urban bicycle journeys

Today was the coldest day I can remember here; low of seven degrees in the morning; predicted high of twenty-three.  But the day was bright and sunny, with very little wind.   Just to see if I could do it, I did the fifteen mile Tootie Loop, departing about eleven a.m. when it was fifteen degrees, and coming back an hour later when it was nineteen degrees.   I had never bicycled in such cold before.

And it was really not that uncomfortable.   What continues to fascinate me is downhill skiing, which I have done a fair amount of, but not for several years.   Bicycling in the cold is not nearly as bad as downhill skiiing in the same temperatures.   People spend huge amounts of money to go out in the worst possible weather, and then expose themselves to all that wind, without that much serious exercise.    You then get on a ski lift, and sit quietly in the freezing wind so that you can do it all over again.

Bicycling on that Friday was not a big deal.