Simple and affordable ways to ride a bike through winter with stuff you already own

hey everybody so I know it can be kind of tough to think about getting started in Winter cycling and it can get expensive especially if you go to the bike shop and buy all that amazing winter cycling gear that is available now but I am here to help today is the shifter use This Not That winter cycling Edition hey I'm Tom and this is shifter a Channel about Urban cycling bike commuting and the ways we get around our cities and if you like this video please consider subscribing and if you really like it maybe hit that super thanks button so in this video I'm going to offer you some alternatives to the conventional wisdom of going and buying gear for winter cycling and we're going to start with the bike itself now if you want to go buy a fat bike because that's what everybody rides in Winter I say go for it fat bikes are amazing I love them I ride them whenever I get the opportunity there's so much fun and they really do a great job of keeping you upright but they can be expensive a new Fat Bike minimum I'd say fifteen hundred dollars but they go all the way up to eight or or ten thousand dollars if you get electric ones amazing if you can afford it do it but if you can't here's an alternative buy a new tire and not just any tire but a studded winter tire and I say just buy one of them I've been riding just one on the front for years the back is just a regular old bike tire and it's amazing for traction and for stability it gives me so much confidence in riding I just love it I went for years without using any set of tires and I was fine but then when I got one I became a convert instantly it's kind of like magic and the way it keeps you up on slippery conditions so just a couple of things to make sure make sure your bike has enough room enough clearance in the fork to take a studded Tire because they are a bit wider but other than that I say go for it so here's tip number one use a studded Tire not a fat bike so remember when you were a kid and your mom told you to always keep your head warm in the winter well she was right and the bike industry must have had good Mothers too because there are amazing winter bike helmets out these days that have inner liners that keep your head warm you can also buy a cycling cap with ear flaps that'll keep your head warm but all of these things cost money a good bike helmets probably a couple hundred bucks even those liners can run you 60 75 bucks which are great so buy them if you can but if you can't I have three Alternatives here that may cost you a lot less than that one is a beanie or A2 I'm sorry it's not a beanie I'm Canadian we call it a Duke it's just a better word it's a took a thin took should fit under your bike helmet no problem and it will keep your head warm even a thin one has kept like this one has kept me warmed down to really cold temperatures way below the freezing point you know what this one cost nothing it was free I think from a case of no it's not a case of beer it's a Clif Bar it's a promo tube so it was free that'll fit under your helmet that's great what also works is this which is a buff buff brand buff it's just a thin piece of material that well let's let's demonstrate these are great because they are versatile it can cover your neck or under your bike helmet you can pull it up and it covers your ears and your head and that's amazing to keep your head warm and this will run you maybe 20 bucks and despite its thinness I can see through here it does a really good job of keeping the heat in so I'm always impressed but if you really want to break out the big guns when it's really cold out use your regular bike helmet go for the full balaclava I've used this thing in 30 degrees below zero Celsius I don't know what that is Fahrenheit it's cold really cold and this does a great job as well the nice thing about it is that yes it will fit under your bike helmet no problems you don't need to buy a whole new helmet for winter just spend 20 or 30 bucks on something warm to keep your head toasty through the season to sum that up as our third Point use a tuke or a thin buff or balaclava not a custom bike helmet moving on one of the great Innovations of winter cycling of the past few years has been around our feet there are really great winter cycling shoes these days that really do a great job keeping your feet toasty and you can still clip into your petals and set that personal best record on that fat bike race if that's what you're into but I don't find those very practical uh everyday cycling or bike commuting because I don't want to clip in any way in the winter time and also they're expensive a good pair of shoes is a few hundred bucks minimum so I'm here to offer some Alternatives my favorite is a good pair of Chelsea boots these are my beloved yet aging bloodstones these aren't cheap either but you can get cheaper versions in Bloodstone and these keep my feet warm down to you know five or ten degrees below the freezing Mark and I wear them every day and what I love about them is that I can also wear them all day at the office so I don't have to bring other shoes I can just wear wear a nice pair of hosty boots the best part is of course you have to pair them with a nice pair of warm socks here's my fatherly advice for you today if you want to make winter more bearable throughout your entire life buy good winter socks the temperature gets below that I'm going all in on the winter boots which is what I'm wearing right now these uh you know if you live in a winter climate you've probably got these anyway don't fuss just put the warm socks on put the big boots on and ride yes it will slow you down yes they're a bit clunky and but you're not setting any personal best records on your bike commute in the winter time anyway you're