliding around in the slop requires a bit of an attitude adjustment. You need to accept that your chain is going to need replacement at the end of winter. You need to recognize that you will be beating on a bike in the winter if your municipality uses salt.

Chain lubricants come in many different compositions and thicknesses. In the summer, I use White Lightning Clean Ride, a light weight lubricant. In the winter I switch to Cross Country Finish Line Wet Lubricant. It has the weight of lithium grease. This lubricant doesn't repel dirt, but instead sticks mightily to the chain and keeps the salt away from it. Every so often, I spray the chain with WD-40, which breaks down the Wet lubricant and then I wipe it all off and reapply the Wet.

Lastly, if you can leave a slushy bike outside, this keeps some of the slop from melting and further corroding the metal. Unless you rinse your bike after each ride, there will be salt left on it anyways. Again, fenders help keep the slop off the bike. Planet Bike seems to make most of the ones seen in bike shops. The ones that screw into drop-outs work best for me.

Earbuds and Auditory Cues

I receive admonishments from drivers when I arrive at my destination with my iPod attached to my person. Is this behavior risky?

If you keep one earbud in your right ear, you still get the auditory cues from the traffic side.

Keeping the volume down makes the ride go by pleasantly, while not interfering with "road noises".

If you listen to music (not podcasts), you are more likely to tune it out in situations where your attention needs to be on traffic and pedestrians.

My vote? Music is good. Use common sense and be cautious!

Winter Geek
Having become more focused on my 75% travel miles by bike challenge, I did invest in one winter item to make travel more comfortable.

New purchase: booties (very dorky looking)- these are just heavyduty waterproof nylon covers; they have no insulation, but paired with my waterproof pants, they keep my feet dry. There are no solid bottoms on these, but they are extremely effective. MEC $28

In Buffalo the weather generally hovers around freezing in the winter, with February temperatures sitting in the mid-twenties. Temperature is rarely a problem. On my way out of the house w/bike, one of my children's friends asked me if it wasn't currently too cold to be cycling. I told him, "if you are cold you aren't peddling fast enough". Leaving no skin exposed is vital and insulating extremities keeps frostbite at bay.

Old purchase- reuse: Ski mittens; why people use gloves for sports which don't require fine finger control I don't understand. When your fingers are together, they keep each other warmer. I will look for/design myself new mittens; my ski mittens (though they had zippers to open the sides up) made my hands sweat. Something to keep the fingers warm, while allowing the palms to cool would be perfect. Think pit zips for the palms : ) Also, a pair of safety goggles- I priced out clear glasses made for cycling and they approached $100. The safety goggles don't look too weird, I can attach my mirror, and they cover my exposed face and eyeballs (see above). They work great.

I also now have a rescue bike. It is a low end Trek mountain bike, which was left locked to a fence about 1 week too long. Devoid of wheels and its seat/seatpost, my spouse bought me parts and now it is a happy functioning bicycle again. The bike shop told him it would be cheaper to buy a new bike... but he saw the environmental cause and rallied in time for Christmas.

For the most part, this winter has been mild. Although the temperatures have hovered around freezing, there has been little precipitation sticking on the ground. For about 9 days I was forced to take a bus, which it turns out picks me up 1 block from home and drops me 1 block from work. It is kind of nice to listen to my podcasts on the bus.

There are so many reasons to bicycle and every time you ask another commuter or bicycle errand runner (?) you hear another. I have decided to try to use a bike for 75% of my single person, non-huge item travel. This relegates the car to hauling lumber, multiple children and vacations. I do, however, use the car when getting all dressed up for a night out on the town.

Most errands can be accomplished on a bike. I have a trailer, which can be used in the summer for grocery shopping, but not in the winter. It is a Burley double. The hitch is superior to anything else I have seen, but it is made of rubber and may become brittle and snap in the cold.

A couple of years ago, I went into my local pet supply store and purchased a 40lb. bag of dog food. I had my helmet on, but the clerk asked me if I wanted him to put the bag in my car. I told him that if he didn't mind walking about 10 blocks, that would be very nice. We still laugh about this, though recognize that sometimes we are also oblivious to what is going on around us.

So how did I get it home? I have my panniers and if you lay the bag across the panniers, the weight is supported and balanced. It was very stable.

Lately I have been cheating on the 75% miles by bike by picking up the groceries on the way home from a regular deployment of children. This allows me to shop less often, because I don't have to rely on getting everything in the panniers. The big grocery store is exactly on my way home. Still cheating I suppose.

Cold and dark.
iz commented about the dark. Dark when we leave home, dark when returning. How do people handle it?
I alter my route to one even less traveled by cars. I assume that cars will not see me and ride in a way that they don't necessarily need to see me. Occasionally I ride on the sidewalk for short spells, especially if I am in a low night-time pedestrian area.
As for lights, since the city is already moderately well lit, the lights on my bike serve to alert, not brighten my way. Both front and rear lights are made by Blackburn. Both have a flashing mode, among others. The front light's steady-on mode is an excellent flashlight, a great asset if something goes wrong (also good when touring, instead of bringing one more thing).
My bike has reflectors all around, improving my visibility from the side, and I wear a pants tie down, which has reflective tape as well. Adhesive reflective tape can be purchased from car parts stores and sew or iron on tape can be purchased online from BikerHiway at a very reasonable price. You can even cut the stuff into cool shapes.

Well, after riding my "new" bike for two months now, I have come to one conclusion. Updating an old bike has its disadvantages. The down side is that with the increase in the number of gears, my bar end shifters have greater difficulty with the increments required to sustain a specific gear. The upsides entail a greater impact on my riding comfort/ability.

Still using panniers to cart groceries, I have not landed a trailer. In addition to the cost, reuse is very important to me. Searching for several "junk" bicycles, I would like to make my own trailer, loosely based on this well developed tutorial. Creating this homemade trailer would also be a practice for holding workshops on how low income and bicycle reliant individuals could reproduce them. A two wheeled design would probably be more practical for Buffalo and for carting things around (the BOB has a weight limit of about 70lbs). Also, a two wheeled trailer would create less stress on the rear hub.

I am spurred on by the experiment conducted by the Durning Family, on the feasibility of going without a car. So far I have been commuting to work, probably better than 50% of the time, sometimes changing schools three times. There are no shower facilities in the elementary schools, but I generally work in an airconditioned setting, so even on 80 degree days, I cool adequately after the ride. I do bring "work" clothes, and when I feel it will not appall people (out of sight), I dry my sweaty clothes by hanging them on the crossmember of my bike. My laptop resides in my backpack; a jostling in the pannier would not be good for it. A lunch, external harddrive and clothes go into a single pannier. The bike itself can be housed inside each school.

The whole concept creates quite a stir and gets people to talk about alternative forms of transportation and car/bike awareness and safety.

Since the summer of 2006, I have vowed to use my car less. I live in a large urban area, relatively flat with long stretches of feasibly bike friendly weather. Yes, I am talking about Buffalo, NY. Unlike many cities, Buffalo is moderately easy to get around on a bicycle, and though it snows, the streets are usually plowed to bare pavement. I have paniers, but am thinking about a used BOB trailer, which has a single wheel. For this reason, they track behind a bike very well, and keep you from sticking further into traffic.
I have been doing a large amount of my shopping via bicycle, though since I only have rear paniers, I also take advantage of a bookbag.

In late summer I managed to purchase a mountain bike to use as a beater in the winter and for bad weather. I paid $35 for a low level Diamondback at a police auction. Amused that the auctioneer ( an officer) stated the chain was shot and the brake broken, I took it home, cleaned it up and reconnected the quick release on the brake. Great find! bikes cycling touring commuting