Tips for You: How to Keep Cycling in Winter

If you want to cycle in winter but don’t know how to do it better, look at these tips. You will find it clear then.

Clothing
Nothing can prevent you from cycling in temperatures below zero only if you follow some tips, for example, dressing proper clothing. What inappropriate is not the weather, but your clothing. You should dress a warm base layer to keep you dry. As for the coat, you can wear a soft-shell jacket when it’s cold and dry. And a waterproof is needed in cool and wet areas.

cycle in winterNow there are two points of view. The first, make sure that your clothing is warm enough, which helps you perform well in winter. Wear multiple layers and take some off when you feel hot. The second, you will get warmer after riding, as a result, you wear properly when you feel a little cold before riding. Here it’s best to wear not for warmness then you don’t need to take off. Anyway, it depends on you.

Hands and feet
cycle in winterIt is doubtless that your hands and feet get cold fast, as a result of your body maintaining the core warmness. Thus you need to care about them with some measures like wearing disposable gloves within your regular cycling gloves. Being clammy is better than frozen. To keep warm, you can also buy air-activated heat packs which are inexpensive and get you warm inside gloves and shoes. And someone said that hand warmers can last up to 10 hours, which means much to those who ride for long distances or commuting. Otherwise, it’s recommended to take extra for your fellow. Regarding the warm of feet, you can use a pair of waterproof boot for winter cycling, thus you cycle better anytime and don’t need to tolerate cold every time. And you should wear shoes of a half size bigger so that the thickness of your socks isn’t so limited.

Numbers of gloves or socks
The temperature is not stable sometimes, so you can take two pairs of gloves to deal with the change. One thicker and one thinner. The latter offers more dexterity, which means your movement easier. You’d better put extra pair of wool socks at your bag so that it’s not so bad for you when stained by the mud or soaked by a stream.

Head
It’s easy for your head to be chilled and lose a lot of body heat while it’s hard to warm the head up again by physical activities. A wool helmet liner is recommended, and you can wear a scarf in some case. Make sure that the thickness of liner is proper to fit your helmet. Otherwise, a visor collocated with a liner is a good rule of thumb when rainy, because your forehead is warm and glasses are watered off with it.

Visibility
There is not so much sunshine in winter, meaning the safety to keep is harder. You may not know how easy it is for you to be faded into the landscapes. A rechargeable light on your bike is recommended here.
When you take a rest for a long time, put it on your front handlebar. You should keep the batteries fresh so your lights are brightest to get the most viewing angles and beams. A taillight blaring is advisable to be invested and arouse the attention of drivers. They can be respectful to you as long as you are visible, no matter on a day or at a night.

Tires
cycle in winterIn winter, many places are in slushing or raining. Make sure that the grip your tires can provide you when wet is good enough. You should run them at a lower pressure than that in summer which makes the tires traction better. You can drop the pressure down by 20 to 30 psi.

Maybe you like using mountain bike tires when snowy to get traction better, however, someone thinks that it gets riding harder for more friction that lager surface of the tires bring. And skinny tires can work well on the pavement, because it focuses your weight on an area smaller and pushes the tire down.

Fenders
While tires throw slush or snow, they can also stain you with that. And the dirty and cold liquid will take your body heat away. Your fenders don’t need to be too big, basic size is enough to keep you from being sprayed. The front fenders should be a couple of inches away from the front and back of you fork. The back fenders should also be full at length. And a clip-on variety can be used to make up the length not enough.

Cleancycle in winter
You need to wash your bike after every time you ride. It’s dirty of your bike without being washed after going through the mud, snow, and so on, which can bring corrosion to your bike. If you don’t want to wash it frequently, wipe the dirty down after riding. WD-40 is said to be not appropriate to bikes, however, it can prevent your tires from being stained by ice and grime before riding. And it can be spurted on the bike chain to lower the degree of moisture after washing. Lubes which improve the smoothness are recommended, too.

That’s all of the tips I want to remind you. If you have any more suggestions, welcome to leave your ideas here. Wish you a good trip in winter cycling.