January looms / Tour de Ice

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January looms / Tour de Ice

Posted 3 months ago by mikepop

Any plans for this January's Tour de Ice? I think the temperature scoring system from last year worked well.

To summarize for new riders enjoying the chilly temps of the northern hemisphere:

tag your rides in january with one ore more temperatures (usually the temperatures at the start and end of the ride). examples:

-3F. 4.5F
1C, 3C
22F

Then a lot of math happens courtesy of Chuckle's script and scores are output. ( math discussion from last year: http://weendure.com/group/metafilter/discussion/242 )

It's all for fun but I'll put up MetaFilter bike stickers (or winner's choice) for the rider(s) with the highest score and the most miles.

Replies

misskaz says,

Fun! I did my first ever commute in the snow this morning. It's pretty warm still (about 28F) but I'm gonna get in the habit of tracking temp now.

mikepop says,

Good point misskaz - if we put some temp tags in our entries now Chuckles can test his scoring script.

We had snow here, but the roads were clear this morning.

misskaz says,

Roads clear here too, but it was still snowing so the biggest issue was snowflakes in the eyes. :)

Chuckles says,

I've been a little flu-y the last couple of weeks, which seems to be making the oncoming cold weather 10x more difficult than normal. I even took the subway Sunday to shave a measly 6km off my trip home.

Anyway, I highly recommend studded tires. They worked wonders for me last year.That and mittens. Gloves for warmth are a fallacy.

Same as last year is probably good. At some point I'll take a look back and see if anything should be up for tweaking, just in case.

mikepop says,

I've got the studded tires on for this week, and I picked up a pair of those "lobster" style glove/mittens so that should be an improvement on last year's gloves which were sub-optimal under 10F. These are rated to -20F

maudlin says,

I'm in! I have long underwear and I know how to wear it.

Studded tires? Err, working on that.

spokenword says,

mikepop -- I love love LOVE my lobster claws at this time of year. One additional tip that I would give is that it would be wise to still have a spare pair of gloves (either liners that you wear inside the claws or a thicker pair that you keep in your baggage) for tasks that require a little more dexterity (ie. changing a flat, finding keys for a bike lock, etc.)