A.V. Club's guide to winter biking
Everything you need to know about freezing your ass off on the morning commute
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Maybe you’ve seen them floating and puffing through the snow and cold air of Milwaukee’s wintry streets, these winter bicyclists. Maybe you wish you could quit being a lazy-ass wimp and ditch the car and give it a shot. If so, you’d better come prepared. Decider asked Cory Gassmann, owner of Cory The Bike Fixer on Milwaukee’s east side, to offer up some pointers. Knowing the proper equipment to use, how to maintain your ride, and knowing how to gussy up proper with plenty of light, waterproof layers are all key to making winter biking easier, warmer, and more enjoyable than, say, digging your car out of three feet of snow.
Decider: Who are the majority of winter bikers in Milwaukee?
Cory Gassmann: The people who choose not to own a motorized vehicle and who are determined not to let the environment control the way that they get around. All year long, over the last few summers, I’ve heard nothing but, “I’m getting rid of my car” and “This is going to be my transportation.” These people are going to at least attempt to ride as much as they possibly can in the winter. I used to sit at the shop for three months by myself, all winter long, and wish I had a customer. Now, I’m carrying seven employees through the winter and that’s not only because I’m a good bike fixer, it’s because the revolution has started. I told my wife when I started my business that in 10 years, gas will be five bucks a gallon, and I’m gonna be Ernie von Schledorn. It pretty much came true.
D: What’s the best type of bicycle to ride through the slush and snow?
CG: Some people stay with the thin tires. Some people like the fat tires. The big 29-inch fat tires roll over everything and when you stop pedaling, you’re still going to have a lot of resistance, which is going to cause you to stop very quickly. If you have good equipment, you’re going to do fine either way. Good tire pressure is extremely important and always overlooked. People just assume “I should always pump ’em up until they’re rock hard.” Definitely not true in winter. You’re not going to get anywhere near as good of traction.
In the snow, people really like to go wider on their handlebars for a feel of more stability. It’s easier to hold steady. With brakes, far and away, the best cold-weather braking is found in a disc brake. It’s just what a car or motorcycle would have where you’ve got a centered metal brake pad rubbing on a rotor near the hub. It’s metal on metal. You can get it super freezing cold, you can douse it with saltwater, you can put anything you want on it other than oil, and you’ll be stopping very effectively.
D: How do you keep winter from wrecking your ride?
CG: You’ve got to create a barrier on every moving part of your bicycle, between the metals and the elements: water, salt, sand, dirt, beer, and everything else on Milwaukee’s streets. If your bicycle is steel, there’s a product called Frame Saver, which you can spray into the inside of the bike frame that will stop the bike from rusting from within. It’s important to use good synthetic oil lubrication on your chain, all the hinges of your derailleurs, and all the cables that control your shifting and your brakes. This keeps water out of your brake cables and keeps them from freezing up when you take your bike from inside to outside. If there’s evaporated water on your cables, and you go outside, those cables are going to freeze, and you’ll quickly find out you have no brakes. Lubricating your cables at least at the beginning of winter, depending on how wet and salty and how much of the elements you put your bike through, should happen two or three times throughout the course of a winter.
D: How do you stay warm and dry during wintry commutes?
CG: If you’re on a tight budget, keep your feet, hands, and head warm, and you’ll be good. You can wear a normal parka, but make sure to keep the feet, hands, and head covered. Also, there’s a little trick called Subway socks; I learned this from the bike messengers. Take the plastic bag that a sub comes in, put a sock on, then put the Subway sock on, and put another sock on, and that blocks all the wind out and keeps you warm and dry.
D: How long before winter biking is considered “normal”?
CG: I think that it’s really cool to say, “I did this. I made a difference. I’m healthier because I did this. The planet is healthier.” Not, “I caused 80 potholes with my big, bad-ass sport utility vehicle.” Let’s get the revolution out of a petroleum-based society. There are more progressive cities to the west of us, namely, Minneapolis and Madison that aggressively promote bicycling year-round by way of providing an infrastructure for such activities. Milwaukee has made strides—there are 10 times the amount of people attempting to ride a bike through the winter than there was a decade ago.
