It’s been one of those weeks, an unholy convergence of deadlines for two magazines and consultation with a third, extra shifts in the VeloBarrel while management plays in the desert (Tour of Qatar), and some actual winter weather. Nothing like the folks back east or in New Mexico have been enduring, just a mild annoyance that makes outdoor cycling iffy.
I slipped out between chores this afternoon, but waited too long to get rolling — popcorn snow was peppering my cheeks within a few minutes and then it was a sort of half-assed sleety, slushy thing going on. I was prepared, kinda, sorta, jersey pockets stuffed with everything but full booties (just toe warmers), and stopped under a bridge to add a couple layers before forging ahead.
Alas, while most of me was OK with cycling cap, tuque, winter gloves, rain jacket, two long-sleeved jerseys and a long-sleeved polypro undershirt, neoprene knee warmers, wool socks and bibs, it was the lack of booties and fenders that did me in. I hate cold feet and a wet butt the way Caribou Barbie hates smart people. And I am not one of the smarties, because I have neoprene booties and three — three! — bikes with fenders.
So I slunk home through the icy puddles, muttering to myself. “Thank God I’m not a pro,” I thought. “I’d have to do this every day, times a thousand, and then take dope on top of it all, wondering which one of the boys on the bus would wind up being my Floyd Landis.”
Mad Blog Media 
You have no ‘accumulation’! Strange – I would have thought you’d be buried in snow drifts.
My work bike, the La Cruz, has been doing double duty as a weekend warrior lately as it is my only bike currently equipped with fenders. The old Cannonball was so drenched with salt and mud the one day I took it out that I gave up and started riding the commuter.
Plus, the SPDs are better since the offroad shoes have enough room for heavy wool socks.
Weather is more normal today. Nothing like this last week.
http://labikes.blogspot.com/2011/02/bike-ride.html
I don’t think it is as cold as in Colorado. Its just that no one down here is equipped to cope with it as ten to twenty below is so rare. I was in Albuquerque today dropping off my better half for a plane ride out of the Sunport. Stopped by to see our friend Ellen in the Duke City, who had lost water for a few days as her lines were too close to the perimeter of the house. Halfway through a cup of Joe we heard a sudden rush of water and thought a pipe had burst. Luckily, it was the hose outside defrosting. Her brother had turned on all the faucets when they were trying to get the ice outa the lines the day before.
Longing for spring, guys. Meanwhile, back to the galley. Its bachelor food for a while until the boss gets back from vacation.
Libby, we haven’t had a real snow here in a couple of years now. One winter, Herself and I were able to do a little cross-country skiing in a nearby park, and on the streets, but it was short-lived and we have not enjoyed a recurrence. We need about six inches of the white stuff to make it happen.
Khal, I looked at my newest fender-equipped bike before taking off on Old Yeller, my favorite Steelman Eurocross, and thought, “Nawwwwww.” As we have discussed before, I will never be smart.
I hear you, Patrick. It takes me a certain amount of mental energy to hop on a bike festooned with real world equipment when all I want to do is go for a bike ride. I have to keep reminding myself that it is still a bike ride. Unfortunately, both Cannonballs are tough to impossible to put fenders on, so its the Orange Crate for me on bad days.
The main operational problem is in the winter, when I’m riding a bike that has grown ponderous with lights, fenders, racks, and a Fat Guy, is that I tend to sit most of the time rather than get out of the saddle. I end up getting more backaches, since the only way I can keep my creaky back in shape is to keep the lower back and abdominal muscles taut, which I do with mountainbiking and road biking on a bike I am more likely to fling around. Floor exercises are a last resort, as they were when I was in Bremen for a week. Right now I’m feeling the effects of two weeks of slothdom.
My winter bike (once I get on it and ride for 15 minutes or so) doesn’t feel a whole lot different than my “real” road bikes. The fenders keep a whole lot of the crap off of me, especially my feet. The position is identical except for slightly higher bar, which is mostly for when it’s clamped into a trainer — as it is right now since we have more-than-enough snow on the ground here in Iowa. Enough to ski on, weather-permitting. We did just that on Friday but we had freezing rain yesterday and are getting more snow now – so the bike will get used today while I watch some of the old Red Zinger Classic video.
Patrick — scam yourself some WINTER SHOES! The first thing we did when we moved here back in 1996 was order up some insulated winter cycling shoes and they’re one of the best things we ever bought. I fiddled with booties during our New England daze and once we returned to SoCal I swore I’d NEVER fool with them again. Buy a half or full size larger than your normal size so you have room for a thick sock and just put those on whenever the temps are cold. You’ll scratch your head and wonder “why the hell did I fool around with booties or skip ’em and freeze my toes all these years?”
Like Larry said, scam some winter boots. My buddy commutes year-round in Northern Minnesota’s nasty conditions in Lake boots. He ran the Arrowhead 135 in -30 temps and had no problem. I would think Lake could set up an intrepid reporter, such as yourself, with a pair.
We don’t get truly nasty winter conditions very often, so I seldom end up with wet feet. That said, I do crave me a set of winter Sidis, and the folks there are generous enough to cut me some slack on the retail price as long as I don’t overdo it. This weather keeps up, I may have to pull the trigger on that purchase. Don’t tell Herself.
FENDERS keep your feet dry. WINTER SHOES keep ’em WARM. Trust me OG, once you have ’em you’ll wear ’em more than you think. We bought ours back in 1996 and wear ’em when it’s cold, both on road and off. They’re still in decent shape….so the cost-per-year for us is less than tearing up a pair of decent booties. The higher cuff’s are a bit clunky but when you’re riding a bike with fenders and it’s cold, it doesn’t much matter.
