Which Conditions? / by Erin Wade

When the topic of winter cycling is broached on a social media group, one of the more common questions is about which conditions keep the winter rider at home.

This is one of mine:

Winter rain

In case it doesn’t read clearly in the picture, what I’m trying to show here is rain.

In February. In Northern Illinois.

I don’t really love riding in the rain, even in summer, but February rain means freezing rain.

It’s a general understanding for people who are active outside year-round that there is no bad weather, only bad clothing. This is a testament I generally adhere to, and certainly it’s possible to dress against freezing rain.

But one cannot dress against road conditions, nor against visibility. And in terms of the latter, I’m not concerned about my own, but about that of the motor vehicle operators on the road. It’s better to be able to be seen, and to not be in conditions where the large metal objects struggle to arrest their speed.

And so today, on the couch I remain...