Eight mistakes new winter bike commuters make and how to avoid them

[Music] hey everybody today we're talking about mistakes that new winter bike commuters make bundle up and let's go for a ride [Music] [Applause] i'm tom and this is shifter a channel about urban cycling and bike commuting and i've been riding my bike through the winter for a long time so much so that i even wrote a book about it which you should definitely go buy there's a link in the description down below and over that time i've learned a lot myself and got a lot of questions from other people and have seen some commonalities between the mistakes that are often made and today we're going to go through each of them with the hopes of helping you avoid some of those mistakes first tip is don't throw snowballs at your camera lens okay mistake number one is gear overload this is one of the most common questions i get and that's what kind of gear do you need for winter cycling and i get it there's lots of great winter cycling gear out there these days uh they're much better now than it was 10 years ago when i first started winter cycling does that make me sound old back in my day anyway if you're the kind of person who loves loading up on gear i say go for it you'll probably be happier and more comfortable with a lot of great gear but in my experience it's better to just hold off a bit if you're new to winter cycling i say get out there and try it a few times before you start buying stuff i know a lot of people who winter cycle with no special winter gear and it may be the case you don't need anything but also giving yourself a little bit of experience first will help you determine what exactly you need maybe your hands get particularly cold cold and you want to invest in better mittens you don't know until you get out there and try it so before you go run out and buy those heated gloves or those special booties or that cold air breathing mask just give it a try for a couple of days or a couple of weeks or even a month or two figure out what you need and then go buy it you'll save yourself a little bit of money and you'll be more efficient in the gear that you buy mistake number two is overthinking your bike definitely the most common question i get is what bike should i ride in the winter time my answer is often don't stress about the bike we sometimes tend to overthink these things i spent years and years riding a 20 year old aluminum framed single speed mountain bike i often think the best bikes for winter are the simplest bikes yeah you can run out and buy a 7 000 fat bike if you want and you will probably crush winter like crush it but i don't think you need to do that in every case it's totally up to you but whatever you ride i have two pieces of advice when it comes to the bike one is studded tires uh i use one set of tire in the front that's it but they make a huge difference they're much better than they used to be and they're much more affordable even winter bike tires make a big difference they just give you so much stability and confidence that i highly recommend them and number two is beware of rust if you live in a city like mine where the city uses a lot of salt on the roads it is going to rust your components make sure you're washing your bike a lot or look for a bike that has components that won't rust one of the reasons i love this bike the priority continuum onyx is for that reason this is my go-to winter ride and if you're interested in what works for me may not work for you but it works for me i do have a video on this i'll link to it down below so check that out tip number three is don't overdress and i am still guilty of this sometimes you look outside you get scared about the weather you put on too many layers and within five minutes of riding you're sweating and you have to stop and peel those layers off this is a problem but i have a couple little tips here to help you overcome this problem here's the first tip if you're a runner dress like you would as if you're going for a rather than a walk if you're a skier dressed as if you're going cross-country skiing not alpine skiing or if you're just out dressed as if you're going for a walk not as if you're standing around waiting for the bus so in other words wear one less layer than you think you would need my second tip is don't fall for the hysteria of modern day weather forecasts these things drive me crazy because they make you so fearful of winter yeah you got to be safe in the cold don't get me wrong don't go out there and die of hypothermia but i always find that once i get outside it's not as bad as the tv or the radio news made me think it was yes windshield's a real thing but the best way of getting around a windshield is dress for it it's not doesn't have to keep you inside mistake number four is not considering the extremities i hear from a lot of people that the hardest part about winter riding is keeping their hands and their feet warm and here's a few tips about keeping your hands and your feet warm tip number one is keep your core warm you know if your body is if your body is cold it's going to pull blood away from your extremities try to keep your vital organs warm and that will make your hands and your feet cold so your first step is to make sure your core is bundled up nice and warmly when you get started number two is to make sure your boots aren't too tight a lot of people put on extra socks and then try to jam them into their boots which is fine except if your boots are too tight there's no air inside the boot to warm up your foot tends to warm up the air around you and that's what keeps your foot warm so make sure your boots are fit properly and aren't too tight and my third tip is ditch the gloves in favor of mittens mittens are just way warmer than gloves i know it could be tricky to you know shift or use brakes sometimes on some bikes but it's not an insurmountable problem figure it out your hands will thank you mistake number five is not changing your route so you found a perfect lovely efficient route to work in the summertime great good for you now ditch it because chances are unless you live in a city that actually takes winter cycling seriously it's unlikely that that summer route will be as great for you in the winter time maybe the roots aren't plowed maybe it ices up maybe it's in the shadows of a building and the snow never melts these are the things you have to consider so don't be stubborn about your route in the winter wintertime you may have to experiment a little bit find one that is better suited for the winter time and you'll be a happier commuter the next mistake is an all or nothing attitude so for some reason winter cycling tends to bring out some strange attitudes in people especially perceptions that non-cyclists have of winter cyclists being a bunch of masochists or athletes or crazy people none of that's true riding a bike in winter is not that big of a deal anybody can do it and that attitude sometimes bleeds over into the people who ride ourselves i've met some people who only ride when it's sunny winter days or only ride when it's not that cold out and they feel like there's some kinds of weird failures by not being a real winter cyclist but i just want to give you permission to not ride every day of the winter that doesn't matter if you only like sunny days if you only like mild days that's fine any day that you ride your bike is better than the day that you don't ride your bike and so drop the attitudes just get out and ride don't pass judgment on yourself or anybody else for riding in the winter time i think one of the goals we should all have is to try to normalize winter cycling so that it's not such a big deal so that more people can get out and enjoy it because then our cities and our lives will all be better before people get started winter cycling they can experience a lot of fear and part of that i think is because we live in a society that makes winter seem scary i was watching the weather channel recently don't ask me why and there was a headline that said fatal forecast and i was like really fatal forecast i mean it was a cold snap but the last time i looked into this there was actually more deaths from cold in places like spain than there were in places like russia and that's because people in spain are not prepared for cold and so when it hits they just can't deal with it most of us who live in northern climates live through winter so we are already prepared for it so there is a lot of fear out there there's also fear of slipping and falling on your bike but there are some easy measures to get over this so a little preparation goes a long way so i just want to say don't let the fear overwhelm you take things a little bit at a time there's all kinds of ways to prepare for it from dressing properly to getting studded tires to taking baby steps don't let the fear discourage you from riding just get out there and give it a try mistake number eight is going it alone so the previous points were all about what we as individuals can do to get out on our bikes in winter but this point is the most important and the mistake here is thinking that you can do everything by yourself what you really need to make winter cycling a part of your life is a partner in your city that means cities need to build bike lanes they mean to they need to keep them free of ice and snow they need to see that cities all over the world have made it easy for people to ride their bikes in winter and as a result people ride their bikes in winter so if you can do this on your own without any help from your city good for you but i think the key takeaway from all of this is that winter cycling needs to happen on a broad city-wide level so that's it there's my eight tips for newbie winter cyclists i hope you can avoid some of the mistakes that i have made over the years you know i've really come to love winter cycling some of my best rides now are in the winter time and i hope you can experience that sometime too thanks for watching be sure to check out my other videos i've got a whole playlist on winter cycling if you want more tips and i'll see you next time [Music] you

Channel: Shifter

Views: 99,347

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Id: Lrj2pQOnIPs

Length: 9min 53sec (593 seconds)

Published: Wed Jan 12 2022