How do you handle riding on the bumpy packed down slush (that becomes ice) which accrues on the less used other lane that bikes normally use? It’s usually about a week after a heavy snow before it’s all worn/melted away. I’m not comfortable swerving back and forth around it, it’s impossible to ride over, and I don’t want to hold up all the school buses and parents taking their kids to school by blocking the remaining lane. How do you winter commuters tackle these winter hazards? And iced up pavement is rather scary at anything nearing a normal commute pace.

I use an early 90′s Cannondale aluminum hybrid with commuter tires.

I have adapted various name brand discount winterwear from TJ Maxx and Marshalls. I usually ride unless the temps will dip below 10 degrees Fahrenheit or colder. Or if heavy snow is expected, because I live in WI near Lake Michigan, and we can get some pretty wet and heavy now here, with over a foot accumulating while I’m at work. If the winds are whipping across the lake, it can be very cold and damp.

I wear Smartwool ski socks, wool base layer with a thermal jersey over, and a softshell laminated fleece outer jacket that really blocks the wind, and Marmot ski gloves. I use Lands End shoe boots, and two layers of tights, outer is thermal.

I wear a thin but effective wool balaclava, a Gore face mask over my nose, chin and ears, and borrow my 12 year old’s vented ski mask over my eyes. This combo under my helmet effectively blocks my face completely.

For my commute home from work in the very dark (my community has no street lights) I have two lights on the front of my bike – one very bright flashing on the handlebar to be seen by, and one below the handlebar to see by, a small red blinky light on my helmet, a hardware store LED “cap light” on my helmet visor so I can have directional light should I need to look right or left, and a ultra bright strobing Planet Bike rear light on the back of the rack that holds my panniers. I added some dollar store red blinky light clips (dog bone lights, actually made for a dogs collar) to the side of my panniers to increase side visibility and added Pedalite battery-free, bright strobing pedals.

Rather than remove the panniers when I need to change at work, I have a nylon sport sack that just slides in and out of the pannier. I keep a couple pairs of shoes, and a brush in my cubical so that I don’t need to carry that stuff with me every day.

Endura wool longsleeve shirt, Icebreaker wool sweater, covered by a Sugio Firewall softshell jacket (actually an XC ski jacket)

Below, I’m wearing fleece lined bib knickers, Smartwool long socks, Sealskins chillblocker socks and a Shimano high top MTB shoe with thermal footbeds, one size bigger than I wear in summer for wiggle room. I cover that layer with a Sugoi firewall softshell pant (baggy style xc pants).

I am using Descente winter gloves, a snowboard fleece neck tube/skull cap combo, Oakley ski goggles and either a Giro open face snowboard helmet or a Giro MTB helmet with an MEC nylon helmet cover.

Lights – Dinotte 800 lumen bar mount, 400 lumen helmet mount and Knob Bullfrog rear light. I also use a reflective safety vest and reflectiove triangle patch on my messenger bag, 3M reflective tape all over the bike and Schwalbe Winter Marathon studded tires with reflective sidewalls. My crosscheck is setup 42/18 singlespeed with drop bars and Time ATAC MTB pedals and fenders.

Like someone else said, keeping moving is the key to staying warm. Wool remains remarkably warm, even when soaked. Freezing rain or deep snow are the only things that make me share a ride as cars are simply all over the road in those conditions.

My commute here in TN is MUCH shorter than what I had in NH (my wife and I selected our neighborhood based on its proximity to campus and our local bike/pedestrian path), but that cold stretch we had down South a couple weeks back forced me to dress like I was back in northern New England!

The one thing I'm contemplating getting is rain pants for the really really wet and cold days. I'm looking at foxwear for that. http://www.foxwear.net/

My commute is 13.5 miles, which takes just over 1 hr, unless I have a tailwind and catch a lot of green lights.

I also wear regular winter boots, fwiw. My feet are the only thing I still struggle to keep warm, but only if it is below 25, which we don't get much of around here (DC area) so I don't worry too much.

I do get wet when it's raining hard enough, but I carry my work clothes with me, so I'm going to be changing down to the skin regardless. I haven't melted yet. Or frozen.

Though one day I did arrive to work with icicles hanging from my helmet and a thin coating of ice on my entire bike. I was so excited when I got to work, I had to show all my coworkers my icicles! I only wish I had a camera.

Wind is the most exhausting, and sleet is the most painful. I've ridden in 7" of snow, but that was sort of on accident, and while it was fun I wouldn't do it again unless I had a bike that was actually set up for it. I think 3" will be my limit from now on. (Barring a pugsley, of course.)

For equipment, I use Dinotte taillight, Cateye Opticube headlight, Ski gloves, Alaska jacket, full rain gear and foot gear. In Portland, the temperature is seldom extreme, so this keeps me warm and dry.