Find Joy In Biking Outside This Winter
An interview with author Tom Babin on winter cycling, our attitudes towards the cold and what's changed (and what hasn't) in the decade since he wrote Frostbike
As we write this, the first snowflakes of the season are softly falling outside. The seemingly endless fall we enjoyed in Alberta is finally over. This first snowfall always brings us a lot of excitement for what lies ahead — downhill skiing! Winter biking! X-country skiing! — but we know not everyone shares our joy. We heard a lot of grumbling and gloom about the changing weather this week.
Tom Babin used to be one of those people, the type that dreaded winter. The Calgary resident (pictured above) especially missed his bicycle commute, which had brought him happiness all summer long. But when the cold came, his bike would disappear into storage. Then one winter, Tom decided to keep riding, to see if it was possible to happily ride a bike in the cold.
That journey led Tom to write Frostbike: The Joy, Pain and Numbness of Winter Cycling, a lovely book published 10 years ago. Today, Tom runs the popular and informative YouTube channel Shifter, covering all things urban cycling and bike commuting. (Cailynn has contributed writing and research to Tom’s videos on varied topics, like cycling as an overlooked budget hack, cycling’s gender gap problem and a deep dive into Tom’s decision not to wear a bike helmet.)
Cailynn recently chatted with Tom about winter cycling, how he’s seen it change and grow in the decade since Frostbike was published, and his tips for enjoying the cold. We’re big believers in his accessible approach: don’t overthink it, just get out there and give it a try! This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
Q: Let’s start at the beginning. What led you to write Frostbike?
A: I started as a bike commuter, originally in the summertime, and instantly fell in love with it, and I just assumed that you couldn't do it in the winter. I’d hang up my bike in the fall, and then hate my life through the winter. One year I started thinking, how long can I push this into the winter time? I was looking for resources, and at the time, I couldn't find any. And so I thought, well, I can do this. I started with blogging about it, just documenting my journey. It was me trying to find out whether this was a viable thing to do or not, or whether it was crazy. And that became this nice little narrative, and eventually a book.
Q: So you set off to answer this question — is it possible to happily ride a bike in the winter? Where did you go and what did you find?
A: I think the first instinct a lot of us have is what gear do I need? My first thought was around the bike, so I kept trying all these different things. Once I found something that was satisfying to me, then I realized that the place you ride also has a lot to do with it. It wasn't always easy to ride to work in Calgary, because at the time there was not a lot of bike infrastructure. It made me start to think about the city that you're riding in. Then in exploring whether other cities were doing anything, I ended up seeing this first ever winter bike congress happening in this place I'd never heard of, which was Oulu, Finland. So I booked a flight and showed up in the middle of the night at the airport and this guy with a giant beard and long hair with a bike was waiting for me at the airport, saying, ‘Okay, let's go, let’s ride back to the hotel.’ Visiting there was really eye opening for me.
And then the last part I realized was there's also an attitude about cycling in winter. At the time, that was a real impediment to a lot of people, it was a real barrier. And it wasn't just about winter cycling, it was about winter in general. I had this realization that as Canadians, we think of ourselves as winter people, but over the years, we've minimized winter in our lives, and there's a lot of fear around winter, and we became experts at avoiding it. And I think that was holding a lot of people back, including myself.
So it really was those three things: the bike, the place, and the attitude. And once you sort of overcame all those things, I realized, yeah, this is viable, absolutely. I love it now. I look forward to it, and some of my favorite rides are in the winter. Biking is such a big part of my life now that I just couldn't function without doing it all year round. It's made me a better person in so many ways.
Q: Now, 10 years later, how have you seen those three pieces — the bike, the city, the attitude — change?
A: Bikes have changed. That was right around the emergence of the fat bike, and I think even if you don't use a fat bike for riding in winter, there's a realization that you can bike in winter. I think that did open up a lot of minds. That also led to the development of all kinds of winter cycling gear that didn't exist before, like lobster mittens and pogies. They were an ultra niche thing at the time, and now they're pretty common. And now I have a bike that is specifically made and geared towards winter, which also didn't really exist at the time I wrote the book. It's not a fat bike; it's a durable, rust-free kind of bike. That was a big game changer for me.
