- [Dan] There's no reason to stop riding your bike
in the winter months, just because
it's a little bit colder, and a little bit wetter.
- [Matt] Yep, so coming up are GCN's
top winter riding hacks.
(upbeat music)
- One of the problems of winter riding,
can be the lack of grip.
Now it's not just the wet roads,
but also leaves and other debris,
that affect breaking distances and grip on the corners.
- The solution, bigger tyres.
Now we've got to the point now,
where we are running 28c tyres,
almost the entire year, for their comfort
and for their versatility,
but they are even more useful
when it comes to the winter months,
because you can run them at much lower pressures,
without any extra risk of pinged puncturing.
So I'm 72kg, I'm actually down to just 60 psi in my tyres.
Matt is slightly heavier, and a lot more old school.
He gets nervous at low pressures,
but even he is down to 70 psi.
What that means is a lot more grip,
and a lot more comfort.
- Comfort.
(upbeat music)
- Slush puppies are great in the summer.
Quite refreshing, I think you might say,
but are not quite so good
when it's freezing cold in the winter.
Unfortunately, that is exactly what can happen
to the fluid inside your bottles,
once your rides get down to a certain temperature.
- But the solution are these thermal bottles.
Great for keeping your drinks cool in the summer,
but also perfect from stopping your drink
from freezing in the winter.
(upbeat music)
If there's one thing that can spoil a ride in the winter,
that is cold feet.
Now, over-shoes do a pretty good job of keeping the wind out
and keeping your feet dry if the roads are wet.
But they fall short quite often,
in terms of keeping your feet warm.
Now you could of course use thermal socks,
but quite often that'll mean
that your feet are too tight,
and you cut the circulation off,
completely defeating the object in the first place.
- The solution, winter-specific cycling shoes like these.
And now the great thing about these is there
are no air vents, the outers are made
from waterproof material, and there's loads of layers
of thermal insulating material on the inside.
We've been using these for the last three weeks,
since the weather's been getting a lot colder.
And we can say firsthand, they keep your feet
nice and snug and warm.
- Do you know what, Dan?
It's a booty call.
(upbeat music)
- If you, like me, tend to keep your modatill
in a bag with your spare inner tubes and tyre receptor,
and it doesn't come in its own bag, like this one,
then it is always best to wrap it
in something like this.
And again, this is especially important
over the winter months, when things can get
very wet and soggy, because it means there's
much less likelihood of something sharp
on the modatill penetrating your spare inner tubes
and rendering them useless.
- You don't want your inner tubes penetrated
or better still, you could get
a waterproof saddlebag, just like these.
They're quite neat, aren't they?
- Yeah, keep everything nice and dry.
(upbeat music)
The biggest and best winter hack, is literally a hack.
A winter bike hack.
So when it comes to the U.K., where the winters
can be particularly grimy, a cheaper second bike
is the ideal solution.
You can put your best bike away,
ride through the winter, and not worry
about wearing out expensive componentry.
Plus there is the added benefit, when you jump back
on your best bike in the spring,
you're going to feel extra spritely.
- Now, admittedly, here at GCN,
we're in a very privileged position
where we don't actually have to buy our bikes.
But back in the day, when all four of us,
Lasty, Si, Dan and myself started out,
we used to have a winter hack bike
complete with mud guards, it was nice and cheap.
We could get as dirty as we wanted.
They were actually called a hack bike.
(upbeat music)
You generally get a lot more punctures in the winter,
and you'll certainly get muckier when you're fixing them.
So a handy solution is to take
a couple of these handy little wet wipes with you,
to clean your hands.
- Fix your bike,
clean your hands, job done.
(upbeat music)
- Our final winter riding tip is
to stick to flatter roads when the weather gets
particularly grim, unlike today.
First off, it'll be a little bit safer,
but secondly, it'll stop you from getting too cold.
- Yeah, by all means, do some shorter climbs,
but save the longer climbs for another time,
because overheating on a long climb,
and doing a very long descent down the other side
is a recipe for catching a chill.
- Ooh, this is nice, isn't it?
- So those are our winter riding hacks here at GCN,
but as ever, we would love to hear your hacks,
if you've got any, for keeping people on their bikes
over the winter months.
You can leave them in the comment section just down below.
- Yeah, and if you haven't already subscribed
to the Global Cycling Network, you can do so for free
by clicking on the globe,
and that way you won't miss another video.
Now for another winter-based video,
how about clicking just down here,
where we looked at the effectiveness of mud guards,
and boy, was that a cool shoot.
- Yeah, or just down here is Si
letting you know how to winterproof your bike.