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| I parked my bicycle in gobs of salt at a community college. |
It's easy to say I won't ride my bicycle in the winter. Excuses abound. It's too cold, too snowy, too wet, too much salt on the road. Mostly, I'm resigned to walking for exercise from November to March, but there are situations when riding a bicycle is the perfect solution to commuting woes.
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| I saw this rack, after I parked my bike in a traditional rack (see above photo), and wondered about the advantages of this rack style. It takes up less space and has better visibility to rear entrance. I may have to lift weights though to hoist my heavy bike! |
I choose to ride a bicycle when: a 5-mile circuit is too long to walk for allowed time; parking a car costs money—if you can even find vacant parking spaces (nothing bugs me more than endless circling to locate an empty space); and primary exercise for the day is swimming. To fit it all within a shortened timeframe, riding a bicycle is the right transportation option (provided my prerequisites for riding in winter are met: dry roads and temperatures above 20F).
In these instances, it helps to know where my helmet is stored. I also keep one bike ready to haul out the door.
Wind annie, wind. Here we have to add the factor of wind to dry roads and temp. Since I don't have a windometer (or whatever those weather dudes call those) at the house, it is a judgement call. If I think it can blow me sideways across a lane then it is in the car for the commute. Been too much of that this winter.
ReplyDeleteJim
I believe it's called an anemometer. We've had lots of ice and sub zero temperatures.
DeleteI hate to admit it, but you said it all in your first sentence! We actually hit 60 degrees here yesterday and two bikes got pulled out and ridden. Right now, it's 31. No way am I getting out in that.
ReplyDeleteThere are some very hearty cyclists, but I'm certainly not one of them!
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