Winter cycling
2022-02-05 → 2025-09-20
You can bike during winter
A common pushback against safe cycling infrastructure is that it will only be used during the “fair-weather” and like half of the year. However, this is often based on a huge exaggeration.
First, in most places, extreme temperatures, ice, snowstorms are rare. The days where it is almost impossible or too dangerous to bike only adds up to a few days in many places or a few weeks even in some of the colder countries like Canada.
Second, maybe even more importantly, such extreme weather conditions do not only affect cycling but also driving. If it’s cold enough or snowy enough to prevent cycling, it’s likely that it is also difficult for cars. You can watch Why Winter Cities Need to Reconsider Car Dependence where Oh the Urbanity! channel explains this bias well.
Third, this argument also ignores the fact that a lot of money and resource are used to plow and clean roads for cars, while not so much for maintaining cycling infrastructure. Cars can travel after a snowstorm only because the roads have been plowed. If cycling infrastructure gets the same treatment, cycling doesn’t have to be more difficult than driving.
Fourth, it is not as unpleasant to bike in the winter as what some people might depict. As shown in the video about Oulu, Finland by Jason from Not Just Bikes, just wearing what people would wear when they go outside is usually enough for cycling.
Why Canadians Can’t Bike in the Winter (but Finnish people can) by Not Just Bikes highlights the story of Oulu in Finland where a large fraction of the population cycles all around the year even with temperature frequently going below -20C. He cites the study about temperature and cycling, which showed that there is no correlation between winter temperature and cycling population. He argues that it is all about whether the city builds and maintain proper Infrastructure or not. Oulu has great infrastructure and plows the bike path very well. As a result, a huge number of people cycle throughout the whole year. Why Cycling Critics Are Wrong About Winter by Oh The Urbanity also explains these points well. Biking in the Winter: Crazy or Common Sense? by Oh The Urbanity also shows this in action in Montreal.
Winter gear
Although a general winter attire more or less works for biking too, due to a more severe windchill, some attention should be paid to protect vulnerable body parts, namely hands, head, ears, and face. If you are familiar with skiing, it’s similar.
Hands
A set-and-forget option that works for most cold weather is the handlebar mitt or “pogies”. You install them to the handlebar, and then you can simply slide-in your hands (with or without gloves) into them. The primary function of these mitts are mitigating the windchill so even thin pogies can work surprisingly well. When it becomes really cold, one can wear another layer of gloves as needed. But the best aspect of using pogies is that you don’t need to carry any gloves (probably for most of the winter). This may be the simplest and can be most effective options for your hands. See some options here:
Another option is… wearing a pair of gloves. It works fine and you don’t have to have the pogies installed on the handlebar, but gloves that are not specially made for bike riding can be surprisingly ineffective because of the lack of structure to block the windchill. Also, you may want to consider “lobster”-style gloves that are designed to keep you warmer (smaller finger surface area) while allowing you to operate your brakes.
Head, face, and ears
The simplest solution that works down to a decently cold weather (15~30F) is a skull cap covering ears under the helmet. Simply covering them up with one thin layer can take you very far, especially if your commute/ride is not so long. As long as ears and head are covered, your face can withstand a fair amount of chill.
The next level can be either going with a warm winter hat (either without a helmet or over one), or wearing a ski mask (balaclava). Balaclava protects the whole face and works well temperature below 10F.
Another accessary that you can consider is a neck gaiter.
The combination of a good winter jacket, and various items above, you can bike even in many degrees below 0F.
Legs and feet
There’s nothing really special about legs and feet. Wear more layers, consider double-socks, and wear thick winter boots as temperature goes down.
For bad weathers, you can consider wearing another water-proof layer. They also block windchill and keep your legs warm in cold weather. Some recommendations I got from people:
Resources
https://wintercycling.org is an organization that advocates winter cycling.
A YouTuber Shifter talks about winter cycling often in his channel. He also has a book about winter cycling: Frostbike.