Winter's Return

On November 11, Toronto was unseasonably warm. Temperatures climbed to 17 degrees. I biked downtown that day, and while I was on my way it occurred to me that it might be months before the next time I cycled without having to wear hat and gloves.

Now, ten days later, I definitely have to bundle up when I ride. Toronto recently had its first snowfall of the season, and it is more wintry out.

I don’t enjoy the cold when I ride in the winter, but what I like even less is all the salt on the roads. The salt and slush sprays up on my bike, making it filthy after only a short time. Just a few centimetres of snow fell the other day, but after my ride yesterday I had to clean a significant amount of salt from my bike.



You sometimes have no choice but to go through the slush.



A danger when snow and slush are near the curb is that cyclists will ride farther out in traffic to avoid the slush.



Only one brief ride caused this salt to be deposited on my bike. After I took this picture, I cleaned the bike as well as I could with a wet rag.

I will doubtless have to reapply chain oil soon. Without being frequently lubricated during the winter, a bike’s chain will seize up due to salt and rust in no time.

New Pedals

Recently, I found an inexpensive way to dramatically improve my ride. I replaced my pedals.

I can’t remember what brand my previous pedals were, but I wasn’t very happy with them. They had two problems: they were too slippery and they were too narrow.

My old pedals were made of a hard nylon that did not sufficiently grip my shoes. My feet would sometimes slip off, usually when I was climbing a hill. Needless to say, this was an annoying problem. A bit dangerous, too. It was more likely to occur when the pedals were wet.

I particularly noticed the narrowness of the pedals when I was really digging in to climb a hill. My feet are a little on the wide side, so when I pushed on the pedals with extra force, the outer edge of my feet would curl over the edge of the pedal. This drove me crazy. I didn’t like the sensation at all.

My replacements are Evo “Freefall” pedals. They are made of metal and have a cleated surface that firmly grips my shoes. There is zero slippage. I haven’t rode in the rain with them, but I’d be surprised if my feet slipped on them even in the rain.

The pedals are 10 cm wide, a width that supports the whole of my foot, with no curling over. They are wider than most pedals; I would definitely recommend wide pedals to everyone, even those whose feet aren’t particularly wide.

I’ve only had them on my bike for a day (two rides), but so far they’re working out well.

Driver's Perspective

I much prefer to cycle to my destination in the city, but occasionally I have to carry more than is possible on my bike and am forced to drive. During these trips, I always find it instructive getting the driver’s perspective of using the roads.

When I am driving behind a cyclist who is going slower than I am, as is usually the case, my reaction is that I want to pass the cyclist as soon as possible. Cyclists should always be aware of this. Drivers want to pass you, and they want to do it right away. And some of them will resort to less than ideally safe practices when they do it. It’s amazing how often a cyclist’s life and body are treated with reckless disregard so that a driver can save a few seconds.

The lesson for cyclists here is that they need to cycle in as straight a line as possible and at a steady speed. The driver who is trying to imitate Gilles Villeneuve while passing you is assuming that your speed and trajectory will not vary. You may be hit if you don’t move as the driver expects you to.

Right turns are one of my least favourite driving manoeuvres, especially at busy intersections. Drivers have to observe and process a remarkably large amount of information in a very short amount of time while deciding when to make a right. They are often a bit stressed while doing this. If you are cycling up fast behind a car that is signalling right, don’t assume the driver will see you. If you go past on the right, you may be hit. Always assume the driver doesn’t see you in these instances, and act accordingly.

Cyclists who put themselves in the driver's position will be much safer.

Sneaking Ahead

Lately, the concept that bikes are vehicles, and so should behave as such, is seeming to sink in with more and more of my fellow cyclists: I see an ever-increasing percentage of them signalling turns and stops; fewer red lights are being run; and incidents of other types of rule-flouting behaviour are also becoming rarer. Still, I do occasionally see, for example, cyclists riding against the direction of traffic on major roads or weaving wildly around cars as though they were part of a circus act. And the odd cyclist will still brazenly ride through a red light.

