To Ride or Not To Ride?

[kfergos]

My main worry for you is not so much the cold-- but if your tires slip on snow or ice and you then skid into the path of a car. I assume the road shoulders there in MA are piled with snow drifts and crap right now, like they are here in my area of NY- that makes for more dangerous riding when you have to ride right in the lane on the edge, near the unpredictable dirty ice patches. Do you at least have studded tires?

I do have studded tires, really great ones that I've ridden through snow and ice with little trouble -- but I slow way down in those conditions. I've taken an hour and 25 minutes to ride 13 miles in snow. That's a long time to be out in 7°F temperatures. I do take the risk of riding in the right-hand tire path most of the time, which has gotten me almost-hit from behind at least once this season. But that's a risk I'm already accepting and dealing with as much as I can.

OakLeaf, thanks for the personal experience details about frostbite. That certainly gives me a better sense of what I could be getting myself into.

I would go for it. You can always abort the mission. I am going out today and it is cold and windy here as well. The only thing that would stop me is if your roads are not clear. We have not had any snow, so the roads are clear and dry.

"Clear and dry"? What is this "clear and dry" of which you speak? We've had snow definitely once a week and often a couple times a week since the beginning of the year.

Thank you all for responding so far!