Keeping warm on your bicycle during your winter rides

Keeping warm on your bicycle during your winter rides

On this edition of the Ask Coach Parry Cycling Podcast we look at cycling through winter. If you're a fair weather cyclist you will love these cost effective ways our cycling coach Devlin Eyden shares in order to keep warm on the bike without breaking the bank.

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Transcript

Brad Brown:                 Welcome onto this edition of the Ask Coach Parry Cycling podcast and unfortunately if you’re in the southern hemisphere, winter is approaching and our question has got to do with that today. Devlin Eyden joins us, Devlin, it’s a horrible time of the year, particularly riding a bicycle, but this question came in from Janet and Janet says: I’ve always been a fair weather cyclist, but I want to ensure that next summer I’m ready to rock n roll when the season starts.

I want to train through the winter, but I’m allergic to the cold and dark. Janet, welcome to my world, I feel you, exactly. She wants to know: what gear do I need to get myself through winter?

Devlin Eyden:               Look, just before I touch on the gear side of things, personally I always like to always set myself a goal for either in winter or just after winter that forces me to get up and get out training because I do agree, I’m also a little bit of a fair weather cyclist. From a gear point of view, to make sure, look, you don’t necessarily have to go out and buy expensive gear, but make sure that you’ve got the basics that are needed for winter.

A good base layer, something to wear underneath your cycling kit that’ll just take that bit of chill off the chest, you want to look at things like arm warmers and leg warmers. Again, you get various models that are out there in terms of thermal arm warmers and leg warmers versus just a normal second skin really.

Something that is going to keep you warm and keep the wind off you, more than anything else is the wind chill factor in the early mornings or the evening kind of rides, as well as wind jackets. Something that just takes that little bit of the chill factor away, other good options that are slightly cheaper are things like a buff, something you can wear over your hears and over your face.

Keeping warm on the bike doesn't have to cost a lot

Riding in winter as well, you start talking about the cold dry air and you might find that your chest burns a little bit as well when you’re breathing that in, so I tend to ride with a buff over my face. It just allows me to warm and humidify the air that you are breathing a little bit and that also just helps slightly with infections as well, upper respiratory tract infections, that you might be susceptible to.

Toe caps, things that you want just to cover, again, the wind chill off the toes, that’s your fingers and your toes are something where the pain comes in more. The colder it is, those are the first extremities that you really start hating in the mornings when it gets really cold.

As long as you’re keeping your toes and your hands nice and warm, you should be all right. With that as well comes protective gear in the sense of light and reflective gear. Making sure that early mornings, when it is dark, that you can be see, so that you have got a good light on the front and the back of your bike, so that you are visible to motorists out there, if you are riding on the roads.

From a point of view with regards to saving costs as well, there are a couple of cheats and hacks that we use. Often we’ll ride with newspaper shoved down our shirt, that instead of a base layer, just some newspaper on the chest allows the wind off and there are times as well, it’s not always ideal, but a plastic or an oven bag over your socks, when you put your shoes on in the morning, it also just really helps protect your feet a little bit more from that wind in the early morning. There are a couple of hacks that are out there as well that you could use.

BB:                              I’ve seen someone put sandwich bags over their socks to cover their feet. As far as, perhaps in the Western Cape, you talk about the dry, cold air and that’s obviously up north, but for the guys and girls who live in a wetter climate around winter, obviously a good rain jacket and some waterproof gear would go a long way too?

DE:                              Correct, again, you can go crazy with the kind of gear that you can get. We’re talking waterproof, you want something that is properly waterproof, there’s a couple of jackets out there that have got various percentages of waterproofness.

You want something that is going to be properly waterproof, bearing in mind that when you start riding with more of that kind of stuff it becomes bulky. You must be prepared to carry that if you do want to take it off as well, if it clears up or warms up slightly. Some of the thicker pieces of equipment that you might use just become a little bit more bulky to carry around as well.

BB:                              There you go, Janet, you’re not the only one who is a fair weather cyclist, I’m a downright ‘woos’. I’m going to try and train through the winter, if not, it’s going to be lots of time on the indoor trainer, I can tell you that much. Devlin, thank you very much for that, much appreciated, we look forward to catching up again next time here on the Ask Coach Parry Cycling podcast.

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