So far this has been a fairly mild winter, temp-wise, but we've had an above-average amount of snow. Which is fine. I'm quite happy riding my now three-year-old electric bicycle on its studded tires as primary transportation (made up a separate set of 'winter wheels' two years ago) but in hindsight I should have spent more to have one of the many more powerful but illegal models. They are widely available consumer-direct online and easy to final-assemble, just more money. (750w 'legal' vs. 1500w)

My e-bike cost $2000. The price range of these things is between about $1000 and $8000. I should have spent about $4000 to have more power, which seemed completely insane at the time. Across level ground the one I have is powerful enough, but for bigger hills, which are an inescapable part of Duluth's geography, it's not. This isn't about more speed even though more of that would always be welcome in some situations.

I'm now able to be comfortable riding in temps down to around 10ºF fairly easily, and with a small extra effort can get down to about minus ten without issues. This is my first winter without a backup automobile, other than having occasional access to my wife's car. Last year and the one before I was able to borrow junky old 'winter beater' trucks. This year that option wasn't available, so I am living car-less for the first time in fifty years. And it's not been too bad.

There are semi-legal alternate bicycle route options (sidewalks, bike lanes, etc) in places were passing auto traffic is too scary, and the studded tires work really well on ice and packed snow, except right after the occasional larger snowfalls. The Park Department actually clears the bike lanes faster and better than the city's Public Works Department plows the streets.

Snowbanks make the lanes everywhere much narrower. Accumulations of 4" or more take a day or two before everything becomes packed down, shoveled out and plow-cleared enough, which means I'm probably averaging one to three days per month when I don't make the effort to e-bicycle myself to work. My commute round trip varies between 6 and 10 miles, which isn't a lot. It takes about 20 minutes to get to work, vs. 12 on a motorcycle and just over an hour if I walk.

There are two notably satisfying parts to all this. By far the best is riding something with no license plate. Riding anything is always fun, even at the lowish e-bike speeds of between 18 and 23 mph, and having no license plate easily doubles every ride's wonderfulness. Any path becomes fair game, even if technically illegal. One night forty years ago during college I received a moving-violation ticket on my Schwinn Varsity for running a stop sign. This required going to traffic court and then paying a healthy fine -- same as an auto driver. That ticket went on my driving record which means there is always a real risk to renegade hooligan e-bike misbehavior, but so long as one is observant (for police), and consciously patient and polite whenever encountering the few stoic cold weather pedestrians, the chance of actually receiving a moving violation ticket is very low. Eventually there may be surveillance cameras everywhere tied to monitors at police HQ's, so this kind of outlaw wintertime riding may come to an end. Or maybe not. Que sera sera.

The second -- though far less satisfying -- aspect of riding plate-less, is watching other people struggling with their cars as you pass. Brushing off snow, scraping windows, warming them up, finding parking spaces between snowbanks, etc. Everyone simply puts up with all of it for safety and comfort, but when you look at the equation from outside it becomes obvious how much extra work (and cost) is involved. Those people in their cars seeing me pedal past all bundled up probably think it's nuts to spend five minutes putting on so much bulky winter gear each time I want to go somewhere, and then taking it all off when I come back inside at any destination.

Much of the required gear IS ridiculous, and arguably useless for just about everything else:

  • A pair of thicker sox.
  • Some insulated lightweight ankle-high boots.
  • A pair of fleece lined pants or 'longhandles' (the old-fashioned word for long underwear, today known as 'base layers', which are an either-or with fleece lined pants).
  • A fleece or wool sweater.
  • A down sweater plus a mountain shell, or a down parka.
  • An 'ear flap' hat whose flaps (when lowered) can come together under your chin.
  • A bicycle helmet with a lengthened chin strap to wear over the 'ear flap' hat.
  • A balaclava and an old loose-fitting 3/4 style motorcycle helmet and ski goggles for the really cold days.
  • Plus, three different pairs of gloves:  Cold, colder and choppers. You don't want to know what choppers are.

Almost like summer ATGATT right? A pair of flip-flop sandals lives under my desk year-around for at-work footwear when winter (and summer) riding boots come off. With a little big toe sox adjustment they work fine.

During the winter I would not feel as safe riding a licensed motorcycle in the regular traffic lanes as I do on the e-bicycle using my more convoluted (and longer) street/bike lane/sidewalk mixed routes. Three years ago, we did a winter of daily commuting on a stud-tire equipped Zero Motorcycle and it was mostly great, but you still feel more vulnerable moving among traffic along slimy streets covered with a dirty mix of sub-freezing ice crystal slush, snowmelt and chlorides. For several days after any serious snowfall here that is our reality. Roads eventually dry out in more extreme cold leaving a layer of gravel and chalk-white residual salt dust everywhere, but above about 25 degrees everything gets sloppy again. If I was forced to road-only daily-commute here with no excuses all winter, I'd probably want a Ural, which these days means a $15,000 commitment. If I had the budget and a bit more garage space that would be neat. But I don't.

Love the winter, and it's been a pretty good one so far. But I am already looking forward to spring.

-- Mr. Subjective