With the current ‘fuel crisis’ going on, it’s prompted me to sort out what to wear on the bike to stay warm as we head into winter, rather than use the car all the time.

In my twenties, I would just do it and worry about consequences later -like hands so numb with cold I couldn’t open the petrol cap until my hands warmed up, or riding to work in the rain, wringing the water out of my socks and putting them back on..

Yeah, that was 30 + years ago..

As the weather has slowly got colder through autumn, I’ve experimented with different clothes to see what works and inadvertantly what doesn’t.

The difficulty with autumn is that the day typically starts off cold, but by mid day it’s quite warm, and you can easily end up too hot, especially if your stuck in traffic.

Summer is easy -Helmet, t shirt, jacket , gloves,  jeans , boots

Winter requires some extra’s  -a balaclava to keep my neck and face warm,  a woolen singlet , long sleeved shirt, then rainproof leggings over the jeans to keep the cold out.

That just leaves just my hands at the mercy of the cold. An old trick is to just stick your hands on the engine as you are riding along (one at a time please), but with bikes with a full fairing, the radiator ducts do just fine.

This is working fine as I write this in late autumn, but it’s likely to get colder yet, so well just have to see how it all works out.