Winter Fat Bike Riding

Winter is a time for most people to hang up their bicycles in Canada, unless you live on Vancouver Island or Vancouver itself.  Some brave people in other milder climes continue to bike because they are clearly crazy.  When I decided to get rid of my car last year, in the Summer, I knew that I would be joining that very elite and clearly insane group of people.  I did and I lived through one horrible Winter to make it to another.

In the Winter I drive a Winter Bike.  It is not really called a Winter Bike, but rather a beach bike.  The tires are wider than any bicycle that you have seen, they are closer to the size of motorized dirt bikes or a narrow motorcycle tire.  There is a lot of grip on these tires, so it is perfect for riding on a beach, in snow or of the trail.  The frame is heavy duty, so the bike looks very heavy.  It is a lot heavier than a traditional road bike so the manufacturers reduced the mass a little by cutting holes in the tire rims.  The other difference in this bike and the other bicycles I have owned is that the air pressure in the tires is quite low, between 8 and 20 psi is the recommended pressure.  As a comparison, air pressure at sea level is 16 psi.  So tire pressure is quite low.  

Last Winter was as cold as winters were twenty-five years ago, back when Climate Change was just a theory.  I rode my bike every other day in that weather and I learned a few things about bike riding in Winter.

Safety was my major concern, after all if I died, that would mean my Winter bike rides would be called into question.  I outfitted my bike with lots of reflectors and a head light, so on coming cars could see me and rear lights so cars behind me could see me too.  I also wore a lot of reflective clothing.  The lights and the reflective surfaces are because a lot of winter driving occurs at night as the days are so much shorter.  A helmet is still a must for me, I wore it over top of my hat.  I also had to be aware of my surroundings more because hype threat of wiping out is real when driving on icy roads and with cars around it means you have to recover quickly when you wipe out.  

Last year with the weather, an abundance of -30°C temperatures and I had to get my laundry done every week and groceries bought, so that meant I had to go out and ride in those temperatures.  The danger is not really the temperatures, it is the wind chill.  A 10km wind in the face is bad in -30° but when you are traveling at 30 km/h into the wind the wind is an effective 40 km/h, and the wind at that temperature and speed feels a lot colder.  So it is important to dress in the right cloths.  I typically wore a t-shirt with a sweater covered by a light jacket and the reflective coat, which had padding, four light layers is better than one heavy one and I often had to unzip the top layer and arrived at home every time wet with sweat.  I did not wear shorts in this bike, I wore pants and a waterproof rubber pant over top, there were three advantages to this choice.  The this layer trapped heat, the impervious material prevented wind chill and on the warmer days, car splashing did not soak my pants.

Footwear is important too, as it is difficult the wear layers with boots.  Good insulated boots work best, water proof is better, as the splash off the tires and the road way was considerable.   I wore insulated steel toed rubber boots, Bogs actually.  The wide and tall top allowed my to insert my pant leg and rubber pants inside and the seal was good enough to make my foot warm, and often hot.  

I don't ever ride on the sidewalks, but in the winter with the plows piling snow on the side the road way shrank over the winter and I noticed that the cars were extra cautious around me to the point I felt they were being unsafe to other drivers around me.  Also I was such a curiosity that drivers would stare as they past me, so when I can I take the back streets and use the sidewalks when ere are not too many pedestrians.  When the conditions are extra slippery the side walks are usually less so, or when I wipe out I am less likely to end up under a truck.

Air pressure is the unforeseen variable to Winter riding.  I like speed so I keep the pressure high, at twenty psi, but that means I am more likely to slip and wipeout and travel is next to impossible in deep snow.  In icy conditions and deep snow it is best to let the air out of your tires, eight psi means that when you are on the bike the tires are squashed flat and there is a much larger surface area on the road so travel in deep snow and icy roads is easier.  The one problem with that is speed and exertion.  Pedaling a bike with little air in the tire is a pot more work.  Normally the Fat Bike takes a lot more exertion to move than a road bike, but when there is little air in the tire it is a lot worse.  

There are other effects of owning a Fat Bike in the Winter time for travel.  The salt on the roads corrodes the tires quite quickly and you may need your hardware replaced after a single season.  However there are some advantages, when Spring and Summer bike season starts you are still used to riding so some of the ill effects of the first ride, or the first week of riding is missed: no saddle sores and no sore legs.  In fact the difficulty of riding in winter may mean you are a stronger rider than your cohorts earlier.

This Winter is looking like a warm one, like the ones that have been consistent since Climate Change has been a fact.  So I will be able to ride more in not -30°C weather, in addition because I am moving to the city, where there are more crazy people like me, I will get less stares.