There is a panoply of excuses we can choose from when wimping out of cold weather riding. Some of them have more validity than others – but that doesn’t mean that they can’t be overcome. I’d like to address a couple of physical limitations that can be good reasons to bow out of a cold ride, but that don’t necessarily need to stop you, especially in their milder forms.

Asthma
Asthma is basically what happens when your lungs try to reject some air they don’t like by swelling their bronchial tubes and making extra mucus. This constricting of your airways can be triggered by a wide variety of things, but cold air is one possibility, along with pollution, allergies, and others. The tag “exercise induced” is applied to a slightly different kind of asthma that happens during aerobic workouts. This one is interesting in that it’s apparently more prevalent among athletes, especially those in biking and other aerobic disciplines. A study done on the 1996 Olympic participants found that many more of them (15%) had exercise induced asthma than the general population. Is this because of all the dirt and smog and pollen in the air that we athletic folks are breathing at higher rates than couch potatoes? Or is it because the medications used to treat exercise induced asthma – inhalers with corticosteroids – can also give the user a speed-like boost, and some of the research subjects may have been fibbing? Tough to say. (”Trucker speed,” or ephedrine, used to be a common asthma medication but is no longer common.)

One thing is for sure – if your doctor has prescribed an inhaler for you, even if his last name is Ferrari, bring it with you on all your rides, not just the cold ones (or Olympic competition). An asthma attach is inconvenient at best, deadly at worst, and nothing to trifle with. And a bad case of asthma might indeed be grounds for avoiding exercise in the cold air altogether – only your doctor can tell you.

My experience is with the mild kind. Riding in any weather often involves some mouth-breathing, which means the air isn’t getting filtered, warmed and humidified by your nasal passages. If the available air is cold and dry it can irritate your lungs that much more. Apparently though, it’s not so much the cold as it is the dry – another research study (where would we be without them?) found that dry, room-temperature air had just as much negative effect as cold and dry air. The solution is to breathe through a piece of fabric, so that moisture is trapped on the exhale and added back in to the air on the inhale. I like to use a Buff, because it’s thin enough that it doesn’t restrict airflow on its own and it doesn’t leave lint stuck in my teeth. (You can find some fashionable Buff options here.) I’ve also used a thin balaclava or even a bandana. I don’t cover my nose, since the trapped moisture then fogs my glasses. I’ve had two asthma-free winters so far with a good face covering, that and taking steps to keep my allergies in check.

Raynaud’s Syndrome
Just like cold air can make some people’s air passages constrict, it can make some people’s blood vessels in their fingers and toes constrict. Of course one of the healthy body’s natural responses to cold is to reduce bloodflow to the extremities to conserve heat at your core, but Raynaud’s is a peculiar kind of dramatic version of this. The typical distinguishing symptom is a pronounced skin color change from red to white to blue, along with pain and numbness. I shot the photo below on my cellphone – note the white tip of my ring finger…

Blood loss is bad, mkay, particularly when it’s cold and the flesh not being warmed properly can freeze.

This can also be a very serious condition leading to such nasty things as gangrene, so if you think you’ve seen your fingers change colors and you haven’t been fingerpainting, talk to your doctor. If one of your parents has it ask your doctor about it as well, as this condition is most likely genetic.

Since my mom has it, and I have seen some finger-colors going on, I made the appointment. There are some medications to alleviate the symptoms, but they all lower your blood pressure, and since mine is already pretty low, they were ruled out. Plus these medications – usually calcium-channel blockers – have some nasty side effects. (Interesting side note – another one of those helpful studies found that Viagra works pretty well against Raynaud’s.)

