Call it the ultimate Canadian experience, pitting a rider and a mountain bike against snow, wind, ice, bitter cold and the darkness of a long Edmonton winter.

You might also call the cyclist crazy for not locking away the bike at the first hint of snow, but many Edmontonians just keep on pedalling as if winter didn’t exist.

There are plenty of reasons to bike on through the snow. With the price of gasoline topping $1.30 per litre this past summer and the price of downtown parking escalating —monthly charges at city-operated parkades jump at least $25 on January 1 — driving a motor vehicle to work on our clogged streets has become an expensive and frustrating proposition.

Then take public transit. (Please.) It works for some people, especially those whose homes and workplaces are near the LRT line or a single bus route. But try to get from northeast Edmonton to the northwest by bus, for instance. It doesn’t work unless you’ve got all the time in the world and don’t mind long waits to transfer at windswept bus stops.

Of course, there are good reasons why more than 99 per cent of Edmonton’s commuters don’t cycle in winter: namely snow, wind, ice, bitter cold, darkness and, most of all, fear.

Count me in the ranks of the intimidated. I’m a March-to-November bicycle commuter, which is a wider time-span than that entertained by most people. I have lived a 25-minute walk from work, and didn’t think the risk of skidding under a bus or wiping out on the steep hill on the road home was worth the risk.

But there was one December when it got so warm that I couldn’t resist getting the bike out again. For a few days I understood winter cycling, the triumphant feeling of cheating winter as I rode to Whyte Avenue on a Saturday afternoon to do some Christmas shopping. Then it got cold again, more snow came and I put the trusty Kona steed away until March.

Winter biking in Edmonton is still a minority taste, but one that is growing, according to Claire Ellick, the city’s transportation engineer for its sustainable transportation section.

The city’s last transportation survey in the fall of 2005 showed that the percentage of Edmontonians commuting by bicycle had risen to one per cent from .4 per cent since 1994. The number of winter cyclists is much smaller. A recent survey of cyclists showed that half say they use their bikes year-round, although there is probably some built-in bias in that survey, Ellick says.

City hall can’t keep you warm, but it does clear all the paved mixed-use trails in and out of the river valley, and Ellick says the next bicycle transportation plan (which is being hammered out right now) will include some bike lanes on main streets as well as wide curb lanes and “sharrows” (shared-use arrows on the roads to alert motorists and bicyclists that they have to share the lane).

Dr. David Jou, a city dentist, is a recent convert to winter biking.

Last winter was his first on the bike in 15 years and he’s looking forward to doing it again in the coming cold months, despite a major fall on the hill going into the west end of McKinnon Ravine that kept him limping around his patients for a couple of weeks.

“That one stretch was glare ice, and I was going too fast,” Jou says. “I just lay there in the dark for about three minutes.”

Jou starts work at 7:15 a.m., which means he is beating the heaviest rush-hour traffic.

Coming from Meadowlark, the ravine is a good portion of the ride, and he carries his bike up the stairs by Victoria Golf Course before heading to his office in Oliver.

Like many winter riders, Jou got into it to get in shape. “I think it’s great. It gives me a chance to wake up a little bit and it’s not even that difficult anymore.”

Jou is not a cycle maniac. While he’s an expert about human teeth, he knows next to nothing about the teeth on the rings of his bike’s drive train. He relies on his local bike shop to keep it in tune, and occasionally brings it to a self-serve car wash on a mild day to clean out the winter grit.

He’s learning how to dress for winter cycling by trial and error. Jou tried a snowboarding helmet to cover the ears but it was much too heavy, so he went back to a regular bike helmet and a tuque underneath.

Although far more experienced at it biking in snow, John Collier is not the kind of professional you’d expect to be a 15-year winter warrior — he commutes by bike to his job as an auto mechanic.

Yes, some of his colleagues at Sports Car Centre feel it’s a bit odd that a mechanic makes his six-kilometre commute by bike in the winter but, then again, most people regard winter cyclists as a bit eccentric, he says.

“When I first started 15 years ago, if you saw someone else (on a bike in winter) you’d have a celebration,” Collier says. “It’s getting more and more common, although I’d have a hard time saying it’s significant. It’s not going to be the solution to greenhouse gases.”

His first winter day on the bike was a near disaster — he hit a snowdrift while going 80 kilometres per hour on the 99th Street hill south of the Low Level Bridge. He managed to “surf” through it without wiping out, and it was quick lesson in being careful. Like Jou, Collier started cycling in winter basically to stay in shape.

“What made me do it? Laziness. I’m too lazy to get up in the morning and start an exercise regime.”

Collier, a former executive member of Edmonton Bicycle Commuters, is the first one to admit that winter cycling is not for everybody. The family with five kids and six places to go in an hour would have a hard time with it.

But he has adapted his family life to cycling. For years he used either a trailer or tandem bike to drop his kids off at school, year-round, only taking a break last year when his kids got too old for those methods. His 10-year-old son now will be encouraged to winter bike, although “I certainly won’t force him.”

Collier plans to bike himself this winter, although there are days when he’ll take the car. A few centimetres of fresh snow is passable, but not 20 cm. And while the perfect temperature is -10C to -15C, it gets really difficult to pedal below -25C, when the chain’s lubricant stops working and the tires get rock hard.

Even Edmonton’s most-hardened winter warriors have their limits.

A FEW HELPFUL HINTS FOR WINTER RIDING 1 Use studded tires on the front and back. They provide contact with the pavement and prevent skidding. 2 Ride more gently than in summer, which means avoiding sudden braking or swerving. Generally use your rear brake more than the front to keep upright. 3 Find the route that’s right for you. Side streets often don’t work because of the deep icy ruts, while main streets are cleared. 4 Be visible: white light on the front, flashing rear light, and wear lots of reflective clothing and reflective tape. 5 Manage your moisture. You sweat a lot even on the coldest day and will want to avoid being soaked and then chilled. That means a windproof outer jacket and inner layers that repel moisture. Everyone’s different, so there’s a lot of trial and error. 6 Make sure all your extremities are well-protected. That means warm, waterproof gloves and mitts that allow you to keep your dexterity; warm boots and socks that allow wiggle room; and a warm but thin head-covering that fits under your helmet. 7 Regularly lubricate your chain. A wax-based lubricant must be applied indoors where the temperature is warm; it sheds road grit as it flakes off and the chain stays cleaner.