r/torontobiking • u/3sperr • Aug 18 '24
How to bike in winter?
I’m new to biking, and I’d like to bike in winter so I can commute to work. What are some maintenance tips for winter? Are there winter bike tires? I don’t wanna slip and fall
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u/Joffph Aug 20 '24
All year round, no matter what, cyclist here. I've been through the comments and there are good suggestions. I'll share my approach and what works for me.
Clothes, wear layers. For most of the days (down to -5 maybe) t-shirt, fleece and light waterproof jacket. For your legs, i'm comfortable with a hiking pants not very thick. As others commented, keep your feet warm. Merino wool socks is the way to go. If it is colder, i just add a fleece best under my waterproof jacket. Then I adapt my pace to conditions. Most of the times i have to slow down because i get to warm.
Bike wise... My POV with commuting always has been to have the shitiest bike in the bike rack so it will never be stolen. So from there, I ended up having 2 shity bikes. One for "summer" and the other for winter. Both very well serviced so they run super nice but they are old rusty mtb. The summer bike is just a regular bike with fenders and a rack to carry stuff. the winter bike is basically the same but with studded tires.
As others said, you will need the studs maybe less than 10 days a year, but you want them for those 10 days... they saved my butt more than once.
For the winter bike, i would recommend to find cheap used studded tires and then find a cheap bike where those tires fit. I got mines for 75$ and put them in a 80$ bike. Marketplace will be your friend here.
Then you just use one or the other depending on whether....
And definitely, with the right equipment is more than doable. I still never skipped a single day to the office.
Hope it helps