What I do is simply be careful to protect my hands and feet well when riding in the cold. Sometimes this means wearing big heavy winter stuff in the fall when nobody else is yet, but so be it. Currently I use Lake CX Zero gloves, which are sadly discontinued (but may be on closeout at a bike shop near you!), and Lake MXZ302 boots, both of which have served me well. On a day down in the low twenties or below, I’ll wear a pair of nylon stockings underneath thick wool socks for an extra degree or two of warmth. (Guys who’ve been wanting to “experiment,” here’s your chance.) My hands often get painfully cold before my feet. I’ll probably look into some good silk or wool glove liners soon. One thing that helps my hands tremendously is to make sure my wrists are also adequately covered, and not constricted by too much elastic.

Road riding is more of a challenge than mountain biking, since the speeds tend to be higher with less work, and I’m more exposed to wind. Pogies are a great invention from the far northern frozen lands to help keep your hands warm, but until recently they’ve been made exclusively for straight handlebars. Here’s an option for drop handlebars. I haven’t tried them (yet) and there may be more. The serious long-distance winter specialist types generally go with the mountain bike setup, with flat bars and pogies, as well as flat platform pedals and hiking boots – something to keep in mind if I want to tackle any truly cold days.

One thing I’ve noticed is that my finger-colors and numbness are less likely with exercise. For instance, the above photo was actually taken after sitting most of the day, while I was a passenger in a car that hadn’t warmed up yet. I haven’t found any scientific evidence to back up the exercise cure, but it makes sense, since it’s all about blood flow. It’s a catch-22 for sure – go out in the cold to prevent its effects. But getting in a proper ride sure beats a boring spin on a trainer no matter the weather.

So unless you’ve acclimated yourself to Siberia, you should be realizing that it’s kinda cold outside. That means there’s an abundant supply of cold weather riding tips and tricks floating around. It should be no surprise Dirt Rag has been satisfying your queries.

Several of the staff here at Dirt Rag have already covered a lot about proper cold weather riding gear (like jackets and footwear) for the high latitude areas where the dropping mercury effects our kit choices. But what about when your face starts leaking on those frigid morning commutes?

No worries friends, I got your back. What I’ve begun to understand is that there is a constant battle to arrive at your destination without strange excrement frozen to your face.

The best way to fight any war is to know your enemy.

That snot all over your kid’s face, or yours, is actually mucus, and it’s good stuff. Mucus is a slippery secretion produced by your body to protect organs systems and your health. On normal days the liter of wonder produced is not a problem as it traps germs and particles in your nose.

Although on those frigid morning commutes, the tiny hairs called cilia in your nostrils that sweep snot to the back of your throat move about as quick as the upward interest on your 401k. So what normally gets swept to the back of your throat, ends up running down your face. On top of that, the increased blood flow in your nostrils to raise the temperature of the air we breathe leads to more mucus production. The problem only increases when you come indoors. That mucus thaws a bit and becomes thinner with warmer conditions much before your lazy cilia kick in. So have some Kleenex at your desk or in your pocket for when you get inside. Although your sleeve or fingers may work just as well, and hygiene might not be important to you, it might be important to co-workers and friends—your family hopefully likes you no matter what.

Keeping your face warm will help during the commute or ride. Since the air we are breathing is cold already, it’s tough to fight snot because the cold air cools the nostrils which in turns cools the cilia and affects the amount of snot produced. But helping to keep those cilia warm will help keep your face clean. The traditional scarf is a solid choice to keep your face and neck warm, watch out for your spokes though. It’s also likely you have one lying around which could save some coin. You could also rock a bandanna bandit style, and after you rob that bank it can double as a snot rag at the office. But then you’d have to put the dirty snot rag back on your face for the commute home.

Here at Dirt Rag we are big fans of the Original Buff from PlanetBuff.com. The seamless tubular microfiber is wondrous. It’s moisture wicking, warm, and versatile in the number of ways to wear as well as easy to care for. All the good stuff. Whether you’re looking for something for your head, neck, face, or tube-top in the summer, the buff is an excellent choice.

In my experience having a garment that warms your face and breathable is pretty important, since you have to actually breath through it. Plastic bags definitely cut the wind and are notorious for keeping our feet dry, but a plastic bag wrapped around your face probably isn’t the tool for the job—unless of course you’re bummed about the holidays.