But on the whole, cyclist behaviour on city streets is much improved nowadays.

A bit of a throwback to the days of rampant red-light running, though, is what might be described as the red-light sneak. This is when a cyclist is temporarily stopped at a red light but then starts to slowly ease through the intersection after the red light has been showing for a while. Drivers, and most cyclists, know that you can’t proceed until the light has actually turned green. But some cyclists seem to think it is okay for them to run a red light because the light will be turning green soon and because they aren’t speeding through the intersection. It is as though they are thinking that because they are moving slowly, running a red light doesn’t count as a traffic-rule violation. I mean, hey, the light was about to change, wasn’t it?

An awful lot of bad blood still exists between drivers and cyclists. This sort of red-light running doesn’t help matters.

New Bike or Old?

Winter is not kind to bicycles. The dirty, salty water that gets splashed all over them at that time of year turns clean bikes into ones that looks like filthy, derelict wrecks. Every spring, when I take my bike in to the shop for general maintenance, I’m given a list of parts that need to be replaced after the winter. And often it is suggested to me that I might as well buy a new bike because the repair costs are so high. As much as I’d enjoy having a new bicycle, I don’t think this is a good financial strategy.

I quite like my bike. It has served me well over the years. But aside from the frame, it doesn’t have many of its original parts left. If I were to tally the cost of all the replacement parts I have ever put on it, I would end up with an amount that would more than cover the cost of a new bike. The people at the bike shop suggest I get a new bike in part because they don’t think it is wise to spend so much on an old bike. They are also thinking of all the money I have already put into it. (And of course they’d like to sell me a bike...)

But that is applying old-car thinking to old bicycles. Car owners know that when a car reaches a certain age, a decision will have to be made about whether to pay for an expensive repair or sell the car. With old cars, selling rather than repairing often makes financial sense. Do you want to replace the transmission of an older car when the car’s resale value is plummeting?

With bikes there are no hugely expensive repairs looming in the future that might persuade someone to buy a new bike to avoid having to pay for those repairs. A well-maintained and newly repaired older bike is almost like having a new one. So, for an annual maintenance expense that isn’t really all that much, I can have a bike that is almost like new. If I were to buy a new bike to avoid having to pay for repairs on my old one, those repairs would still have to be made after the same amount of time on the new bike. The end result would be that I would have a bike in the same condition as my old bike, generally, but would have pointlessly put out a large amount of money.

Of course there are other reasons for buying a new bike. I wouldn’t mind getting a lighter bike, or one with narrower tires. But repair costs won’t motivate me to buy a new bike.

Too Cold

This January the weakening of the Polar Vortex is allowing a mass of frigid air to stray south. Toronto often avoids the very low temperatures that occur in most other parts of Canada. But not these days. When I awoke this morning, the temperature was -24 degrees; add in the wind chill and the reading was -39. Perhaps a bit too cold for cycling...

Each winter is the same. Through October, November, and December, as the temperature sinks, I continue to ride regularly, gradually getting used to the cold. But the cold I refer to is usually in the -10 to +10 range. If I dress properly, I’ll be fine.

In January or February, though, there is usually a cold snap that breaks my, and most other people’s, cycling routine. When I have decided that it’s too cold or snowy for cycling, I'll notice a few hardy types still riding their bikes for another day or two. (I’d tip my hat to them, but by that point I’d rather not remove it because of the cold.) But eventually, even these tough people have had enough, and the streets are temporarily without cyclists.

It’s not just the cold that prevents cycling. When it gets really cold, there is just too much ice on the streets. It really would be dangerous on a bike. Throw in the stiff arctic wind we had today, and cycling is out of the question.

I look forward to getting back on my bike. It is so convenient and is such a good way to exercise. The forecast shows I might be able to ride again in two days. But riding today is right out.