It's the fall and spring I dislike. The seasons when nothing is quiet right with your clothes or your bike set-up. A threat of snow, freezing rain or "wintry-mix" hangs in the air . Most of the pavement downtown is clear right now but it might not be tomorrow. Do you run the road tires and keep a sharp eye out? Do you run the lightly studded commuter tires and have that dammed grinding noise of carbide tungsten on pavement in your ears, that noise you keep hearing long after you've hung up the bike and downed a six-pack? There are places where you do need them and besides it'll get your legs used to the extra weight. Do you take half measures like running a mountain bike with flat profile knobby tires, cyclo-cross tires on your road bike (the Ritchey Speedmax is favorite) or one of my favorites Sno-Cat rims with semi-slick tires? I call the last one "The kind of sucks in all conditions bike" because it doses but it doesn't completely suck. No I like winter. I've lived here for most of my life and to a small extent I'm used to the darkness and the weather even though global warming seams to have started really kicking in right about the same time I started as a bike messenger. For example during my rookie years a the odd cold snap with temperatures down to -25 (that's Fahrenheit, like most Americans I never got the hang of metrics) were not uncommon. I can't remember the last time it got below -10 during working hours. Along with that we now get the odd warm spell up to 40 plus. The classic pattern seams to be snow a lot then melt some then freeze. I know a hundred kinds of ice now.
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