LexRides

DHB · Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 6:58 pm Post subject: Cold

Right now it's 16 degrees outside (feels like 5). Have you ever been riding and it feels like all the cells on your face are freezing?

Fucking sucks.

But does anyone know of any cold-related bike problems. I know your tire pressure drops, but what about frozen grease in your hubs/headset/BB or any other mechanical mishaps that might want to make you park it inside?

jdbaum3 · hipster Joined: 24 Oct 2007 Posts: 132

I've had the grease in my freewheel freeze to the point that the pawls don't engage. Nothing like going to cross limestone and suddenly have your cranks spin with no transfer to the wheel. Beyond that I'm not aware of anything too serious mechanically. Have you tried a balaclava?

jakubtoborek · Posted: Sat Jan 19, 2008 10:42 pm Post subject:

I occasionally have the cable housings freeze up on me from built up gunk in and around them on my extracycle. With all the extra cables it's bound to happen. And usually the shifting is the culprit.

DHB · Posted: Sun Jan 20, 2008 1:24 am Post subject:

Some part of me wants to think that brakes won't work as well because they won't be as rubbery and sticky when they're cold, but it wouldn't surprise me if I were wrong.

jkizzle · cutter Joined: 29 Oct 2007 Posts: 519 Location: I.L.L.

nope. brakes definitely dont work as well, just slid through 2 intersections on my way home from a friends, it didnt help that the bike was outside while i was there though.

brokebike · cutter Joined: 21 Oct 2007 Posts: 2434 Location: local

well, we had several rowdy rounds of bike polo today out in the sub-20º weather...

shit didn't work on our bikes because, well... the bikes are pretty fucked up to begin with. We kept warm with a steady flow of action and spiked coffee.

willard · training wheels Joined: 30 Oct 2007 Posts: 42

I think riding a fixed gear is your best bet for the winter, but it is still not fool proof.

I jumped on my fixie after it sat outside for a few hours and had use some force to get the handle bars to move because the headset was frozen solid.

I try to clean my bikes more often in the winter to remove the road salt (Especially my steel framed bikes) because that stuff will eat through any component in no time.

bryant · hipster Joined: 25 Oct 2007 Posts: 111

i just hated my water bottle freezing this weekend. disc brakes worked good.

jkizzle · cutter Joined: 29 Oct 2007 Posts: 519 Location: I.L.L.

my lock keeps freezing actually, its a cable lock, and when i lock it up its really hard to get unlocked and wrap around my body while im riding. i guess i need a u-lock