Depending on where you live this advise my shorten your life expectancy and health expectancy. I’ve seen those on bikes get hit by cars plenty of times.

This is correct. Daily street commuters can expect to get hit. I took some observational statistics at the place where I started commuting, and there were about 20 people that biked to work every day, and one got killed on average every 2 years, mostly on a single 400m stretch of busy road running to the building entrance.

The main feature that increases safety seems to be overt bike lane and shoulder markings. So push for those if you have any involvement with local government. Our problem was the snow plows grinding down the paint, so some drivers would do things like try to pass on the right as if it was a multi-lane road. They will not notice a cyclist at all when doing something like that. I've also been hit by red light racers. They are only looking at the light, zero awareness of anything else.

The best thing you can do is probably to just run the brightest flashers you can at all times, front, back, and sides. And this sounds silly, but, think about what you are going to do if something goes wrong. My worst hit was greatly mitigated by just remaining calm and reacting as I had rehearsed in my head, rolling up onto the windshield and tucking into a ball as I flipped through the air. One thing I wasn't quite ready for what what it feels like to get hit by a wall of steel at that speed, nothing like what happens at normal human speeds like playing football.

Also cycling next to exhaust fumes is controversial at least

Case in point: children in Finland bike to school [1] even at -17C/2F. Studded tires work really well, even if it‘s a bit icy.

[1] https://www.boredpanda.com/students-bicycle-school-winter-sn...

Temperature isn’t the best indicator of bikeability.

That photo, to me, looks like a cloudless sky, so chances are it’s dry, little or no wind, and low humidity.

Even at -17C, that’s easy to dress for and way better than what you get around freezing with wind and rain, when the cloud cover prevents temperatures from dropping very deep (e.g. your typical British/Belgian/Dutch autumn weather)

Even that is quite doable, though, at shortish distances (say less than 5km), certainly with some wind cover, as there typically is in cities.

That's great for cardio, but the main muscles it works are the quads. Hamstrings aren't emphasized, and upper body is lacking.

Does upper body strength have a big impact on longevity? I would have imagined that daily biking covers 99% of the health gains

I would think so too. The advantage is that since it’s part of daily life, you create this baseline of exercise that is always there, also when you lack motivation or time to do other sports.

How long have you been doing this ?

I managed to implement this since july this year. Very good benefits (muscle mass, cardiovascular health) but winter early night makes it a lot less joyful and I'm feeling less motivated. Also I see my thighs are getting thick and stiff .. but maybe I can fix that (jogging session and stretch ?)

About 15 years, although rarely since lockdown. When I started working, I noticed that the only healthy old people were the bike commuters. Other people had fitness routines by convenience, and they didn't last to old age. Bike commuting was closer to a religion. You start out just trying to get some exercise, but you find freedom and self-mastery. It's a constant set of new and deeper challenges, as you push through the breaking points of each part of both body and equipment, not because you want to, but because you have to. Fitness is no longer a goal, but a means to a higher goal - simply surviving on this planet by your own god/evolution-given power.

Thick and stiff sounds great to me. Regardless, I don't recommend jogging; I do recommend short runs building to max stride directly after completing a ride. I also like glute-ham raises and the reverse sit-ups to balance things out.

Not the parent poster, but have done this all my live. In The Netherlands people generally stop biking for sport in the winter, yet continue biking to work, which shows that your observation that it looses its fun is largely shared. It’s just that the benefits keep outweighing the drawbacks: it’s cheap, fast (at least in congested cities), sustainable, and good for your health.

Then again, it’s much easier to keep doing something when everybody else is doing it, so if you’re in an area where cyclists are a minority I imagine it’s more of a challenge to convince yourself. The advantages do still apply so I’m sending virtual encouragement!

> Then again, it’s much easier to keep doing something when everybody else is doing it, so if you’re in an area where cyclists are a minority I imagine it’s more of a challenge to convince yourself. The advantages do still apply so I’m sending virtual encouragement!

Very much, and also netherlands bike lane system is a real luxury. I'm lucky to have a long bike lane to bike freely, if most of my area was like this I'd be biking twice more.

Biking doesn’t do much for bone mass retention or upper body strength. Bike all you want, but also lift.

Why bike? Man up and run everywhere.

David Goggins is that you ? I have been exercising my entire life and running is the only activity that routinely gives me injuries that last for nearly a year. Most of us probably don't have the best form but watching Goggins get his knees drained last year made me question if humans were meant to run regularly past a certain distance and past a certain age.

The combination of constantly running long distances and constantly walking long distances with ridiculously heavy loads is one aspect that I find totally obnoxious about military training, and particularly the Western/NATO approach to small unit tactics.

It injures people in training (degrading readiness), and often leaves veterans with debilitating life-long lower-body problems that also cost the government a fortune in disability payments.