There are some good working options that are popular with some skiers and snowboarders, and they help you look like a ninja. Neoprene facemasks are a great way to protect your face from various weather conditions and great for cold weather activities. There are several options here in terms of price-point and coverage. Some are full head that cover face and neck that will fit under your helmet. Others are simply face-masks. Both will help keep your face warm and those cilia working to shovel snot down your throat, not your face.

But when dripping is unavoidable the clutch item is on your hands. A glove with a Microfleece wiping surface on the thumb is worth its weight in gold when you can’t help a drippy face.

Snot is pretty much unavoidable in cold weather, but hopefully this at least helps you get to where you gotta go without your face being an example of our complex respiratory biology.

[Ed note: Here’s a link dump for those of you who missed the prior installments in our Cold Weather Riding series: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4, part 5.]

In this installment I’ll talk about a very valuable tool for winter riding, and my personal favorite: studded tires.

Studded tires are one of those things that may not be useful a large percentage of the time, but for those times when they are useful, they are absolutely essential – specifically, when there may be ice on the road or trail. Rubber just doesn’t grip on ice by itself; studs of steel, or better yet, carbide (a very hard type of metal also used in cutting tools) can dig into the ice surface and keep you from sliding.

For the trail, a covering of snow doesn’t always mean ice. If your trails are lightly used the snow can stay fluffy and be handled okay by regular knobbies. However, if there have been enough other riders or walkers to compact the snow, or if you’ve had some melting and re-freezing, layers of ice can form and studs can help you navigate over it without crashing. My home trails are within the city limits and see a lot of traffic, so much so that the trails often get glacier-like coverings of ice that last much longer than the snow. (As in the photo at right.)

On the road, the snow is going to be compacted and slush-ified by the car traffic, and studs can definitely help you cut through it. There is also the danger of standing water freezing, particularly along the sides of a road, where we cyclists often have to ride. On the left is our very own Saxonburg Blvd.

One caveat: Studded tires aren’t going to instantly make all conditions rideable. If the snow gets deep enough, the studs themselves won’t really help because they won’t be able to grip snow any better than rubber knobs. This is when I like to use the fattest tire I can, lowered to as low a pressure as I can get away with, to help float on the snow better. Some prefer a skinny tire to cut down through the snow as much as possible. Or you may need to learn to enjoy flailing around. (I took this photo on the right of my own tracks one night while flailing around toward home in a minor snowstorm.)

Another caveat: Don’t step off bike on ice! Your newfound ice invincibility with studded tires does not extend to your shoes. It’s very easy to forget this, come to a stop on an ice patch and attempt to dismount, only to do some unintended gymnastics.

There are plenty of studded tire choices from Nokian and Schwalbe (both with carbide studs), Kenda and Innova (with less durable but less expensive steel studs), and others. They can get pretty pricey, from $50-$100 each, but if you live in a climate prone to ice, the money may be well worth it to extend your riding season. The tires I currently use are both Nokian: the Gazza Extreme 294 for trails, and the Hakkapelliitta W106 for the road. Nokian is a Finnish company, so they know their snow biking, and they make their own tires on home turf in Finland. For both of these tires the number in the name refers to the number of carbide-tipped steel studs in the tire.

The $100 Gazza Extreme at left is a nice beefy tire in 26″ or 29″ x 2.1″, with big blocky knobs in a square-ish profile that floats well in snow. Each and every knob had a stud, for ice traction down the center and on the sides of the tire, which allows a more natural turning motion while on ice (no awkward body English necessary to keep just a few studs in the right place). As you may note in the photo at left they are mounted on a singlespeed – yes, it was entirely possible to ride singlespeed on ice with these tires, even standing up and putting a fair amount of torque on the pedals. It is pretty cool to stop and see the scratches in the ice that the tires make. They’ve been fantastic to use. As far as I know, these are the only 29″ studded mountain tires available. They are of course heavier than your typical folding tire at 1105g, but hey, it’s winter training.

