Tips on winter commuting/riding in the dark

[fruitcake]

A comprehensive set of tips in this thread.

I've found that fingers and feet get cold in winter. IME only two pairs gloves will do, the inner pair being wool. Some makers produce merino 'glove liners' which are wooly gloves but thin. The gloves on the outside may need to be larger to accommodate. 

Wool socks stay warm when wet which I found amazingly beneficial first time I experienced it. I'll not wear cotton socks if there's rain forecast; I'll use merino or Smartwool (which is wool blended with nylon).

[Kim]

In my experience dynamo lights (or bolted-on lights in general) are invisible to bike thieves and ne'er do wells.

Whereas odds on battery lights you forget to take off will be gone when you get back.

I've come to the conclusion that anything worth less than about 20-30 quid (battery lights, pumps, bottles, etc) isn't normally worth removing from the bike, because my chances of losing it are greater than the chances of it being nicked while the bike's parked.

But as fboab says, that depends a lot on where you're parking.  Large anonymous bike racks and lamp posts in dubious city locations with no bike parking require special measures.  (Indeed, my preferred solution for the latter is a Brompton.)

[grams]

Nah, my experience is with city centre locations. Dynamo lights just aren’t attractive to casual vandals and are indeed bolted down.

[Kim]

Nah, my experience is with city centre locations. Dynamo lights just aren’t attractive to casual vandals and are indeed bolted down.

I wasn't disagreeing with you.  Dynamo lights are only likely to be attractive to the sort of people who'd steal your derailleur; if they get stolen, it's probably because they've taken the whole bike.

But a lot of the time the quick-release stuff is as likely to get lost because you've removed it as stolen from the bike.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Oh  - regarding winter gloves - I found that cheap skiiing mittens work well. For cold wet weather, get a pair of really huge waterproof overmitts and bung them over the lot.

Yes, rain can run inside them. A completely windproof layer that doesn't hold water still makes a considerable difference to windchill.

[Kim]

Gloves are very duration-sensitive.  If you're out for less than an hour, waterproofing can keep your hands reasonably dry.  Any more than that and they'll be soaked with sweat, so it's about managing windchill.

Silk glove liners make a sodden glove a lot more pleasant.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Also, some people are fine with operating brakes and gears with gloves twice the size of their hands, but others aren't. No point having warm hands if it means crashing.

[BFC]

An outside thermometer/weather station is very nice to have. Set the base station where you can view it before deciding what kit to wear.

A choice of kit for different conditions - both temp and rainfall - helps a lot. If you expect to get soaked have a plan for getting kit dry before you need it again, or carry critical spares in dry bags - putting cold wet gloves back on is not nice. I was lucky that we had ways of drying options at work.

Your lighting needs to be as bright/visible as those lights in the environments you will riding through - you can ride in low output mode in the darker sections on many brighter lights and turn them up for bits with high light levels from other traffic and street furniture, the environment where flashing lights can also help a lot. Your (and other road users) eyes adjust to ambient light levels - being brighter or otherwise distintive is a life saver in traffc oriented environments.

[lissotriton]

Also, some people are fine with operating brakes and gears with gloves twice the size of their hands, but others aren't. No point having warm hands if it means crashing.

But if your fingers are freezing, you can't operate the brakes. Pogies are an option for really cold weather (with thinner gloves inside).

[fd3]

A lot of good points (I disagree on Dynamos being a faff, unless it stands for fit and forget - and even I found the fitting straightforward).

My only "useful" suggestion is that you hold off until March and start riding to work then, this means you can skip all the shite/dark weather riding and concentrate on building up miles and your commute routine.  Then next winter once you have the commute bit down you can tackle bad weather.

It's been two years (due to lockdown) since I did the commute year round, but even my short commute left me walking for big stretches with bad weather.  Not sure I would commute year round if I started in winter.

[mrcharly-YHT]

Also, some people are fine with operating brakes and gears with gloves twice the size of their hands, but others aren't. No point having warm hands if it means crashing.

But if your fingers are freezing, you can't operate the brakes. Pogies are an option for really cold weather (with thinner gloves inside).

Exactly.
I get Reynaud's in my hands and if that kicks in, I am physically incapable of gripping and moving things. Something as simple as squeezing a brake lever becomes physically impossible, even a gentle squeeze.

