How low can you go (cycling temp).

[classic33]

OK you got me. Your tongue will eventually come unstuck.

Personal experience then!

 

[slowmotion]

On a London to Southend night ride a few years ago, the water in our bottles turned to frozen slush. I was wearing lots of warm clothing but it was absolutely impossible to keep my hands and feet warm. That saps morale.

 

[Vikeonabike]

-8C Couple of years ago...

 

[shouldbeinbed]

A couple of years ago colleagues were saying their car thermometers had shown -14 & -15C at 8am. I'd ridden on the same route in half an hour earlier.
Dry cold so no slippage worries and earlier in the Summer we'd had a week of 30+C temps.

I prefer the cold generally TBH at those extremes as I can manage it better.

Layered clothing, tripled socks and gloves, windstopper balaclava and a buff over my mouth & nose, I wear glasses so there was barely any bit of me actually exposed to anything. No problem's at all.

In the hot there's very little else I can do once I'm down to thin shorts and top.

 

[Keith Oates]

If you put your tongue on a steel frame at this temperature it will stick, with a carbon frame this doesn't happen = a plus I would say.

Do you clean your bike by licking it?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[bikeman66]

Did an event called "The Seven Hills Killer" on the Isle of Wight a few years ago, which used to be held on the first Sunday of the new year. It's basically a 27 mile MTB event across, as the name implies, seven of the biggest hills on the island from Freshwater to Shanklin. The year I'm thinking about, it was -6. It was also at a time when I was a relative newcomer to using clipless pedals off-road. Up on the exposed St Catherine's Down (about two thirds of the way through the route) I was making slow-ish, but steady progress when I went to cycle through a gate, kindly being held open by my brother-in-law. The gateway area was surrounded by a large (about 10ft diameter) muddy puddle, formed from surface erosion by the concentration of foot, tyre and hoof traffic over the years. About half way through the puddle I just stopped dead. In the split second available to me, my brain tried to send a frantic "unclip, unclip" message to my feet. The message didn't arrive on time, and I soon discovered that the puddle was around 6" deep..........and bloody cold! I detached myself from the bike, stood up, looked at my brother-in-law in a kind of "what the hell happened there" way, only for him to say "I just did that"! Yes, his front wheel had, only three or four minutes previously, stopped dead on exactly the same boulder in the middle of the gateway, stealthily hidden by the muddy water of the puddle..............and he'd neglected to tell me it was there!........or perhaps even kick it out of the way. His saving grace was that he had been riding flat pedals and had not ended up in the same predicament as me.

I was now wet through all down my left side, becoming slightly frozen and with nine miles still to ride. To add insult to injury, my wet and frozen gloved hands literally could not find anywhere near the required grip to operate the Sachs Wavey Shifters (kind of like a grip shift type gear shifter system), which pretty much resigned me to cycling the remainder of the event in an energy wasting fourth gear. I think that is the coldest I have ever been in my life, and I don't mind admitting that I was close to tears by the end of it.

Apart from that, the lowest temperature I have experienced on a bike is -13, when I rented a bike in Prague a few years back, during a visit in February. With the right clothing on, it was a remarkably pleasant and refreshing experience.

 

[Gravity Aided]

Coldest I've cycled in was 15 Fahrenheit, because our club has a New Years' Day ride. But we only go a short ways when it's like that.

 

[ayceejay]

this is Canada where such things have a mythological status
/
The kid in red is a supporter of the Montreal hockey team the other one from Toronto.

 

[xxDarkRiderxx]

Thanks @Massivecompacthalo although I got the cancer long after I attempted the etap and crashed and burned lol.

 

[classic33]

A couple of years ago colleagues were saying their car thermometers had shown -14 & -15C at 8am. I'd ridden on the same route in half an hour earlier.
Dry cold so no slippage worries and earlier in the Summer we'd had a week of 30+C temps.

I prefer the cold generally TBH at those extremes as I can manage it better.

Layered clothing, tripled socks and gloves, windstopper balaclava and a buff over my mouth & nose, I wear glasses so there was barely any bit of me actually exposed to anything. No problem's at all.

In the hot there's very little else I can do once I'm down to thin shorts and top.

Go commando!

 

[adamangler]

Dont know but it was cold last sunday, must have been around freezing as was black ice about..

Any way boiling up top with just a top and a jacket but my thighs/balls/cock was numb in about 10 minutes

i only managed half an hour due to the numbness, when i got back you could have frozen a fresh vindaloo in around 10 seconds with the temperature around my crotch,

moral of the story is i need a few more layers around the family jewels in anything close to freezing

 

[robjh]

If you put your tongue on a steel frame at this temperature it will stick, with a carbon frame this doesn't happen = a plus I would say.

You take cleaning your bike too seriously

 

[Roadhump]

If I can layer up to make myself warm enough, I would go out in any temperature. However, at lower temperatures I would always be wary of frosty / slippy road surfaces. I was quite blaze about this until I fell off on an icy, uneven country road in January this year. I took a heavy blow to my collar bone and although it wasn't broken, it was badly bruised and took about 8 weeks to get back to normal - mush more sensible now.

 

[simongt]

Apart from ice on the roads, the only time I recall having a problem was when there was freezing fog; it made breathing rather difficult.

 

[Globalti]

I remember night mountain biking when the snow kept clogging up my SPDs, which probably means it wasn't very cold as there was moisture around.

Coldest I've ever experienced in the UK was minus 24c in Aviemore. The car only just started and it was so dry that you got a static belt by walking through the thick powder snow and touching the car body. We saw a German guy in shorts in the camp site.