Not even frozen eyeballs can keep Ohio man from biking to work in winter

Caitlin Dickson
·Editor
In a Feb.19, 2014 photo, Fraser Cunningham, 56, a General Electric engineer, arrives home in Madeira, Ohio, with ice that has formed on his beard, which is a product of freezing water vapors produced from breathing. Cunningham calls it his "chinsulation." Cunningham hasn't missed a day biking to and from work for a year and a half. (AP Photo/The Cincinnati Enquirer, Carrie Cochran) MANDATORY CREDIT; NO SALES

The first thing Fraser Cunningham does when he gets to work in the morning is de-ice. After biking nearly two hours in the harsh Cincinnati winter, his 16-inch beard — which his wife calls his “chinsulation” — is usually covered in icicles. Last week, on a morning when the temperature was 10 below zero, Cunningham’s eyes froze open midride. He has a car, but it’s going to take a lot more than frozen eyeballs to get Cunningham to drive to work.

“Only in an absolute, dire emergency,” Cunningham told The Cincinnati Enquirer last week.

The local paper spotlighted the 56-year-old General Electric engineer, who has been commuting by bike for the past 10 years and hasn’t missed a day since July 22, 2013. That may seem like some kind of record, but Cunningham is still a few months shy of beating his own record streak of 20 1/2 months of daily bicycle commuting.

In a Feb. 19, 2014, photo, Fraser Cunningham, 56, of Madeira, Ohio, a General Electric engineer, bicycles home from work in single-digit temperatures. Cunningham hasn't missed a day biking to and from work for a year and a half. The icicles that have formed on his beard are a product of freezing water vapors produced from breathing. (AP Photo/The Cincinnati Enquirer, Carrie Cochran) MANDATORY CREDIT; NO SALES


Cunningham told The Enquirer that he decided to start biking to work as a means of quelling his growing concerns about aging. Now, a decade later, he says, “It’s a lifestyle.”

In a Feb. 19, 2014, photo, Fraser Cunningham, 56, of Madeira, Ohio, a General Electric engineer, bicycles home from work in single-digit temperatures. Cunningham hasn't missed a day biking to and from work for a year and a half. (AP Photo/The Cincinnati Enquirer, Carrie Cochran) MANDATORY CREDIT; NO SALES
In a Feb. 19, 2014, photo, Fraser Cunningham, 56, of Madeira, Ohio, a General Electric engineer, bicycles home from work in single-digit temperatures. Cunningham hasn't missed a day biking to and from work for a year and a half. (AP Photo/The Cincinnati Enquirer, Carrie Cochran) MANDATORY CREDIT; NO SALES

Equipped with layers of heavy-duty warming gear and special gloves he has attached to the fat-tired bike he rides in the winter, it’s the espresso machine on his desk that really keeps him going. After a while, not even the most high-tech apparel can withstand the bitter cold of a midwestern winter morning.

“That’s when I start thinking about my espresso,” Cunningham said.