Nice Day for a Ride

I rode my bike to work this morning. Here's the weather stats pasted from Environment Canada at about the time I was on the road early this morning:

Time (CST)	Conditions	Temp (°C)	Humidity (%)	Dew Point (°C)	Wind (km/h)	Pressure (kPa)	Vis (km)	Wind Chill
23 December 2008
6:00	Clear	-35	65	-39	SW 13	101.9	24	-47
5:00	Clear	-35	70	-39	W 13	101.9	24	-47

It turns out that with the windchill Saskatoon is apparently the coldest spot in Saskatchewan right now.

The ride itself wasn't bad, albeit quite slow. My goggles started to fog up after a kilometer or so, and I took them off for the last 1 km (6 km ride). My outfit included polypro liner socks, merino wool socks, long underwear, cotton pants, army surplus wool pants, rain pants (as a windproof shell), two fleece sweaters, Helly Hansen parka, winter boots, polypro liner gloves, army surplus mitts with wool liners, Carhartt helmet liner balaclava, fleece scarf, toque, ski goggles and, finally, a helmet. With all that stuff on my upper body was a bit too warm (I could have stopped to open up my zippers, including the pit zippers, but didn't), my legs were just right, my head & face were warm, and certain other parts were a tad cool (I need to find fur-lined boxers!). At -35C the bearings and rubber are stiff and the extra clothes help to slow the pace. Add to this the fact that I don't want to push too hard & overheat and it means the ride that takes 15 minutes in the summer, takes half an hour or more. It also takes a considerable amount of time to get dressed up.

It's too bad nobody was here to take some pictures of the frost which covered my head quite completely by the time I got to work.

Now I'm at work toasty warm while my grizzly bear samples incubate in a labelling reaction (hence the reason I had time to post).