Biking season, I’ve come to realize, roughly equates to baseball season: starting off with a soaring sense of optimism, progressing to inevitable heart break, as if we didn't see it coming (this goes double for Mets fans).
Gone are the carefree rides that required no prep. Now we need to arm ourselves against the weather. It's never enough - and Winter isn't even here yet.
Lately the season in NYC has offered one of two lousy choices: ride in the rain in 40-50˚ weather; or ride under clear skies with temperatures in the 30s (and wind chill in the 20s).
As this is my first season as a cyclist dealing with weather, I’m still putting together a wardrobe. Unprepared, I’m sometimes forced to ride Torquemada, my exercise bike.
Gone are the carefree rides that required no prep. Now we need to arm ourselves against the weather. It's never enough - and Winter isn't even here yet.
Lately the season in NYC has offered one of two lousy choices: ride in the rain in 40-50˚ weather; or ride under clear skies with temperatures in the 30s (and wind chill in the 20s).
As this is my first season as a cyclist dealing with weather, I’m still putting together a wardrobe. Unprepared, I’m sometimes forced to ride Torquemada, my exercise bike.
But the breathing is simply not the same. And nowhere near as fun. I’m going to have to get out there. But how?
The thing is, I’m kind of a hard case when it comes to cold because of a condition called “Frost Nip” which I brought on myself as a kid skiing. It sounds cute, but it’s not. It’s kind of like Frost Bite, without the gangrene – and it hurts like hell.
I’ve already suffered on rides where I was not prepared: the Thanksgiving ride with 5 Borough Bike Club was a great experience but my fingers ached with cold (and my toes weren’t much better). So after that, I go to a site called “The Warming Store,” and order battery-heated gloves and socks. Days go by. Finally they arrive.
Just in time for the weather to change.
Now we have temps in the 50s – I can do those – but with cold water coming down in sheets, it’s a whole other challenge. Zen Bikes suggests http://www.endurasport.com, a site which bike messengers use, for rainy day gear. That’s good to know, because slogging for hours as a pedestrian in drenching rain doing Xmas errands, I realize: the bike messengers are better prepared than I am.
And then I begin to wonder: just how much gear am I going to have to buy (and store) before I’m actually able to ride after the month of October? I already have a collection of bikes: one for excursions, one for errands, (and Janet who still has not sold). They say that owning a boat is like having a hole in the water you throw money into. But as my closet shelves sag with riding gear, I’m beginning to think having a boat might have been a cheaper and easier hobby than this. Think of those cute galley kitchens, and those efficient “heads!” And you park that hobby outside your apartment in a marina somewhere – you don’t have to store it at home.
The worst of it is, I used to love Fall and Winter. I loved that the theatre season was starting up, that the music scene was in full swing (no pun). I loved the change in fashions, the change in foliage. I loved the Christmas season, especially the department store windows. I even loved walking in wintery weather.
Now I’m just in a sulk.
This can’t go on. I’m either going to have to make my peace with Winter and continue to ride through it. Or think about becoming a snow bird of some kind for a few months a year. Florida is out for more reasons than I can count (and the rate of bike fatalities there is the highest in the nation), but maybe somewhere in California – or the Carolinas. Just for a couple of months…
I make an annual pilgrimage to the Full Frame Documentary Festival in Durham, NC now. This year, it will also be an opportunity to look around...
I have all winter – and all kinds of weather – to ride. And if that doesn't work, all kinds of alternatives to consider.
The thing is, I’m kind of a hard case when it comes to cold because of a condition called “Frost Nip” which I brought on myself as a kid skiing. It sounds cute, but it’s not. It’s kind of like Frost Bite, without the gangrene – and it hurts like hell.
I’ve already suffered on rides where I was not prepared: the Thanksgiving ride with 5 Borough Bike Club was a great experience but my fingers ached with cold (and my toes weren’t much better). So after that, I go to a site called “The Warming Store,” and order battery-heated gloves and socks. Days go by. Finally they arrive.
Just in time for the weather to change.
Now we have temps in the 50s – I can do those – but with cold water coming down in sheets, it’s a whole other challenge. Zen Bikes suggests http://www.endurasport.com, a site which bike messengers use, for rainy day gear. That’s good to know, because slogging for hours as a pedestrian in drenching rain doing Xmas errands, I realize: the bike messengers are better prepared than I am.
And then I begin to wonder: just how much gear am I going to have to buy (and store) before I’m actually able to ride after the month of October? I already have a collection of bikes: one for excursions, one for errands, (and Janet who still has not sold). They say that owning a boat is like having a hole in the water you throw money into. But as my closet shelves sag with riding gear, I’m beginning to think having a boat might have been a cheaper and easier hobby than this. Think of those cute galley kitchens, and those efficient “heads!” And you park that hobby outside your apartment in a marina somewhere – you don’t have to store it at home.
The worst of it is, I used to love Fall and Winter. I loved that the theatre season was starting up, that the music scene was in full swing (no pun). I loved the change in fashions, the change in foliage. I loved the Christmas season, especially the department store windows. I even loved walking in wintery weather.
Now I’m just in a sulk.
This can’t go on. I’m either going to have to make my peace with Winter and continue to ride through it. Or think about becoming a snow bird of some kind for a few months a year. Florida is out for more reasons than I can count (and the rate of bike fatalities there is the highest in the nation), but maybe somewhere in California – or the Carolinas. Just for a couple of months…
I make an annual pilgrimage to the Full Frame Documentary Festival in Durham, NC now. This year, it will also be an opportunity to look around...
I have all winter – and all kinds of weather – to ride. And if that doesn't work, all kinds of alternatives to consider.
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