So on drop barred bikes, I have these overmitts - really big, so even though they are mitts I can move STI levers.  Bar end levers are simpler.

If you were caught out without something similar, I'd recommend putting plastic bags over your hands. Or Marigolds.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Pogies are excellent on flat bars. I wouldn't say it has to be really cold to use them, just cold. Never used them on dropped bars.

[Kim]

I assume flat bar brake levers are also substantially easier to operate with cold hands, given that they're easier to operate with warm hands.

[mrcharly-YHT]

I assume flat bar brake levers are also substantially easier to operate with cold hands, given that they're easier to operate with warm hands.

They are but that wouldn't matter if my reynaud's kicks in. I've had to ask someone to open doors for me, car doors and house doors. I couldn't move my fingers or even 'hook' them around the handle.

So I guess the lesson from this is to assume that it is possible to lose use of fingers and plan accordingly.

[L CC]

I've had to emergency brake the tandem when Mr Smith's Reynaud's kicked in.

Anyways, presumably the OP knows if it's an issue for them or not?

[rogerzilla]

Pogies are excellent on flat bars. I wouldn't say it has to be really cold to use them, just cold. Never used them on dropped bars.

Are pogies the result of badly-aimed snot rockets?

[Adam]

Depending upon where you are in the country, if snow & ice is likely to be a common thing during the winter and you want to carry on cycling, consider having a second set of wheels with Marathon Winter or similar studded tyres on there permanently.  That way if there's been a cold spell, you can quickly swap the wheels over and then head off.  When I lived on the edge of the Chilterns, that's what I had, and made life much easier.

Obviously if you go down the dynamo route, then this may not be a viable option.

[vorsprung]

Most things covered above but you really do not want to be fixing punctures in the cold / dark so you might want to use tubeless tyres. 

or Marathon Plus

[vorsprung]

I assume flat bar brake levers are also substantially easier to operate with cold hands, given that they're easier to operate with warm hands.

let's just have warm hands by having lots of pairs of nice gloves

[The Family Cyclist]

Glad the disposable gloves for mechanical issues has been mentioned, I've had to resort to them for an extra layer when temp dropped and my gloves weren't warm enough

Regarding hi viz the new ones which light up under car lights such as BTR ones are amazing. The other thing which may or may not have been said is make sure you have a rear reflector. They are surprisingly effective and a back up ifnyour rear light fails

[JonBuoy]

Glad the disposable gloves for mechanical issues has been mentioned, I've had to resort to them for an extra layer when temp dropped and my gloves weren't warm enough

Regarding hi viz the new ones which light up under car lights such as BTR ones are amazing. The other thing which may or may not have been said is make sure you have a rear reflector. They are surprisingly effective and a back up ifnyour rear light fails

...and pedal reflectors assuming you aren't riding a recumbent, have large panniers etc.

[Cudzoziemiec]

Regarding hi viz the new ones which light up under car lights such as BTR ones are amazing.

Do you mean the ones which are an entire reflective surface, or is this something else?

[The Family Cyclist]

This sort of thing. They are really good at night

https://btrsports.co.uk/collections/high-visibility-clothing

[rogerzilla]

Glad the disposable gloves for mechanical issues has been mentioned, I've had to resort to them for an extra layer when temp dropped and my gloves weren't warm enough

Regarding hi viz the new ones which light up under car lights such as BTR ones are amazing. The other thing which may or may not have been said is make sure you have a rear reflector. They are surprisingly effective and a back up ifnyour rear light fails

...and pedal reflectors assuming you aren't riding a recumbent, have large panniers etc.

Pedal reflectors are good, and legally required, but they restrict you to expensive hybrid pedals (M324, which are shite, or T8000, which are a fortune) or clunky adaptors that tske one side of your double-sided SPDs out of use.

[peterc]

I permanently kept a few useful things in the cupboard under my desk (You know, that bit of legacy kit from the days of paper files)

A paid of "work shoes" as I only wore them in the office they didn't need rotation, much care or cleaning.
An emergency pair of pants and a polo shirt, for those times I forgot to pack one in the pannier.

Like driving, some days are going to be bad, sorry in advance, but unlike driving some days are good, when the weather just matches the clothes, or you end up with a tail wind and some light snow in the headlight that are they are just magical.