Riding in the Cold

Riding in cold subzero weather is a lot of fun... provided you are careful...

The picture at right was taken by one of my webcams as I headed up a snow-filled slope early one morning toward our driveway. The black spots to my left and straight ahead are deer tracks. I have learned to follow deer tracks when riding in snow - they always know where the easiest places to walk and hence ride, are to be found.

• Traction: Most tadpole trikes have the center of gravity just slightly toward the rear of the trike. Translation - it is difficult to get sufficient traction in snow. ICE offers a fix for this, but I have found that the best thing is to use studded tyres. Mine are from Schwalbe in Germany, but you can find several other manufacturers offering studded tyres online. They make a huge difference when riding on snow and ice. You will need three of them. The ones on the front of course are necessary to help you stop on icy roads.  
   
• Frozen Brake Lines: My brake lines have frozen solid in the cold. When the water from the road gets into the lines and it is very cold out, the water can freeze without you realizing it. So that when you grab a brake to stop for a car, the entire line can frozen - no brakes. This has happened to me during a long ride in the mountains in subzero weather. Even though I had matches with me, I could not thaw the frozen line. I rode all the way home with only one brake, testing it frequently and hoping it would not also freeze. Not fun. Once the trike was inside for a hour, the ice thawed and the brake worked again. My solution, which has worked well for me since this incident, was to order online a small bottle of Phil Woods Tenacious Oil, although any similar oil will also do. Every now and again before leaving home in freezing weather, I drip a few drops of the oil inside the brake lines and inside the gear lines. Even if water does get into the lines, the oil keeps them mobile. I have had no further problems with frozen controls since doing this regularly.
   
• Clothing: You can suffer hypothermia when trike riding in subzero weather unless you are careful. Here's how - you ride along, get hot, and remove some clothing. Then you go down a hill at high speed. In cold weather, the wind chill effect can be decades below zero Celsius. Your scalp, face, hands, feet, and any exposed part can freeze in seconds. This has happened here in the mountains to bicycle riders. Unpleasant way to loose a finger or two.  Thank goodness trike riders are more intelligent than this. We trike riders know enough to carry and wear a helmet cover (mine is a waterproof breathable fabric), a very thin wool cap to wear under the helmet, a woolen wind-proof face mask, ear muffs, subzero-rated gloves, riding shoe covers, wool (warm even when wet) full length undergarments, fleece jacket and riding pants, wool socks, and windproof pants and jacket. My wife got some very high quality ski gloves for me for my birthday. These work very well on the trike - waterproof, warm, and flexible in extreme cold. I highly recommend these for your hands too.
   
• Cold Weather Trike Kit: Included in this kit are chemical hand and foot warmers. Mine last eight hours post activation. I carry four of each (two feet, two hands, times two) pulse two extra which I can stuff in my shirt to keep the heart warm in a real emergency. Never leave home in freezing weather without these! My kit also includes a large fluorescentt SOS banner which can be seen from the air when draped over a snow drift. I carry home made energy bars (plural) and tomato juice in sufficient quantity. I add a tiny bit of vegetable oil to the tomato juice. This helps prevent freezing. Also tomato juice does not freeze as solidly or easily as water. My cold weather kit also contains matches in water tight bags (necessary for melting tyre patch glue if needed or lighting a fire if needed). Finally my kit contains a small amount of antifreeze - you would be amazed at how helpful this can be when poured onto trike parts which you may need to work on in an emergency in the cold (just be careful to clean up after use - antifreeze is lethal to deer and small mammals, but tastes sweet to them. Clean up every drop after you use it on your trike.)
   
• Lights: For some reason unknown to science car drivers do not expect to see trikes zipping along snow laden roads. Hence I have LED strobe lights on the trike which I use during the day. Drivers tend to see the flashing lights before they see the trike. Much safer. I always have my night lights lit up even in bright daylight when riding in snow and cold weather. YMMV.
   
• Do not ride in...: I never ride when there is a potential for black ice on the road surfaces. The trike is fine (studded tyres work well), but those poor benighted folks who ride their SUVs with summer tyres ... they are pretty dangerous. I never ride when there is a forcast for sudden snow storms. I never ride when hunters are out in the mountains. I never ride in temperatures below -20 C (anything above this is okay). I never ride on trails in potential avalanche areas.

In summary, I ride all the time in the cold and find it fun and safe. I highly recommend it. It is lovely to go out early in the crisp subzero morning air when not another soul is about, the trike making tiny crunching noises in the snow. Go slowly, prepare properly, and have fun!

Update:

1. In response to a couple of people who wrote that a person should always carry a cellphone in cold weather... Yes, this makes very good sense and I should have mentioned it. For me personally however, this is not possible for  two reasons: Firstly, there is no cell coverage that can penetrate the mountain passes in which I ride. Secondly I am aphasic, making it impossible to use a telephone of any kind. Such is suchness.
2. Someone wrote to suggest that no one in their right mind would go cycling on a trike, alone, in the mountains in subzero weather. I completely concur. Clearly the only sensible way to live is to embrace normative behavior at all times