Winterize your Bike commute

by: Peter Dobos

Rate ****

This article explains how to prepare you and your bike for riding in the winter in a step by step process. Step 1, Make yourself visible. In this step the author explains how to make the bike and yourself visible to motorist. He goes on to explain how the better lit up you are the better as in the winter the sun comes up late and goes down early. He stresses how safety is the most important concern when biking in the winter. Step 2, keep worm. He explains how to keep yourself worm, as you will be creating wind chill as you move on the bike. He gives suggestions and tips on things you should use and thing you shouldn’t. Step 3, keeping your bike in working order. This step explains the options of how to care for your bike to keep it working, from maintenance everyday to replacing pieces in the spring. Step 4, change your handling. This is an explanation of how to change the way you normally ride a bike for accommodating the snow and ice. 

This article is helpful because it explains step by step for someone just starting out how to safely and successfully ride in the winter. The tips and tricks given were from the author who rides a bike in Ottawa in the winter. This gives the reader confidence that it will work for them because it is a voice of experience. As a person who doesn’t bike the article doesn’t strictly apply to me but as someone who drives in the winter I wish bikers would follow this guide. It would make me feel better as a motorist that the bike beside me has taken precautions and is prepared for the conditions.

Peter Dobos/ Winterize Your Bike Commute/ Montreal, Quebec/ Stéphane Corbil/ 2012/ magazine