Teton Transplant

I have commuted by bicycle my whole career.  That’s about 20 years in such varied places as New York City, Washington D.C., Berkeley California, Kumamoto Japan, Seattle, and Blackfoot, a small town in Idaho.

For long-time bike commuters it has been gratifying to see the surge in our numbers as gas prices skyrocketed. Here’s hoping these new riders don’t lose their gumption now that the days are getting shorter and the weather is getting cooler. To those riders, and anyone who is open to the idea of bike commuting, here’s the secret — commuting through the winter here is not so bad, in fact, it’s quite pleasant and invigorating most days. Seattle is famous for its rain but did you know we get about the same annual precipitation as Washington, D.C. and Tulsa, Oklahoma? It’s just that we have significantly more “rain days”.  The truth is the light rain that prevails here most of the time makes for pleasantly cool riding. Temperatures are moderate, and we experience little wind by most standards.

In addition to having a base level of fitness, having a predictable commuting schedule, and saving on parking, gas and car expenses, here are a few things bike commuters enjoy:

• Smiling pleasantly while riding past lines of slowly moving cars.
• Zipping across town in the middle of the day without worrying about traffic or parking.
• Being smug to socially conscious types in your office. (For example, in my law firm, most of the bike commuters are the Gordon Gekko business types rather than the crusading litigators.)
• Telling people “No, I don’t have to ride my bike home, I get to.”

Here are a few things I’ve learned over many winters that help make winter bike commuting go a little smoother:

• Dealing with traffic. Some traffic can’t be avoided, but most commute routes can take advantage of long sections of bike trails and bicycle lanes that are away from traffic. King County, Seattle, and Redmond all publish handy maps that show all of the bicycle routes, bicycle lanes, and the more bike-friendly roads. The Bicycle Alliance of Washington has a bicycling buddy program. They will hook you up with an experienced rider in your area to be your temporary riding companion to assist with route finding and give general moral support.
• Consider a hybrid commute. If your commuting distance is too far or otherwise just doesn’t work as a straightforward bike ride, consider linking your bike with another form of transportation. For example, try hauling your bike on your car to a non-congested and free parking area then bike the last few miles. Other options involve taking your bike one way on the bus, train, or ferry and riding back home on the same day, or alternate days. All of the above methods also work well for runners, skate boarders, roller bladers and walkers.
• What type of bike. Any bike will do, but for year round riding, fenders are mandatory to keep you and your bike clean. Fenders are widely available and can be fitted to almost any bike these days. Mountain bikes make great commuting bikes, but take the knobbies off and put on 1.5 or 1.25 inch-wide smooth road tires (but not too smooth  (see below about flats). Smooth tires will increase the rolling efficiency of your bike by one or two gears. Road bikes are fastest, but the trade-off is that thinner tires get more flats. If you don’t have a bike, consider buying one that has been designed from the ground up for commuting. The best in this category have the following features

• upright geometry (more like a cruiser, less like a racing bike or aggressive mountain bike)
• medium width tires (1.25 inches) with relatively smooth tread
• fenders
• gear racks
• internal hub gear system
• drum brakes (internal)
• dynamo front hub (powers lights without batteries)
• front and rear lights (powered by the dynamo)
• bell

One bike built from the ground up with all of these features is the Novara Fusion, sold by REI.