just trying to get to your destination so yeah maybe pack your office shoes in your bag but just keep those feet warm it can be tough for a lot of people to keep the extremities warm so don't scrimp and don't go spend a whole bunch of money just use the boots you've got and ride your bike it works just fine so this tip is use regular winter boots not custom cycling boots next tip is about keeping your whole body warm and thanks to Fat biking there are also some great cycling clothing out there for winter time now some tights or bibs you know the kit the touristical cycling kit that's nice and tight and you can really get out there and it'll keep you warm down to a certain point but also who wants to like show up at work or to meet some friends for a drink wearing their cycling kit I just like to wear regular clothes when I ride and so those aren't that much helpful to me and those things are expensive too a good pair of winter cycling tight cycling tights will cost you depending on the brand of course a couple hundred bucks probably but what I'd like to do is something hidden and that's okay I'll show you a little bit underneath is long underwear this is my secret to Winter I have a Merino wool base layer that I'm always wearing almost every day in the winter time but absolutely when I'm out riding my bike I've got a head to toe base layer on there I love to use the Merino wool stuff because it's so good that stuff can be expensive too so you don't need it but even the cotton ones that you can pick up you know at Walmart for you know 12 or 15 bucks uh are pretty good they do a great job keeping you one you put them underneath it's going to keep you nice and toasty that base layer is so important and so affordable you can absolutely do that for low budget if worst comes to worst when you get to your destination this is the big fear is that you get there you go inside you warm up you get really hot so you may have to sneak off to the bathroom and strip off those that inside layer and then put it back on again but what I like about it too is that you can probably get through most your day and not even think about it it just keeps you nice and cozy all day long so use long underwear not winter cycling gear so you fortunate enough to be like me and have a pair of bar mitts for your bike these things are amazing sometimes they're called pogies but you can slide your hands inside and keep your hands warm while also being free to pull your brake levers and shift gears freely they are great but you know what they aren't usually inexpensive it can cost a bit of money but you know what I found over the years it works almost as well as varmints or pogies these things mittens I have a relatively thin pair of mittens and I love mittens better than gloves I find mittens keeps your hands warmer and they just do a great job keeping my hands warm and because I'm lucky enough on this bike to have a pistol shifter I don't need my fingers free to manipulate the gears and I can also pull the brakes and shift no problem and these are cheap and I need them for winter anyway so it's no extra cost you can also of course get cycling gloves sometimes they're Lobster meaning they're sort of separate your fingers this way so you can still shift depending on the kind of shifter you have you may need that but I've also found riding other bikes that these ones are thin enough that I can still shift using my index finger and my thumb if I need to I don't need anything special to do it I think sometimes a regular pair of gloves can work just as well so if you can't afford a beautiful pair of bar mitts or pogies a good pair of gloves or mittens will work just as well so use mittens not varmints okay one final tip and this is not a use this not that style because I don't think this applies to everybody but if you're a skier you know skiing is my second favorite winter activity you may have one of these in your possession and it's a ski helmet and for years fellow winter cyclists would recommend these to me and I would kind of roll my eyes because I felt like Overkill do I really need to go that hardcore just to get to work and then I tried it on a really cold day and I gotta say wearing a ski helmet is pretty amazing on a really cold day on a bike because they're built for cold they're line they're warm and cozy and um this also sometimes they'll have goggles and so some people have problem keeping their eyes warm uh when the rest of their face is covered up I don't have that problem I feel like maybe I've killed all of the nerves around my eyes they don't get that cold so I don't really use goggles but some people swear by them and I gotta say on a cold day it's just so nice and cozy and safe to wear a bike or a ski helmet like this so again not cheap a little bit it's a bit spendy if you want to get a good ski helmet but that's why it's a bonus tip consider it in your life you know what I mean okay that's it that's all of my tips for today uh I love winter cycling the goal of this video was just to make it a bit more accessible to everyone of course if you can afford all that great winter cycling gear that's available now go for it it wasn't there 10 or 15 years ago so we're really lucky to have access to all the stuff but also you don't really need any of that stuff it's easy to get out and ride a bike with just a few accommodations in your life so hopefully this opens up winter cycling a bit to you and if you have other suggestions please share them in the comments down below I know lots of people get a lot of great ideas from those comments so thank you for watching and thank you for sharing I'll see you next time downtown [Music]

Channel: Shifter

Views: 113,966

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Id: D4oo_UE8lPY

Length: 10min 53sec (653 seconds)

Published: Thu Feb 16 2023