My bike :-)

Dressing for the cold weather

15°
 Cycling T-shirt Cycling shorts Thin socks Trainers


12° "
 "
 "
 "

Long sleeves
9° "
 Leggings "
 "
 Jacket Thin gloves
6° "
 " "
 "
 "
 Ski gloves
3° "
 "
 "
 "
 "
 + muffs
 Long sleeves
0° "
 + rain trousers " + rain covers + hood
 "
 "
-3° " "
 + thick socks " "
 "
 "
-6° + 2nd. T-shirt "
 " "
 "
 +thin gloves
 "
-9°
 Give up and get the train  :-(


Breathing

In through the nose out through the mouth! In through the nose to warm and moisten the air slowly before it hits the lungs. Out through the mouth to protect the nose from unnecessary temperature changes (which also stops the nose running). Warm, moist air going out of the mouth stops the lips getting cold and drying out. Also use a lip protection stick, but forget the cheap ones as they are based on paraffin wax and dry the lips out(!).


How to stop glasses misting-over in the fog

Put a very tiny drop of concentrated washing-up liquid onto the tip of the fore-finger and then spread it between the tips of the thumbs and forefingers of both hands.

Hold the lenses of the glasses between thumbs and fore-fingers and smear the washing-up liquid over them.

When the lenses are evenly smeary, breathe on them to moisten them until they become clear. If they don't clear properly, wipe with kitchen towel to remove most of the liquid but still leave some and breathe on them again.

When you start riding through the fog, they will very slightly mist over, but don't wipe them! The misting will disappear and the lenses will stay clear after that.

If it's freezing fog you're in, the lenses will simply freeze over :-( A way around this: on exhaling, blow the air out of the corners of your mouth and over the lenses to keep the moisture melted, like the windscreen blowers in a car. Do this alternating sides with each exhale. Awkward to do, but it does work well enough to keep part of the lenses clear.


Lights

I tried different kinds of dynamo lamps that run on the side of the tyre, but these rely on the tyre being dry, otherwise the dynamo slides on the tyre and doesn't turn, so no light! So I went over to battery-powered lamps; they need charging after about 4 hours' use but they always worked, regardless of the weather. So that I was never without at least one lamp (due to empty batteries or broken bulb) and for times when extra light would be useful, I had 2 battery lights on the handlebar. These two get me noticed at a busy roundabout I have to negotiate every morning, where I had been almost flattened a number of times. Now I'm always noticed and haven't had any more close shaves.

But I now have a bike with a hub dynamo, which is great! This is always active, so a resistance is always there, but it is so minimal as to be irrelevant. This means that I can have the lights on constantly and it makes a difference in that I'm noticed earlier, even in bright sunlight, increasing safety. Also with so many vehicles on the road with lights on all the time (which will soon become obligatory, in Germany at least), unlit vehicles aren't so obvious.

I've replaced the front lamp by an 60-lumen LED lamp with stand-light and sensor: the lamp switches between headlamp during darkness and external LEDs during daylight and stays on for a few minutes after the bike stops moving. Both functions work very well: the stand-light dims after a few seconds (to extend the duration and/or to prevent blinding on-coming traffic?) and the light switches on about 1 second after entering a tunnel or heavily-shaded area.


Brakes

My bike has hydraulic disk brakes: incredible braking power in wet or dry weather, self-adjusting and don't wear out the rims (although they wear out the disks, but they are cheaper to replace). The tyres don't get as dirty as they used to with rim brakes, so the reflective stripe on the tyres stay clean. Only problem I had so far: one day the front brake was squeaking loudly (not good as I leave home at 6 a.m.) and wasn't working effectively. I put it down to some oil getting onto the pads or disk the day before when I had been oiling the axles. I wiped what I could with kitchen towel and detergent but it didn't help. I cured it by cycling hard down a steep hill while applying the squeaking brake and it has worked properly and silently ever since. I take them apart and clean them occasionally using brake cleaner spray from the DIY store.


Self-Sealing Inner tubes

Inner tubes partly filled with a latex milk seal punctures (small ones at least) in seconds and are the best thing since Guinness, Marmite and sliced bread. They've saved me getting cold and wet and mucky and late for work on many occasions. If you get a puncture, just keep riding and it seals itself! You might have to pump up the tyre a bit to replace the lost air, otherwise a blessing to all cyclists! Patching the tube later is a bit more difficult because of the liquid that oozes out, but if you hang the tube up overnight with the hole at the top, the hole should be fairly dry next day and easy to patch like a regular tube. These tubes cost only a bit more than normal tubes.

Updates: Got a puncture in sub-zero temperature recently and the tube didn't seal itself - the latex milk had either frozen or had become too thick with the cold  :-(

Got a puncture from a fat nail - the tube sealed itself but most or the air had escaped. I pumped the tyre up and was then able to ride to the rail station and get the train home.

Changed to the car-type valve (fits the Dunlop valve size hole in the wheel) and can now pump up the tyres with the petrol station pump.

Bought a stand-pump with pressure gauge and can now pump up the tyre to 6 bar with little effort. This isn't possible with a regular bicycle pump.

Stopped buying the ready-filled tubes as the rubber was of inferior quality. I now buy 'name' tubes and a bottle of latex milk and fill them myself.

Tyres

The tyres have a layer of Kevlar incorporated into them and make them very resistant to punctures (but not "puncture-proof" as the makers say). The combination of these and the self-sealing inner tubes has made me confident enough to not carry spare tubes or a bicycle with me anymore. Schwalbe Marathon Plus.

October 2011: bought spiked winter tyres, although I put these on my old bike as a stand-by for icy mornings. They are great on icy paths, but the spikes wear down fast when the ice has gone and I ride on dry asphalt. Schwalbe Winter Snow.

January 2012: bought winter tyres for the bike on this page. Continental TopContact: excellent grip in all temperatures, a better feeling than with normal tyres which feel wooden in comparison.


Handlebar Muffs
They might look daft but they do a good job of keeping your hands warm by keeping the wind off - I know this from my motorcycling days. Despite wearing two pairs of gloves when the temperature was low, my fingers still got very cold.

By cancelling the effect of wind-chill, the muffs make a +6°C improvement.

Easy to fit and remove, a sensible size for a bicycle, made of tough black nylon with furry coating inside. A simple strap with sliding buckle holds the muff securely on the handlebars. Enclosed around the opening for the hands are flexible metal strips which can be bent to make the opening a suitable shape (see left muff in picture). They have very little impact on using the brakes or changing gears.

I ride at about 25 km/h on average, creating a wind-chill factor of about 6°C at 0°C in wind-still conditions according to this table:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Windchill_chart.GIF
from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wind-chill

What commuter cyclists can learn from Chris Hoy (BBC)

Brake pads
 Tektro 'Auriga Comp' compatible with:
Shimano 'Deore', 'M525/515', 'M08' or 'BR-M495'
Rear gears
 8x; 11-30 teeth.
Front gears
 3x; 28-48 teeth, 170mm crank.


Homepage: https://alan-summerfield.de
Mar. 2012