We are so thrilled to host this conversation about Winter Cycling on November 26 at 2:00 pm. Whether you’re a seasoned Winter Bike Person, just starting out, or simply want to see what it’s all about, we think you’ll enjoy this conversation happening online. Yes, you can sit back, relax, and join in from the comfort of your own home.
Panelist bios are below but I wanted to share some links to the ones that have YouTube channels:
Tom Babin – @Shifter_Cycling
Jasmine and Patrick – @OhTheUrbanity
Pekka Tahkola – @PekkaTahkola
Thank you to our sponsors:
Bikes and Beyond – www.bikesandbeyond.ca
Plain Bicycle – www.plainbicycle.org
Make sure to join us at Bike Winnipeg as a member – www.bikewinnipeg.ca
Come with us to the Winter Cycling Congress in Edmonton – https://www.yegcyclingcongress.ca/
The goal of this conversation is to demystify riding your bike in winter by hearing the experiences of cyclists who do it on a daily basis. We will have an opportunity for you to ask questions as well.
Ring the bell to be notified, but make sure to also put it in your Calendar!
Now let’s meet our panelists:
Tom Babin – Panelist
Tom is an award-winning author and journalist who has written about cycling for years. He is the author of Frostbike: The Joy, Pain and Numbness of Winter Cycling, a bestselling exploration of getting around on two wheels throughout the year. He has delivered speeches about cycling around the world, and is often in the media addressing issues related to cycling. For several years, he wrote the Pedal blog for the Calgary Herald. He lives in Calgary.
Tom’s YouTube channel, Shifter, is an inspiration for all of us, bike folks.
Pekka Tahkola – Panelist
Pekka lives in Oulu, Finland, is a cycling coordinator, urban planner & wellbeing engineer, who hopes to spread to word about what is possible. It’s not about the cold – it’s about the infrastructure and maintenance.
Pekka’s YouTube channel contains some of the best winter cycling videos from all over the world.
Patrick and Jasmine – Panelists
Patrick and Jasmine run the YouTube channel “Oh The Urbanity!“, where they take a look at urban housing and transportation from a data-driven lens and share their experiences with active and public transportation. Basically, they spend a lot of time walking, biking, looking at maps, and filming.
They currently live in Montreal
Merrill Grant – Panelist
Merrill is the program manager at The WRENCH in Winnipeg. She has been bike commuting for 20 years, and winter riding for about 15 of those. She keeps herself busy in the winter with curling, snowshoeing and skating on the river!
Patty Wiens – host and moderator
Patty is Bike Winnipeg’s in-house newsletter editor. She has been described as “Brazilian when it’s convenient”, and it’s never more convenient than when she brags about bike commuting in winter. When researching how to ride her bike in winter, she didn’t find a lot of information online provided by women for women (specially as a 50-year old), so she and her partner, Ian, decided to start a YouTube channel.
Patty is also on the Board of Bike Winnipeg
4 Comments
Great info, thanks very much
Looking forward to Global Fat Bike day at the forks on Sat 2nd. I have been trail riding in winter for 9 years now but just recently refurbished an old mtn bike and equipped it with studded tires for city riding.
Precious cargo question: studded tires can be DIY using very short drywall screws or the newer “grip studs” that screw in. For the drywall screws they need to go into the big side lugs of a MTB tire on an angle. Online demos on that exist. The Grip Studs can go into tall ordinary lugs on a MTB (spray soapy water on the lug as you install them…much easier!). A liner may be needed to make sure a screw-in stud doesn’t go into the tube. So the wheel gets heavy which is not a problem for e-bikes.
The winter test for a good tire is to be confident when standing up. If you can’t stand up, for a small incline or acceleration or emergency stop (to get the weight rearward), the tires aren’t grippy enough, IMO.
For kids, the cargo bike with a good padded box, is a great idea…because if there’s a fall the bike will go on its side and the child will be protected (no arms outside the box). The direct opposite is a hiking backpack, where the child could be jettisoned forward out of the backpack during a fall (yes, I’ve seen this done….very dangerous).
Cold butt question: padded saddles freeze solid. Condensation inside the padding literally freezes into a block of ice. So non-padded saddle first…eg. C17…. But rubber is colder than leather…but B17 is a bit more difficult to get comfortable for many people (salvage old leather saddles by stringing/lacing them from the underside). Saddle covers out of sheepskin are excellent, but very pricey…may be possible to modify a C-tire saddle cover with wool or something. Wool cycling shorts are much better than cold Lycra, and wool underwear is better than poly (never cotton) for sitting on. Insulation is captured air in the fabric…so light fluffy stuff is not effective when compressed. So wool, or a poly fiber that captures air in its micro structure is much better than down or pillow material. Old, second hand, Shetland or tight wool sweaters are gold: cut the sleeves off, cut the back off, then stuff the sleeve down the front of the pants and the back down the seat. Tacking (gorilla tape) old sweater bits to the inside of wind pants saves your knees. The layers underneath the wind pants do not have to look good.