You talking about the Hydro or Diablo GTX?
Three hundred bucks is not bad for something we would use frequently, presuming they work as advertised. But usually a roomy set of mountain bike shoes works just fine here as it is rarely that wet. That’s the problem in the Land of Enchantment: it doesn’t make a lot of sense to build a wardrobe for a storm that hits once every forty years.
http://www.abqjournal.com/news/metro/06231829metro02-06-11.htm
I’ve tried the “roomy pair of MTB shoes” …the problem is cold air blowing through them — which you can stop with a bootie or neoprene socks and we’ve tried ’em both! There simply is nothing as good or convenient as a genuine pair of winter shoes, especially ITALIAN ones. During our time in Viterbo last year around this period, a pair of those cheapo neoprene toe covers and a thick wool sock was OK over a normal road/MTB shoe…just. But it was a big deal there when frost was seen on the roof of the buildings, it just never was very cold. Next year we hope to be down in Sicily where I doubt I’ll even need the toe covers!
K, the Diablo, I think. I run MTB or touring pedals on everything — Time ATAC, Shimano SPD or Crank Brothers. And I don’t object to laying out the bucks for a pair of Sidis, because the buggers last a jillion years.
Of course, once I make the purchase, winter will vanish like intelligence in the House and I’ll not actually wear them until the winter of 2011-12.
Larry, today I dug out an old set of Northwave winter shoes that I scored when my buddy Tim Campen was still working there and went out for a ride on the flat-bar Voodoo Wazoo (25 degrees, 13 with wind chill, wind out of the north at 15 mph, slush, ice and snow on the ground). I don’t wear them often because I got ’em too small — no way can I run in them without crippling myself — and Northwaves were always a little narrow for me anyway. But they worked OK with some medium-weight Smartwool socks and kept my tootsies toasty for about 50 minutes of an hourlong ride.
Couldn’t get the buggers to clip into my old SPDs, though, so I pulled off the clipless pedals and went all retro cyclo-crosser with beartraps, toeclips and straps. Looks like I either need spacers or a little sole-shaving with the Dremel tool.
Larry, I totally agree (totally, man…) that good winter shoes are in a class by themselves. I used to hunt deer in the dead of winter and never liked it very much until I bought a pair of Sorels. Once I wore those, I felt like an idiot having not gotten them sooner. Likewise, my goose down parka sat in a closet since 1987 (the year I moved to Honolulu) until last week, when it was worth a heck of a lot more to me than what I paid for it in college.
Like Patrick, my concern is not the price of a good pair of winter cycling shoes, esp. ones from the country of my ancestors, but the fear that if I buy some, that act will be the tipping point to runaway global warming.
Honestly the justifications to NOT do something – like purchase a pair of high zoot one season Sidis for fear that winter may cease to exist – borders on the paranoia exhibited by a certain Darth Vader-like person who used to occupy a bunker in DeeCee. And took pot shots at his lizardly lawyer-like ‘friends.’
I’d buy a pair of the high zoot Sidis if they actually came in EE widths. Unfortunately for my wide feet they do not, so the neoprene socks and maybe plastic bags work. Stupid Italians…..only selling Dom5’s in US in wide sizes.
Does seem rather weird, James but perhaps not stupid (although I once had a conversation with someone from Campy-USA where I used a similar phrase). All of my Italian relatives have feet at least as wide as mine (42 cm, extra wide). I suspect the U.S. market is at the heart of their choice: it isn’t dominated by we of the wide foot.
Years ago I visited a store in Bergamo, Italy and tried on EVERY brand of shoes in the store in my size. At the end of the session Vittoria shoes fit my wide, eastern European feet the best. I bought two pairs, back when you could buy Italian shoes in Italy for far less than they cost in the US of A. A few years later we started CycleItalia and our old friend Bill McGann of Torelli Imports became Vittoria’s importer/distributor. Through Bill I met Celestino and Edoardo Vercelli, visited them at their factory/house in Biella and talked them into becoming an official supplier of shoes to CycleItalia. Vittoria shoes are now available in the USA through a direct-import to your local bike shop scheme. Sidi shoes are too narrow for me so you might find Vittoria’s work if you have the same problem. 100% Made-in-Italy too. Our friends at Albabici import shoes from Nalini, their “Black Rock” winter mtb shoe might work too though I’ve never tried a pair on myself so can’t vouch for their width.
Vittorias fit me better too. And of course, there were Dettos, my very first pair of cycling shoes. What happened to that manufacturer?
Larry – Have you tried Sidi Megas. I have a pair of Mega MTB shoes that seem as wide as my old 6E SAS loafers that I needed when I had gout tophii on my feet. Now that the tophii are gone, I can squeeze into into New Balance 9EEEE hiking boots. The disadvantage of Sidi Mega MTB shoes is that their like wear skates on ice whereas the Lake have some grip for walking on ice.
No Sidi’s for us! I know they’re wonderful shoes but as long as our friends at Vittoria are in the shoe biz, their shoes will be on my feet. Same with Santini clothing — it’s a good thing we like the stuff because they’re sort of “family” now as well as an official supplier to CycleItalia.
The ol’ bike shop I worked at sold more Megas than regular sizes so I doubt it is the ‘mericans with narrow feet. I will check on the Vittorias though Larry. Thanks.
I’ve been pretty happy with the Lake Winter MTB shoes. I just purchased a new pair since I’ve pretty much worn old the first pair over the last 5 or 6 years. They also do a wide version.