Man, the weather this week has just been loathesome. It was booger-freezing weather for the first half of the week, then sleet today. I guess it’s supposed to be snowy tomorrow, which is fine by me. Beats freezing-ass cold with wind (Tuesday) and snow tends not to soak in, nor form a crust over your clothing as does sleet.
I totally don’t approve of things freezing to my glasses, especially such things as sleet or road slush. The streets were absolutely disgusting when I was coming home tonight. Piles of grey slush with nasty ridges and ruts of ice hidden beneath. February is really the nadir of winter and the condition of streets, especially minor residential streets, reaches its annual worst during Februaries. There have been enough cycles of snow-thaw-freeze, snow-thaw-freeze to build up a treacherous system of fan-shaped ice-ruts radiating from the corners of intersections, and each time it snows, these ruts are obscured sufficiently that I hit at least a few of them until they get packed in and defined again. I’m even more vulnerable to these wily traps when my glasses get frozen over with slashback slush or just the sleet that’s falling.Â
I’ve gotten quite adept at pulling my right glove off with my teeth, using my index finger to thaw/scrape the ice off my glasses, and putting my glove back on, again with the assistance of my teeth. I can do this at speed (or what passes for at-speed when the streets are in the condition they are in) without bobbling. It’s a useful skill, but I will be damn glad when I don’t need to use it regularly.
Some of the more hardcore winter cyclists around here wear ski masks/goggles over their glasses. Makes for an easier, uniform surface when you have to wipe it off, and keeps the top half of your face warmer! Any chance you could get your hands on some of those?
I do wear a balaclava. In fact, yesterday I broke out the heavy duty fleece one with the foam-rubber-ish facemask. I have to pull that down when I stop to keep it from venting my breath straight up at my glasses and fogging them over.
I tried goggles my first winter of riding, and found that they fogged up too much whenever I had to stop. I think they’d be fine for a long haul rural ride in foul weather, but for commuting, they were no good at all.
I just basically bear with the winter bullshit, whine enough to vent off the frustration, and count down the days until springtime.