As fun as the Extremes are, the Hakkapelliitta W106 tires on the right (at around $50 each) are perhaps more valuable to me, as they’ve helped me increase my number of winter bike commuting days, and paid for themselves in less than a year in saved gas money. They come in 700 x 35c and 700 x 45c sizes – I use the 35c for my cyclocross commuting bike. The tread profile is more rounded, which felt very high in the center and a little strange at first, but I found that less air pressure than the maximum 65psi made them roll better. The studs are nicely placed in the mid-center and gave enough traction without being overboard. I have ended up riding with them some 10-12 times in the past year when only a tiny portion of my route was icy, but putting up with the extra-friction slow feeling of the studs on dry pavement in exchange for security on the ice was fine by me. The studs seem to be holding up just fine to this treatment, although I can expect some wear if I keep riding them in the dry. (Putting on the studded tires for a chance of ice/snow is kind of like bringing an umbrella if there’s a chance of rain… it seems to guarantee that the weather you prepared for won’t happen.)

One note about stud loss: it can happen, and probably will, but a few studs missing here and there won’t significantly diminish the performance of the tires. Nokian warns users to ride new studded tires for 30 miles on the road in order to seat the studs, a warning I did not heed and thus lost a couple right off the bat, but only a couple. (Replacement studs are available for around a dollar each.) Peter White Cycles advises that one can simply check out the tires before use and make sure that each stud is properly seated within the knob to prevent this.

If you’re lacking the cash, don’t mind a heavier weight penalty and have some winter project time, you can also make your own studded tires. This way you can also give life to some leftover tires with knobs not as sharp as they once were. They won’t last as long as carbide studded tires, but they will be cheaper, and you can experiment and find a stud pattern that works best for your routes.

- Choose a tire with large enough knobs to support your chosen screw, but not so large that the screws won’t clear your frame.

- Screws made for sheet metal are good, as they’ll be harder than wood or drywall screws. Half-inch for mountain bike tires or 3/8″ for cyclocross/hybrid tires are good sizes.

- Drill a pilot hole with a 1/8″ drill bit through each knob to be studded, from the outside so you can make sure they’re centered. Space the screws evenly to give good traction, mostly toward the outer edges of the tire (as these will be larger than commercial studs and a little harder to roll on).

- Screw in the screws with a drill from the inside through the casing so that the tips end up sticking out of the knobs.

- Add a protective tire liner or several layers of duct tape to the inside of the tire to prevent the heads of the screws from tearing the inner tube.

For more information:
The excellent Icebike site has some interesting, and surprising, data on the true slippery-ness of different conditions.

Peter White Cycles in Hillsborough, NH has a great studded tire page.

With each installment of this Cold Weather Riding series, more excuses to not ride in the winter are tumbling like dominoes… so get out there and enjoy yourself!

[Ed note: Here’s a link dump for those of you who missed the prior installments in our Cold Weather Riding series: part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4.]

As we continue to work our way up the body, I’m going to cover the ins and outs of keeping your torso toasty.

Layers. You knew that already didn’t you?

I’ll cover two different systems that work well for me into the low twenties.

System #1

Let’s start from the inside out. A good base layer will help keep you dry and comfortable. This will be the 4th season I’ve been using the some discontinued long sleeve 100% wool lightweight zip top from REI. It has been ideal for me, withstanding repeated commutes without stinking, and feeling very cozy next to the skin. Similar items are to be had from SmartWool, Ibex, and Icebreaker and just to name a few.

As a bit of extra insulation I’ve added a Surly short sleeve wool jersey.  In even colder weather I go with a long sleeve wool jersey. I’ve had the same Bontrager wool jersey for years, when it wears out I’ll be getting one of these or these. A fleece vest would work well here, but a dog ate mine. Seriously.

