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| Geocaching on Sunday, no snow! |
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| Snow on my bike! Had to walk her home today. |
Compounding the problems, my back V-Brake didn't grip on back wheel properly and my chain links froze up! Seriously, does anyone else have a frozen chain link problem when it's very cold outside? I ended up walking the bike home. That's not too bad for me as I'm only a 20 min walk away from home! How do people cope with riding in the winter? Is it just because of the bitterly cold wind and snowstorm that make things cease up? Does having the chain enclosed prevent the chain links from freezing? This is my second chain/cassette on bike and I still have the frozen links problem like I did last winter. I will be walking to work for a bit now, till it's more rideable outside. I am hoping January, like last year, but I've heard the Winter will be worse this year, whereas Winter last year was almost non-existent.
Regarding Geocaching, I'm going to disable my hidden geocache for the Winter now. I thought it would be good till December, but if there's snow in town, there's tons more in the country! I am going to get a friend who is working out that to fetch it for me this weekend. I got some geocaching done this weekend so I could drop off 3 trackables that I had.
It seems too soon to have components freezing!
ReplyDeleteHere are a couple of tips that have worked for me through the years:
-When there's fresh snow or it's snowing, and you bring a warm bike from indoors, the snow can melt on the rims & brake pads, chain or other components and then refreeze as the bike's temperature drops, creating iced brake pads or frozen links/deraileurs. Also, if you bring a snowy bike inside and it doesn't dry off completely before you take it out again, the same thing can happen. Prevent this by letting the bike cool down before riding it and don't bring it indoors if it won't have enough time to dry off.
- Use synthetic lube on your chain. Vegetable based lube solidifies when it's cold.
I hope you don't end up having to park the bike for too long!
Awesome! Many thanks for the suggestions!
ReplyDeleteMy bike is stored inside my apartment so when I take it outside the moisture on chain freezes. Not as cold as it will get but it's already -4 (colder with windchill)
I think that's the major issue, bringing it outside from a warm interior. A friend told me you can get special lube for Winter. Pretty sure it was a synthetic
I know many who don't have this problem, but maybe they store it in cold shed. I thought it might be the chain that came with the bike, but this is the second chain/cassette on it and it still does it.
I still get out and as long as I pedal, I'm ok. If I stop, no grip. No prob, I just wait a sec for it to get grip again and pedal away. The trick is not to stop pedaling unless I have to.
I biked to various stores yesterday which was nice! I just bundle up good. My bike has lots of time to dry afterwards (after cleaning the chain) as I can walk to work as only 20 mins walk away.
I will have the above in mind though when I bike this Winter. When I get a beater mtn bike for next winter I'll have it winterized with the proper lube.