Ice! Cold!

Winter has finally arrived here in mid-Michigan (although it's not scheduled to stay very long). We had thick rutty ice on all surfaces yesterday, and today the temperature went down to single digits.

Because of the total icization, I rode the slush mobile, with its more aggressive studded tires and wider footprint. Worked beautifully, even if it rides like a tank. The new dynamo wheel works well, although the old B&M Lumotec halogen (not LED) light is pretty dim.

Now that the worst of the ruts have been cleared off the roads, I'll go back to the Trek 620, with its faster rolling (but still studded) 32s.

For warmth, I wore a pair of biking tights under my Rivendell pants. I swear I was colder than I would have been with the pants alone. Probably not true, but I have been warm in just the pants down into the low 20s. Very tight weave, slightly heavier fabric than normal nylon pants. I suppose I need a pair of wool tights to wear underneath them.

On my top (remember: 8 degrees out) I wore an old "ski skin" shirt (polyester and cotton, I think), a fleece vest, and a nylon windbreaker. Plenty warm. Balaclava and goggles on my head. I would have been better off with a slightly thicker (than my thin one) wool shirt. Perhaps adding another layer to my thin wool shirt would be better.

Studs

Thin coat of ice on the roads this morning, but I had no problems, thanks to my Nokian Hakkapeliitta A10 700 x 32 tires on my commuting Trek 620. There's no way of knowing whether studded tires work, of course, but my wife told me that her car was slipping and sliding all over the place. I slipped a little, but mostly I was oblivious to the ice.


I decided that I would rather ride the commuting/touring 620 as much as possible this winter, rather than switching to the studded-tire slush mobile whenever there is the slightest chance of ice, as I have done in the past. I have been reluctant to ride the 620 without studded tires, because you never know when you'll hit a patch of ice. So I took the plunge and bought it studded tires. Now I ride it whenever there isn't deep snow or slush (or serious ice ruts that call for more mountainy tires). So far, so good.

Although these tires are called 32s, they seem significantly fatter than other 32s. (I haven't measured, though.) I bought them at Tree Fort Bikes (online, but they are located an hour down the road in Ypsilanti).