-33C isn't cold, it's a nice spring day... I have worked as a dispatch rider in Malmoe and Stockholm... On winter days, the leathers where frozen when you showed up for your shift, and they barely had time to thaw out and dry until the next day... SO learned not to talk to me when arriving home, just have the hot bath drawn to thaw me out...

 

I recall waiting for the school bus, local radio station stated it was -55C outside.....

 

Wouldn't all molecualar activity cease at that temp? Radio waves included? I grew up in Buffalo but man, Montreal is COLD. Now I get why you guys play hockey. Everything is frozen.

 

I hate the cold...

There is a difference between what I consider cold in Ontario, and what is cold in the praries. I was in Alberta a few years back in winter... that was a dry cold. Your lungs burn when you inhale.

In Ontario it's a wet cold. Its like getting hit with tiny needles when you're out in it. -40 here, and -40 in Alberta are very different. Dry cold seems much better to me.

Anything below freezing seems pointless for riding. I ride to enjoy it, and I'm miserable when I'm cold.

Tweety, you're crazy...

 

Nah, I'm poitively sane compared to the guys that keep doing it year after year...

I did it two winters, one in each city... After that, I quit... Summer is one thing, with all the nutjobs in close proximity with a ton of steel around them... Most of the time, it's fun, sometimes it's scary...

But winter... Nuhu... Not my thing... You spend half the time slipping and sliding, and the other half praying you'd only be slipping and sliding... Not that fun...

But I can tell you one thing... Once you have tried a big beemer with studded tires at full drift, in slush, on top of ice... Well, then you truly know what fear means...

 

I used to ride year round in my yute. In San Diego you'd think everyone did but they don't. In Chicago most don't and I won't anymore. Besides the added risk, coming home and having to wash your steed to get the salt off is a huge PITA. I had an old rat bike I rode here but it literally rusted away under me one ride.

I was a motorcycle courier in SF for a year on a BSA 350 and 500 single, and rode my 81 Gpz550D1 and 88 NT650 urban assault vehicle (UAV) every day from 1981 until 1992 when they started rebuilding the Kennedy Expy (though I did take LSD off & on for maybe 3 more years) to the office and job sites when there was no ice here in Chitown. However, in the late 90's when cell phones became more prevalent, between them and cagers drinking their coffee, eating, smoking, reading the paper, playing with GPS and videos, doing their nails and make-up, it just became too risky to ride in the city anymore (I live in the burbs).

So now I ride now solely for pleasure and while riding down to say 40F is OK fun once in a while, I'm too old to do it regularly (even with heated gear and grips).