As for the cities, there's definitely more examples now of winter bike cities, whereas Oulu was a bit of an anomaly at the time. Lots of cities have made lots of progress, but we have a long way to go.
I would say the attitude has not changed all that much. I think in Canada, at least, so many of us go from our heated garage into our heated car to our heated office building, and avoid winter all the time. So as a result, we're scared of it and we hate it and we just dread it. We could do a lot better in the way we depict winter, the way we talk about winter, the way we think about winter.
Q: On that topic, I love that joy is in your book’s subtitle: the joy, pain and numbness of winter cycling. Can you describe what that joy of winter cycling is like for you?
A: When I think about winter cycling, I have this image in my mind of those perfect rides home at the end of the day where it's dark out and there's a light dusting of snow, and the snow is falling, and you get the lights reflecting off the snow, so it's quite bright. And there's not that many cars there, because people dislike driving in the winter, and you just ride through a quiet neighborhood, and, you know, it's muffled because of the snow. I have this really romantic image in my mind of those perfect rides home, and that's joy in a tangible way. I just love that feeling. And people get that from cross country skiing, or they get it just going for a walk in a snowfall. I think that's really amazing. The other joy is the joy of activity, of getting those pheromones going, getting outside in winter, the fresh air. I love that feeling also of when you're done, when you arrive at your destination, and it's cold and you go in, you warm up, and you're buzzing a bit from the ride.
Q: Have you seen who rides in the winter change in the last decade?
A: If you ride your bike in winter, you're less weird now than you used to be. One thing that used to annoy me was that people would make a big deal about it, as if you’re some anomaly or weirdo for riding in winter. It's pretty common now; I think most people in their office, there's usually a couple of people who ride. The data would say there's more women riding now than there used to be, and more kids, and I think anecdotally, I see that.
One thing that's been encouraging to me to see is when you look at the data in a lot of cities, as the bike networks get built out, and the number of cyclists rise in the summertime, it tends to rise proportionately in the winter. I think there was this notion at one point that there's just this hardcore group of crazy people who like to ride in winter, but I think seeing the number of winter riders increase as the bike networks get safer has shown that it's a safety question.
I think there's an assumption among people who don't ride that it's the weather that is the biggest deterrent. I don't think that's the case. I think it's the infrastructure. People need to feel safe. And if you have a crappy, painted bike lane in the summertime that makes you feel at risk, in the winter it’s even more scary. Safe, separated bike lanes are so important.
Q: I know you get asked this a lot, and you cover it in the book, but can you share with our readers a few practical tips for winter cycling?
A: Don't overthink it. I like to say the best winter bike is the bike you have. Just get out there and give it a try. You'll figure it out as you go. For me, an accommodation for cycling in the winter has been studded tires. It took me a long time to come around to them, because I was cheap, but they have come down in price, and they're much better now than they used to be. I just use one studded tire, so it's a pretty meager investment for winter.
You have to clean your bike a lot, so that's an important one. The real risk in the winter is that your components get eaten up by all that salt and grit, and they rust out really easily. So make sure you're taking good care of your bike, which is a pain and hard, but it's worth it.
As far as the gear goes, I don't think you need anything special other than take care of your hands and your feet. If you're going to invest anywhere, do that. And don't overdress. I find that I always get scared, still, after all these years. I look outside and put too many layers on and then I ride for five minutes and I'm peeling layers off. So be bold, start cold.
And then the biggest piece of advice is attitude. You have to give it a go, figure it out, it might take a little bit time, but approach it experimentally. So try different routes, experiment with different clothes, figure your bike out, and don't be scared.
Also, there tends to be a bit of masochism about riding in the winter. Don't do that. If you can't ride every day, that's fine. You're not a failure. If you only ride the mild days when it's minus five, great, who cares, do that. We tend to get a bit dogmatic about this stuff sometimes. But any day you ride will make your life better.
Great advice! I start biking some years ago and I love it. Still haven’t tried it in winter though. But I live in a city where winter biking has always been part of the culture.
Stumbled on Shifter last year, lots of good intel on his UTube site. Enjoyed watching a lot of them