Bicycle Commuting & the "Polar Vortex" (in DC)

So, Tuesday January 7, the temperature when I would normally take off to work on a bicycle was around 8 Fahrenheit. (Apparently that is around -13 Celsius.) Also it was windy, although thankfully not too windy, and not directly from the north.

If I had any sense, I would use Metro. Apparently I don't have any sense. And I have all this biking stuff I have accumulated over the years - surely if I put it all on, I would be able to ride in this weather? In my mind, I had drawn a line at about 10-15 degrees F - below that, stop riding. But I have purchased still more stuff, so perhaps 8 was OK. This would be the coldest weather I have ridden to work in.


In front of work, having arrived - I don't look so good, as a matter of fact

I managed to get there, but I can't say I enjoyed it much. Neither my toes nor my fingers got cold, so the clothes worked OK (I guess). Here is what I wore, from head to toe:

* (Cheap) hiking boots - I have some low-rise boots that are not intended for cycling (at all) that are not "breathable" (due to their cheap design) and therefore are windproof. I swap my usual pedals for platform pedals so I can use these.
* Odd polypropylene "cycling" socks for cold weather - I bought these odd things from Performance some years ago and they do a good job of keeping heat in and cold out, but they don't breath (moisture) at all, so are only really useful when it is really cold.
* Two pairs of wool socks - not real heavy ones, but two pair.
* regular bicycle fitted shorts.
* Cycling cold weather windproof tights.
* Regular cycling tights on top of the other tights.
* A pair of shorts.
* Medium sleeve fitted bicycle wool base layer shirt thing.
* Long sleeve fitted bicycle wool base layer shirt thing on top of that.
* Long sleeve wool cycling jersey (old style).
* Long sleeve lycra cycling jersey with hood built in.
* Short sleeve lycra cycling jersey.
* Polyfill vest
* Cycling windbreaker that is truly windproof.
* Pair of full gloves with fingers.
* Pair of "lobster" gloves (thumb plus two compartments for fingers in pairs) over the other gloves.
* Polar fleece watch cap thing.
* Some other watch cap over that (and over the hood of one of the shirts)
* Wool scarf pulled tight over face, up to below eye level.

There you go!

The Bicycle - the Great Dress Reformer (1895)

As noted in any earler post, the Library of Congress has digitized many of the "centerfold" color illustrations from Puck magazine - this one from 1895 demonstrates how both men and women's attire were affected by the interest in cycling. And 1895 was not yet the height of the cycling craze.


Both men and women's attire were affected by the "bicycle craze"

Title - The bicycle - the great dress reformer of the nineteenth century! / Ehrhart.
Creator(s) - Ehrhart, S. D. (Samuel D.), ca. 1862-1937, artist
Date Created/Published - N.Y. : Published by Keppler & Schwarzmann, 1895 August 7.
Medium - 1 print : chromolithograph.
Summary - Print shows a man and a woman wearing knickers and bloomers, standing with a bicycle between them, shaking hands; to the right and left are examples of nineteenth century fashion.
Reproduction Number - LC-DIG-ppmsca-29031 (digital file from original print)
Notes: Title from item.
Illus. from Puck, v. 37, no. 961, (1895 August 7), centerfold.

Full record and TIFF.

Riding in the Cool Rain ~

I have been commuted 10 miles each way to and from work by bike year round for quite a while but only recently put fenders a bike to ride in the rain - boy, does that help a lot! A great improvement.


Presented like this, it seems a bit much

Here is what I wear when the weather is done around 40 and rainy, which it was one day recently.

* Helmet - my everyday helmet. I only have one helmet and it has my required parking sticker on it (rather than put it on a bike, which would be a problem since I have several bikes I ride to/from work).

* Baseball cap - keeps rain from running down my face, which can be very unpleasant in a heavy rain.

* Waterproof rain jacket - I have used something called an "O2 Rainwear Cycling Rain Jacket" from Nashbar for what seems like ten years. This is an extremely lightweight jacket made of some 3M fabric that is good at the waterproof part although it doesn't breathe as well as some more expensive material (I assume). At $30 it comes with a stuff bag and is easy to have along "just in case." The main drawback is that it is fairly fragile material, easy to tear. I have not purchased a more expensive GoreTex sort of jacket because this can be used in layers or by itself and it has worked pretty well so far (and doesn't cost a lot).

