Hello everyone, I live near Pittsburgh, PA. Moved here from Florida. The winter months have now come and we are seeing below freezing temperatures on a regular basis. At my apartment I unfortunately don't have any type of garage. Thus my bike is outside all the time. I also ride year round. I do not own a car or another vehicle. So what should I be doing to fight the cold temps? I ride my bike 6 days a week at the least, and lately have been making sure I start it for a while on the days that I don't ride. Just trying to avoid running into any serious problems if I can. Any and all help is very appreciated. Thanks in advance!

 

You better get a car to say the least. Storm/snow is coming this week. I work in Waynesburg. Yesterday morning at 1am, going through town was a solid sheet of ice. But since your only concern is keeping warm. Heated grips of electric gloves, electric vest, and something for your feet. But I'm not sure the bike has the charging/electric system to power all that stuff. And that stuff is expense. You could probably buy a car for a couple hundred bucks just to get through winter.

 

Simply starting it and letting it run for a few minutes isn't enough to recharge the battery that is partially drained when you start it. I know you said that you don't have a garage but if you can at least get a locking cover for it and a Battery Tender Jr it will help maintain the battery.

A Battery Tender Jr can be found for less than $20 with a bit of Google searching. I used to keep my bike connected to one each day after I finished riding. I had a quick connect pigtail under the passenger seat and all I had to do was unlock that seat and connect the tender to it.

As far as advice on not running into any serious problems, you'll have big problems if you try to keep riding a street bike in the ice and snow up there in PA. I did it ONCE on my way home from work when the weatherman got the forecast wrong (imagine that) and rode 20 miles home in several inches of snow on an 1100 Yamaha. Never again.

 

You could ride all year in Florida but Pittsburgh is no joke, riding year round could get you killed. The guys on this forum always have good advice and I agree with RoadiJeff you need a car/truck and a good set of chains or studded tires.

 

i ride all year and have done for 4 years my advice

make sure your battery is healthy

make sure you have coolant/antifreeze in the cooling system not water as this will freeze in the head and block and then your going to have problems

wear warm gear and always have your lights on

i usually walk or cycle when the snow becomes really bad its a hell of alot safer or grab a ride off a friend with a car.

make sure you have lots of fuel and that your thermostat is working correctly to keep the engine warm

last thing would be tyres use touring tyres like the michelin road 3's they are amazing in the snow getting me up a 12% hill to my work lots of wheel spinning but i got up without falling off.

 

Hopefully, you can get access to a cheap car. In that case, you might be able to rent or borrow a little storage space to get your bike out of the element.

I bet there's a bunch of folks close by your apt who ride, or used to, that would help you out if you asked around. Offer to pay someone 20 bucks a month to tuck your bike in the back of their garage... someone just might put you up for free.

 

Where at? I also live in Pitt...you could rent a storage unit for 3 months, cant see that being more than 100 bucks...they usually give first moth cheaper...