Bicycling

Last edited Sat Nov 9, 2013, 01:29 AM - Edit history (1)

Last year, we did not get hammered by snow till January. In the Record Snow fall of 2009-2010, the snow did not fall till December 19, then tampered off after December 25, then hit again in January 20- February 23, 2010:

http://capitalclimate.blogspot.com/2010/03/winter-2009-2010-snowfall-review.html

Now, the Mount Salvage Tunnel is closed from November through March, the trial is open on both sides and it is still all down hill. You have to dress for the weather, but the trail is more then passable most winters.

Now, the winter of 2009-2010 was an exception (as may be the upcoming winter, based on the lack of Solar flares, it looks like a bad winter, the more solar storms/Flares that occur the hotter the temperature on the earth, why is not exactingly known, but some sort of cause and affect occurs).

http://www.thedailysheeple.com/activity-on-the-sun-flatlinesbitterly-cold-winters-ahead_092013
http://www.almanac.com/sunspotupdate

Now, why we are in a solar Minimum is unknown, we should be in a Solar Peak and a Solar Reversal, then a slow several year decline to a Solar Minimum (The Solar cycle used to be viewed as about once every 11 years, more recent research indicates it is about a 22 year cycle with a solar reversal at the 11 year mark. Thus this strengthened the connection between Sun spots and drought in the US. Such droughts tends to hit the US about every 22 years, the early to mid 1930s, the mid 1970s, the since 2000 (1935 plus 22 is 1957, plus 22 is 1979, plus 22 is 2001, please note the connection between sun spots and drought seems to be related, but no one knows the why).

This dropping sun spots may be semi-permanent:
http://phys.org/news203746768.html

Side note: Some of the worse predicted aspects of Global Warming may have been off set by this drop in sun spit activities. The problem is the drop in sun spots may be masking the full affect of Global warming, i.e. summers are NOT as hot as they should be do to the drop in Solar Activity.

AS you can see we should NOT be in a Drought do to the sun spot cycle, On the other hand the mid west is in a drought, one of the worse in history. This drought seems to be related to Global Warming not the sun spot cycle.


Now, that does not mean you can not bike in snow, I have done it for almost 20 years. Conventional slicks are good enough for snow, even packed snow. For ice you need studded tires (which are available at Peter White wheels).

http://www.peterwhitecycles.com/

My point was to say that yes you can bike on the Great Allegheny Passage on Christmas day. You have to dress for the weather, but it is a good day to bike, with or without snow.

And it is November 2013, time for the annual issue of what to wear in cold weather while biking:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1207182

http://www.democraticunderground.com/120742

Other articles on biking in cold weather:


http://www.icebike.org/

http://bikewinter.org/

http://www.allweathersports.com/winter/winter.html

http://www.rei.com/expertadvice/articles/winter+bicycling.html

http://www.active.com/cycling/Articles/Cold-weather_riding__Tips_to_stay_warm_on_the_bike.htm

http://www.bikeforums.net/archive/index.php/t-764373.html

http://kbcyclewerks.hubpages.com/hub/What-to-Wear-when-Cycling-in-Cold-Weather--bicycling