* Long sleeve cycling jersey with hood - cheap lycra jersey from PerformanceBike. I like to have a long sleeve jersey like this with a hood since I can take the hood off easily if it is more than needed (or put it on) and the hood keeps wind from going down my neck.

* Short sleeve jersey - Another cheap jersey from Performance, to add a layer if it is 40 or below.

* Long sleeve base layer shirt - For me, a fairly pricey long sleeve thin (not heavy) Merino wool shirt from Ibex. I got this last year - it replaces a layer of polypropylene. Works well.

* Performance bike shorts - The more expensive "Ultra" Performance brand bike shorts last longer and compare with name brand bike shorts. The less expensive Performance brand bike shorts seem shoddy.

* Bicycle tights - I have had these so long I don't remember where they came from. They are just lycra or some lycra cotton mix and aren't waterproof or windproof. When it gets down to freezing I have some more substantial (and expensive) windproof/waterproof tights, but at 40 degrees they are too warm.

* Lightweight wool socks + pair of cotton socks - the shoes I wear in cooler weather are a size large so I can wear more than one pair of socks.

* Shimano RW80 Winter Road Boots - these are something I bought several winters ago in order to stop using summer shoes with various over-shoes and trying to cram extra socks into the shoes. They work quite well, although they are only moderately waterproof. And once they get damp inside, they are very slow to dry out.

* Addidas rubber shoe "booties" - If it is raining more than a drizzle, I usually pull these on.

* Performance Nanuk Waterproof Thermal Gloves - Silly name, but whatever (as they say). Somewhere around 45 I want to have full finger gloves and these are what I wear down to around freezing; cooler than that I want something more serious than these gloves. They aren't really waterproof although it does take a long time for them to get damp all the way through. Unfortunately they take a good long time to dry out.

So there you have it!


Newly installed fenders on 30 year old bike for rainy weather

The fenders mean that rain doesn't soak my backside; in fact, after ten miles in moderate rain the other day I could sit on a chair and not get the chair damp - pretty good! And the fenders make it a lot easier for the waterproof aspects of my footwear to work successfully - again, the other day when I got to work my socks were dry inside my shoes.

"Nobby" Bicycle Suits (1896)

Cycling attire ad, 1896

From "The Referee and Cycle Trade Journal: a Weekly Record and Review of Cycling and the Cycle Trade." Volume 17, Number 1 - May 7, 1896.
archive.org/details/refereecycletra171896chic

Women cyclists of the 1890s often wore special clthing specifically created and intended for cycling, such as bloomers. I usually think of the tweedily attired male cyclists from the 1890s as riding in a version of their regular clothes, but this kind of ad suggests otherwise.

The slogan of this company, Rosenwald & Weil, seems a bit obscure - "Distinctive gentility in style - like brevity in composition - represents greatest merit."

Seasonal Cycling Attire (1895)

All these are taken from the August 11 1898 issue of the Washington Times. This newspaper later cultivated its cycling readership with stories on cyclist matters, but at this point apparently the paper was still unsure how seriously to take the topic, resulting in these somewhat less than flattering illustrations with the caption, "Experience with a garment."


Winter


Rainy weather


Summer (in Washington)

Tweed Ride - 1896

The other day, I mentioned to someone that I had a blog where I discussed cycling history from the 1890s - he immediately replied, "oh, do you go on tweed rides? I can't say the idea hasn't occurred to me, but I haven't.


A "tweed ride" from the 1890s

(This is a new derivative JPG I produced from the TIFF that is better than the 90KB one available online at the moment.)

Title: [Tourists riding bicycles] / A.B. Frost.
Creator(s): Frost, A. B. (Arthur Burdett), 1851-1928, artist
Date Created/Published: [1896?]
Medium: 1 drawing : wash.
Library of Congress
www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2010715930/

The post-2000 period tweed ride phenomena seems to have been a coming together of a retro fashion interest with a retro cycling interest in fixed-gear cycling. Over time, however, the fixed-gear aspect seems to have fallen away.


A tweed ride rider in Washington, DC, 2011

One obvious difference from the 1890s experience emulated is that the modern tweed ride is far more urban. Nevertheless, a good opportunity to build good karma for cycling.


More DC tweed ride 2011 photos