• Speaking of flats. The occasional thrown staple or bent nail can’t be avoided. But most flats are caused by broken glass or by hitting the sharp edge of a pothole or iron rail on underinflated tires (creates “snake bite” punctures). Keep your tires inflated to the maximum recommended pressure and start paying attention to where the worst potholes are on your route — or don’t and learn where they are one flat at a time.
• Rain causes flats. Glass is another problem altogether and caused me all sorts of grief until I learned how to deal with it. Small pieces of broken glass cause flats by sticking to the surface of the tire and gradually working their way through the tread to the tube. Glass sticks to moist tires much more readily than to dry tires. That’s why on the first rainy day after a dry spell you may see more cyclists than usual on the side of the road, fixing flats. Check your tires regularly for tell-tale nicks in the tread that indicate a piece of glass may be embedded. Squeeze the deflated tire right at the nick to expose any glass down inside. You may need a pointed tool to remove it. Personally, I have found that tire liners and stop-leak liquids aren’t worth the effort or the mess. However, after many years, I have finally figured out that glass doesn’t stick as readily to the types of tires that have micro beads on the running surface of the tread. Between that and checking my tires regularly, especially when the roads are moist, I rarely get flats from glass shards these days.
• Riding attire. I’ve never spent much on biking clothes, except for $200 I wasted on a waterproof breathable biking jacket when I first came to Seattle. Personally I have no use for expensive waterproof breathables for bike commuting. They just don’t breathe well enough to vent adequately when exercising and they quickly become uncomfortable. Instead, I wear synthetic shirts under a simple nylon windbreaker. Even when it is actually raining (which isn’t that often) my heat has built up by the time the water has soaked through such that my temperature is fairly well maintained throughout the ride. This method might not be the best if your ride takes longer than 45 minutes or so, if you ride quite casually, or if there is no convenient place to hang wet clothes to dry when you get to work. For the legs I get by with heavy bicycling tights or simple polyester jogging pants, rainy days or dry. A few bikers where neoprene or other types of booties on the feet. Most don’t bother. But you should pick shoes made of non-absorbent material without a lot of padding. I relax my no Gore-Tex rule for the hands. I use thinly insulated Gore-Tex-lined gloves on raining days. A visor on your helmet is unexpectedly useful for keeping the rain out of your eyes and off your glasses.
• Get a thermometer. As winter progresses you will want to start putting on more layers to match the temperature, but it’s a hassle if you misjudge. Get a large outdoor thermometer and check it every morning before you leave. You will soon learn exactly what to wear to be comfortable at a given temperature.
• Friction is mandatory. As the weather gets colder, the thermometer is crucial to avoid riding on mornings when the temperature has dropped below freezing overnight. Fortunately, this happens on average only about five nights per winter. (Last year was unusually cold; we had about 10 nights below freezing.) Because we have very little wind here, it can actually be quite comfortable riding in 33 or 34 degree weather. But don’t be tempted to ride when the thermometer goes to 32. It isn’t worth it. If you ignore this advice and end up banging your hip in a crash, look on the bright side. There is a very good chance that you will even things out by banging up the other hip before you get to work. I speak from experience.
• Carrying your gear. Your backpack, messenger bag, or panniers should be made of non-absorbent, not just waterproof material. The bags designed for the purpose made out of PVC work perfectly. They are also expensive. For the last four years I have used a vinyl backpack I bought for three dollars. Besides being waterproof, it is also an eye-catcher, albeit not necessarily in a pleasing way. If you see a guy riding downtown with a florescent blue backpack that looks like he borrowed it from a Japanese school girl, that’s me.
• Cargo bikes. If you need to carry lots of gear or even kids on your commute, check out Xtracycle, a company that makes a bicycle extension that allows you to haul up to 200 pounds of oddly shaped cargo or people. There are a number of these handy bikes around town.
• Become a night rider. If you are committed to bike commuting year around you will need to get comfortable riding at night. Bike lights continue to get brighter, cheaper, and the batteries last longer. There’s no excuse these days not to be lit up like a candle in all directions. You should also have redundant lights, both front and back, to avoid issues if one stops working for any reason, and to use more lights when it is raining. Wet roads reduce visibility, wet windshields even more. When it’s raining I turn on more lights and put them on more obnoxious flash settings. Many riders attach a red light on their helmet facing backwards. I have a little headlight taped to my helmet that I turn on when it’s raining and I use it to shine in the face of drivers whose attention I need. I use plastic cable ties to mount tail lights on my front fork so that I have good lighting on the side. In 20 years of riding I have had one close call with cars, not here in Seattle but on a rural highway in Idaho. It was at dusk and though I wasn’t the one violating the law, I could have avoided the whole thing by having decent lighting on my bike (I only had a dim headlight.) My theory (no proof) is that a well-lit, reflected up bicyclist grabs the attention of motorists at least as well as a biker in daylight.
• Maintaining your bike. The worst part about rainy weather is not that your clothes get wet; it’s that you have to spend more time maintaining your bike. As I said earlier, fenders are mandatory and will help keep the bike clean. With older bikes it requires some care to keep water out of the wheel hubs. With modern sealed hubs, this is no longer an issue. Nowadays the most critical parts affected by wet weather are the chain and the cables for the brakes and gears. Make sure the cables have been appropriately lubricated when they were installed, and check for gaps or cracks in the covers that might let water in. Keep your chain lubricated. I like a wax-based lubricant called White Lightening which stays on well and doesn’t cause nearly as much mess. Carry an absorbent cloth with you in your pack and on rainy days wipe the water off of the chain as soon as you get to work. If you wait until you go home you’ll have rust, even if your chain is well lubricated. Consider shelling out extra cash for a stainless steel chain.
• Internal hubs. If you are in the market for a new bike consider an internal hub. Internal hub bikes have made a comeback in the last few years and the choice has expanded beyond the traditional 3-gear variety to 5, 8 and even 20-gear versions. These gear systems are a little heavier and more expensive to repair, but the advantage is that they are completely internal, out of the weather, and they also allow the chain to be completely covered by a guard, keeping it out of the weather too. The Novara Fusion, mentioned earlier, has an internal hub.
• Parking your bike. Some companies are okay with employees carrying their bikes in the elevator to their office. I don’t bother, because the underground garages in most office buildings have racks to store your bike out of the weather and in the relative safety of the garage. These garages apparently do this as a public service, because I’m not aware of any incentive for them to do it, and it seems against their economic interest. So let me take the opportunity to thank the managers at the IDX Tower and the Columbia Tower for making a place for bikes in their garages.