This week I finally conceded defeat to spring, put away my XC skis, and swapped the studded tire and snow boot friendly BMX pedals on my ‘cross bike for SPDs and mud tires (the skis got used twice, the ice tire once). It was actually a fairly good winter for regular street riding, which makes a change from two years in a row of snowmageddon, but I had my heart set on blizzards and ice so I spent most of February on the internets looking at snow pr0n from south of the Mason-Dixon line. I’ve decided that I better stop and get outside while my jeans still fit even if it is nice and sunny.

We did have a couple of wintry days though:

A spin on the ice with the Hearn power plant in the background (fear not, the ice here was pretty thick and the water is really shallow).

Ice shoes and thick socks- after almost getting frostbite with my SPDs the week before

Important winter components

The way out to the lighthouse

The lighthouse (there were a couple of guys on fixies up there – real ones, not tarck bikes – but I haven’t seen a Dutch bike all winter)

Rust squid

Used once.

Cormorant beach

Toronto across the ice

Frost inside my jacket, where the reflective stripes wouldn’t let it breathe.

It was -10°C with a bitter wind, but it didn’t feel too bad on the way out with the wind behind me. I even saw one other biker out by the lighthouse, on a tarck bike no less. There was a river of ice floating out into the great unknown, but we haven’t had any big easterly winds yet when it’s been cold, and that’s when we get the big waves and the interesting ice formations of shore ice. As always between November and March I could hear the old squaw ducks out on the water (they come from the subarctic, and overwinter here).

I aso thought I’d check out the state of the ice on the outer harbour. It looked rideable near shore (and even if it’s not, where I go it’s mostly over shoal water that’s barely deep enough to float a canoe) but I didn’t have studded tires and the soles of my bike shoes are lethally slippery so all I could do was look at it.

SPD shoes are just too damn cold for winter, even at a size too big with 2 pairs of socks. They’re all right when it’s wet or slushy but at -10°C weather all the heat just drains out the cleat. I was starting to get a tiny bit of phalangular frostbite so I went home, the next day I went looking at BMX pedals so I can ride in my snow boots.

Cyclocross brake levers – they’re great for using drop bars offroad, since I want to keep my bars set up for road riding, not high and close for ‘cross. They’re great for riding on the bar tops in city traffic too.

Jandd Mountain Wedge III: A really big seat bag. It holds what I need for all-day autumn rides (lunch, rain shell, gloves, extra warm layer, digicam, tools & tube) and it expands to hold even more. It fits any saddle, which is good since I gave up on Brookses after having the second one stolen off the bike a couple of years ago.

Planet Bike Blaze 2W: I gather from recent discussions on the BOB list  that there are other, possibly better LED lights around, but this is the one I tried, and I like it. It’s plenty bright (my previous LEDs were just adequate) and it was easy to find and fairly cheap at Mountain Equipment Co-op.

Planet Bike Peace Pump: I like to keep a pump in each bag I use on my bike, so I have the best pump that each bag allows and so I don’t forget it. This was cheap, and the longer one just fits in my MEC messenger bag. Made of real metal. Pumps up my 700×38 Marathon Crosses fairly easily. Not sure how durable it would be for frequent
use, but it’s good enough for an emergency pump that lives at the bottom of my messenger bag.

ABUS Bordo lock. It’s actually heavier than my U lock and I don’t think anything with pivots can be as secure, but it’s easier to fit in a bag and less useless than a cable lock and I won’t be using it downtown at night.

MEC Glacier Merino hoodie. Full zip merino wool jacket with a hood. I don’t often use the hood while riding but it’s nice when I stop. It seems to have disappeared from their website though, which is typical whenever they make something I like (yay for impulse buying).

Panaracer Pasela, non-tourguard, 700×32. Also, running my 32s at 70ish PSI instead of 90.

Alpaca socks for cold rides. Alpaca makes merino feel like sandpaper, but the sweater was crazy expensive so I got socks. Once I put them on I didn’t want to take them off.

I got them late last year, but I’ve had a lot more experience with my Surly Cross-check and my Schwalbe Marathon Cross 700×38 tires. I like them both a lot (the Schwalbes are a great dirt-biased all-rounder tire), so I’ll list them again.

I couldn’t think of anything I disliked enough to mention.

Two things I’m expecting to try and hoping to like in 2010:

Schwalbe Marathon Winter studded tire.  It didn’t make this year’s list because, while it’s been mounted and ready to
go on a spare wheel since November,  it’s as yet unridden, since winter starts about 30km north of here.

The new bike racks on GO Transit buses Unlike city buses which only go to the start of the exurbs,  GO Transit can take me and my bike through the Suburban Ring of Death and out to country roads (the seats are more comfortable, too). Bikes have been allowed on their non rush hour commuter trains for years, but the non rush hour trains don’t go to as many or as nice places.

It was even colder than it looks.

I finally got my country road bike out on some real country roads, and picked up a bit of real country mud. Ride report to follow, eventually, maybe.

Happy Halloween! Only about 20 of the lazy ass local kids bothered to climb my front stairs this year… well those 20 weren’t the lazy ones but I’m still saddled with a surplus of junk food. I’ve noticed a disturbing trend in costumes over the last couple of years of fewer girl pirates and way too many princesses, and this year I didn’t see any pirates at all. Kids today…

You can feel November in the air tonight. I better buy me some ice tires soon before it snows and they sell out, and I need to find all my wool socks…

Last sunday at the cormorant beach (it used to be the heron beach before the pesky cormorants invaded it and killed all the trees). I don’t usually ride on sand on any bike I care about, but I reckoned it was OK just this once.

Things were still fairly green last week, at least by Lake Ontario, but now they’re oranger.