I've watched several Green Berets on YouTube state fitness goals for SF training of "You should be able to run a 7-minute mile pace, INDEFINITELY, with no preparation." No. That's DUMB. If your leadership puts you in a situation where that is necessary, your leadership is DUMB too.

> If your leadership puts you in a situation where that is necessary

While I'm mostly inclined to agree with your higher-level point, I think this particular argument hurts more than it helps. Military leaders plan for unexpected situations in the ultimate adversarial environment. They don't mean to put people in this situation, but they plan for it anyway because they want troops to survive even when things don't go as intended. Being able to reach an objective on time is important, and being able to run away from trouble even more so. These are elite units, put into the highest-uncertainty kinds of situations. In that context, at that age, seven-minute miles for an hour or so is not at all unreasonable. It's not even that far from what I could do, despite being 56 and never having been any kind of physical elite. "Indefinitely" and under load might be pushing the idea too far, but the idea that there should be some minimum requirement is fundamentally sound. It's the repetition and the normalization of tactics unnecessarily requiring such high levels of physical prowess that creates problems.

> I have been exercising my entire life and running is the only activity that routinely gives me injuries that last for nearly a year

What are you doing, running ultra-marathons?

No, probably more dumb in the "man-up" sense: running immediately after waking in below freezing weather while it's still dark out without warming up or wearing warm clothes. I felt superhuman and that feeling is addictive.

Perhaps that is why running injuries are so common ? You can't keep pushing yourself to deadlift more, for example, without it being painfully obvious your form is not right. And you just know that the person looking back in the mirror should not deadlift 315 lbs. But with running there is no obvious indication and the environmental factors keep changing. Then you're spending months stiff and in pain. You feel 20 years old one week and 90 years old the next.

I've written a couple of reasonably well-received guides about running in a New England winter. As you've clearly learned, such activity is its own specialized thing, requiring its own habits and preparations even beyond running the rest of the year. My guides focus mainly on situational awareness (e.g. always knowing your escape route around piles of snow if a car comes along) and gear. You've identified a couple of gaps (e.g. the winter-specific dangers of running in the early morning) and reminded me that those guides are generally due for an update. Thank you.

Thanks in advance for the advice. Please share a link when you can.

Here's part 1, with a link to part 2.

https://obdurodon.silvrback.com/winter-running-part-1

Again, thanks for your help.

I can bike as fast as Usain Bolt runs.

Also biking is a bit easier on your back and legs. It may harm shoulders and testicles though.

> biking is a bit easier on your back and legs. It may harm shoulders and testicles though.

Not when you actually consider the probabilities of getting injured in a crash/fall.

I can't tell you the number of times I've been injured on two wheels. Once I was run over by an inattentive driver hitting my BMX, knocking me to the ground, driving over my leg. On other occasions I've broken my wrists, broken collarbone, countless instances of road rash and other wounds. Other people here are arguing you can cycle in snow and ice, lololol, been there, done that, have the scars to prove it.

There's just no comparison in the context of "easier on your body". You can run/walk on sidewalks and trails with all the other pedestrians, away from cars. Cycling near massive vehicles driven by people addicted to taking selfies is so hazardous to your body it tends to kill it to death.

If fitness is the goal, running is way more effective in the same unit of time than cycling. I've done both trail running and mountain biking on similar trails. Every time I get really into the trail running mode enough to have the necessary fitness to really execute, returning to my mountain bike feels like easy mode with heaps of unnecessary mechanical wankery thrown in mostly because it entertains my inner gearhead and gives me more things to play consumer whore shopping for and buying.

This is akin to say you can slip while jogging in a forest. At time I have to avoid the angry dog chasing me. So yeah if you bike fast around cars shit can happen. If you coast on small lanes in a village, you will catch yourself on your feet before falling off of your bike (and if not then don't use a bike you're not ready).

I wasn't even "comparing" bike / feet. Just showing the potential pain points. I just couldn't jog because of my knees while I could bike (it actually helped said knees). I do prefer running for overall health... it involves more muscle groups and your respiration is also more intense (and so far I never had biking high, while running puts me in the zone.)

Cheeers.

> if you bike fast around cars shit can happen

If you bike slowly around cars, bad shit is even more likely to happen.

Have you ridden a motorcycle on roads before? It's infinitely safer than pedaling a bicycle among automotive traffic because you can at least keep up with the flow of traffic and behave in every sense as an automobile, in what is firmly the automobile's native land.

In the US it's exceedingly rare to live in a village with dedicated bike trails you can safely coast along. We have roads full of carelessly driven cars everywhere. Riding bicycles on those roads is quite unpleasant to say the least, based on my experience. We have reported instances of assholes "rolling coal" not only deliberately smoking out cyclists, but in some cases flat out running them over.

And we haven't even broached the subject of cycling being an acquired skill many adults plain suck at. It's complicated if you didn't grow up pedaling everywhere. Have you ever tried introducing an adult to cycling who didn't do it before? The only teaching experience more cringe-worthy I can recall was teaching someone with no manual transmission experience how to ride a motorcycle. All those moments have been hellish "I'm pretty sure I'm just helping this person get on a path leading to more convoluted self-harm" experiences. Getting them to go for a run doesn't even register anywhere on this particular map.