On top this is an Endura Softshell. It really is that bright. Makes me feel safer during those gray winter days.  It is incredibly wind proof and well insulated for something that is so thin. Initially I was disappointed that this shell wasn’t waterproof, but now after using it for a year I realize it isn’t needed. It’s needs to be below freezing for me to wear this jacket, and the water repellent finish is easily able to deal with snow and road spray.

System #2

This is a Pearl Izumi PolarTec base layer. It is old, they use Ultrasensor fabric now. Lots of options for this type of baselayer out there, much less expensive than wool, needs to be washed more often.

Next up is a pretty thick REI Power Stretch half zip top. Not cycling specific, but a nice multi-sport cut, with a longer back and longer sleeves for full coverage on the bike.

The outermost layer is a Novara Express jacket. Great for cold rainy days where staying dry is key to a pleasant ride.

So that’s two different ways to skin the cold weather cat, at least for me. I seem fall on the warm side of the equation and rarely need to wear much more than what I’ve listed above, even when it gets into the teens and single digits. I usually have an extra layer and some arm warmers in my bag, just in case.

Some things to look for in a riding jacket:

• Pit zips—breathablity is all well and good, but nothing beats pit zips for ventilation when it is 38º and raining. Back vents can work well also, providing your back isn’t covered by a bag. Pit zips can also help on those group rides in the woods that involve a lot of starting and stopping.
• Windproof—Very important, particularly while on the road. It gets cold mighty quick when you create your own wind chill.
•  Bright colors—Safety, safety, safety. Good on the road, good in the woods during hunting season.
• Water resistant or water proof—Even on days when it isn’t precipitating, road spray from cars or back splash from puddles can end up soaking through. Waterproof is a bit more versatile, water resistant is often cheaper and more breathable.

It is pretty easy to develop a clothing system for riding given a few hundred dollars and a computer, a bike shop and/or outdoors store. Looking to stay warm for less? Here are a few ideas:

I’ve had a lot of luck at places like Gabriel Brothers. They sell closeouts and seconds cheap. Real cheap. Like $5 for a silk base layer. $20 for a soft shell. You get the idea. Thrift stores are another great response for things like wool sweaters, and lately there is plenty of fleece. I found a waterproof mountaineering shell for less than $10 that I’ll wear when it is REALLY cold. If nothing else it offers a bit more padding when the inevitable crash on some unseen ice occurs. Bike shops often have end of season cold weather closeouts. I heard the interwebs is a good place to find sale items too, might be worth looking into. Although they seem to be disappearing, the Army/Navy store can be another good resource.

Keep that core warm and it will help keep everything else warm too.

How to get your son to ride your daughter’s bike?

It’s the kid’s-bike sex change!

And while I’m on the record as being a rabblerouser when it comes to department store bikes, this is the best Magna joke I’ve heard in a while:

The duct tape’s silver sheen began to dominate the Magna, which one could now refer comfortably refer to as the Magnus. Its adhesive manhood gleamed in the afternoon sun.

Traditionally, of course, people duct-taped their bikes to conceal that the frame was valuable. The idea was to throw bike thieves off the scent.

If your daughter rode a mixte frame, you could take this idea one step further by duct-taping a top-tube too.

Back in the day, we rode bikes that came with a removable top-tube, to facilitate, uh, gender assignment.

Of course, many of today’s really wacky FS frames can make you uncomfortable with the sex of your bike. In the event, you can always ride around with that trailer-hitch-bike-rack adaptor in place.

If you’re like me this yuletide, you probably had to sell your watch to buy your spouse hair barrettes (while she was selling her hair to buy you a watchband).

So if your cupboards are bare but your heart is still in it, it’s nice to have a few tips for homemade, DIY gifts that you can easily make for all the cycling freaks on your list — like this no-brainer, simple procedure for converting an old length of chain into a keyring/bottle opener/miniature filter wrench. (As any bike mechanic will tell you, the labor is always in the clean up…)