Back when I moved to CA for my first startup job, I had to leave my partner and our pets back in IL for a few months with family while I found us an apartment. When my partner finally showed up she had her arm in a cast, wanna guess why? Bicycle crash. She didn't have much experience riding bicycles growing up in a sea of cycling-hostile 5+-lane Florida surface streets, and crashed riding my old bicycle with my nephew passing time while waiting to relocate. Imagine how annoying that must have been to bring two housecats through TSA alone with a newly broken arm. Yeah, go ride bicycles everywhere everyone!

People that recommend everyone ride a bicycle everywhere seem to have absolutely no perspective rooted in reality. My "man up, run everywhere" comment was intended mostly tongue in cheek, but I'm willing to play devil's advocate in arguing it's obviously safer and more accessible than cycling. They're both ridiculously impractical in a world optimized for automobiles.

Well it seems very specific to the US (and ex USSR countries one can see on youtube)

Now you have a point if OP never rode a bike before, I'd stay away for a while. Maybe that's why I never had any issues going back to biking .. I basically grew up on a bike. But that's not out of touch with reality. I crashed twice in the last 6 months, but I was far from breaking an arm (even though both time it was a front wheel losing balance so face first to the ground) and that didn't bother me much more (and I have a super weak health these days, I'm not a young stud in mint condition at all)

about practicality, and even safety.. I'd argue it's not as sure as it appears, at least in western european countries.. it's less risky than heavy traffic intersection in a car with crazy drivers cutting you off (with my bike I can chose 20 different routes back to home), and unsurprisingly I get there faster than with my car (no traffic jams).

> I can bike as fast as Usain Bolt runs.

...which means absolutely nothing in terms of either ability or fitness. Sure, if you're time constrained, biking might be feasible where running is not. Otherwise it's just Easy Mode.

1) It was half a joke (implying I will never reach 35km/h with my legs)

2) OP was trying to go back into physical exercise, doing everything by bike is a great way to jump back. Running is amazing but your options are greatly reduced. I can use my bike to commute which means I don't have to allocate time for physical exercise. Aren't we all time constrained ?

have a good day

At my house it is currently 6F. There is six inches of snow and freezing rain on everything, so roads are icy. Biking would be stupid.

Studded tires work great. People use them at ski resorts and mountain towns from Colorado to Alaska.

Unfortunately this advice is irrelevant (or suicidal) in many climates. Canada’s prairie provinces are completely unridable for 3-6 months out of the year.

Shameless opportunity to share one of my favourite youtube videos from the last few years:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uhx-26GfCBU

TL;DW Oulu, Finland is as cold and snowy as any population center in Canada. Plenty of people bike there year round. The issue is municipal infrastructure, not climate.

To help clarify. There are many different northern climates. Close to the oceans,which is Coastal, is very different than continental. I think there is misconception for those who don't understand, because how can they(?) If they have not experienced a Canadian or Siberian prairie winter. 30 to 40 degrees below zero ( °f=°c), wind blowing, constantly 30 to 50 km/hr(20-30mph), so wind chill maybe - 60 or more. (exposed skin frozen ~dead immediately.) Roads not only snowy and icy, but blowing snow, so poor visibility. Equipment breaks from the cold, for example if you go through a pot hole - and can't avoid that because there are no sidewalks or shoulders because snow. This weather can last for 2,3,4 months. We do play outside when we can, with preparation, but commuting, and shopping for essentials, is not playing.

I'm a lifelong central canada resident and I can confirm both the truth of this AND the fact that people do bike all winter round. It really is a case of acclimatization and preparedness (fitness being included in this).

And then add kids in to the mix. Is just not possible (despite the baffling downvotes).

That's great when you already have that ability, and when circumstances permit. There's a bit more to it for people who do not have that ability, might never have that ability due to disability, or live in places/situations where it's not feasible. "That's all" is an expression of privilege, not real advice.

“That’s all you need to know” is not the best way to put it… “It’s one of the best hacks out there” would be better. It’s kind of “take the stairs instead of the elevator” on steroids… you’re modifying something you have to do anyway, creating a new habit that will work in your favour… and in this case it also has environmental benefits and is likely cheaper then other forms of transport. But like any hack, there are scenarios where it won’t work, that’s clear.

Recumbents are great for all body types.

What about the type that has bad knees, or metabolic issues, or low vision, or seizures, or about a hundred other things? Somehow I think a hard-to-see-in-traffic recumbent bicycle isn't going to be a solution for them. Advocacy is a wonderful thing, but when it turns into ableism it's disgusting.

I hear you. My uncle is disabled in the legs and I’ve admittedly had a hard time finding a recumbent arm bike that he felt comfortable enough to actually do his commuting on.