Ride on

Hope you enjoyed that mellow intro. Rather alarmingly when we searched for that we also found a Nora Jones cover of Ride On! Eek! Glamourous soul-crooner does AC/DC? As an aside if you remember the whole six degrees things there are five degrees between the TA and Nora Jones; our brother (1) once free-lanced for a bloke called David (2) who once sat next to George Harrison (3) at a Ravi Shankar concert (4), Ravi Shankar being Nora's Dad (5). Take that Kevin Bacon, ha!

We have to admit, quite a few of you have told the TA recently how you intend to ride on into the autumn and even early winter but then quietly admitting they aren't quite sure how to dress appropriately. We suspect this subtle request for information isn't quite in deference to our near quarter-century in the saddle as it is our recent propensity to hanging out in coffee shops in cycling gear looking like a superhero (it's the wearing-tights-in-public-places thing rather than the whole superpowers thing) and evidently having time on our hands.

Anyway, to cut to the chase, the good news is you already have most of what you need!

You have the basic kit; shorts, jersey, helmet, socks. You spent all summer riding in this stuff, although hopefully you have more than one of each. Especially the socks. Can't do with only having one of those; two is the accepted number.

Oh, and arm-warmers. If there is one thing we as triathletes are reviled for it is arm-warmers with a crop-top. So yes, we have arm-warmers.

Armed with these basics, we can quite easily winterise ourselves. Add to these summer basics your winter running or cross-country ski kit; long-sleeve polypropylene undershirt, long-fingered gloves, thin toque, tights, wind-proof vest.

Just layer all of this stuff a bit differently than usual and you're off to the races. Long-sleeved undershirt under the jerseys, arm-warmers on the arms over the undershirt. Tights over (notv ever, never, under) the shorts. Thicker, long-sleeve jersey/jacket over all of that. Socks in the usual place. If your gloves are of the thin "liner" variety, then put them under your track-mitts. The thin toque under your helmet. Vest over all of this.

Job done, Robert's your mother's brother (Bob's your uncle).

It might not necessarily look "cycling" but it will keep you warm as you go out, and that's what counts (unless you are inveterate Euro-bike-snob like the TA, and it's a good job you aren't). If, however, you want to get all cycling about it, then there are options.

Probably the first things you want to get are knee-warmers or full-length leg-warmers. These are like arm-warmers but for your legs (duh!). Don't go crazy, get one or the other. If you already have tights, might we suggest knee-warmers? If it's cold enough for long legs, you might as well default to tights.

Thus, for the relatively small outlay on a pair of knee-warmers you can winterise your existing kit out to at least late November.

Yay!

Nothing looks more cycling than that long-sleeve cycling jacket with the pockets in the back. However, the TA remembers being a poor student and wearing many, many jerseys instead; two or three, on top of the undershirt. Hey, with three jerseys stacked on top of each other, you get nine pockets; enough for a day-trip to Everest, even if it looks like you've got a wicked case of lordosis going on! For those trying to avoid the whole Sherpa/Quasimodo look*, our friends at Cyclesmith have some pretty cool jackets we'd gladly give our eye-teeth for.

For hands. The ole liner-glove and track-mitt combination is good down to about 5C. Below that, something thicker. We progress down through the combo to summer MTB gloves, thicker winter gloves such as Sugoi's Firewall series to their full-on lobster mitts and then finally the lobster mitts paired with a water- and windproof overmitt.

Feet are next. At the TA swear by waterproof socks and neoprene toe-covers, but we know as many people who swear by booties like these. They're light, waterproof and surprisingly warm. They're also pretty durable as long as you take the toe-studs off your MTB shoes before walking around in them (not that we've every done that!). Also, think about your shoes. Those TR50s are wonderfully vented for racing at 30C; those same vents will freeze your toes at 30F. Of course, you aren't riding your P2 on the roads in early December either so think about moutain-bike pedals on your winter bike; there are some bombproof mountain-bike shoes out there. Think about half a size larger so you can squeeze in some thick socks too.

Head? The same principle as shoes; that light-as-air super-vented Volt that works a bomb at 30C is going to freeze your brain faster than a scoop of ice-cream at 30F. The old roadies stand-by of the racing-cap-under-the-helmet is perfect down to about zero. After that, one's pinnas become optional extras. The lightweight technical beanie does the job for most and fits under most helmets. The TA, with it's predilection for cyclocross, frites and insanely-strengthened Belgian beers (not to mention insanely strengthened bottom-brackets; a phenom' not entirely unrelated to the whole frites/beer thing) has a peaked wool cap with fold-down ears which works down to temperatures beyond which even we can't get the enthusiasm to ride. Plus it's suitably retrogrouchy and matches our high-spike count. The Cannondale wool caps at Cyclesmith have a pleasing green racing stripe; just because it's cold doesn't mean you can't look "racing"!

Alternatively (or as well, you can go for a helmet cover. You can still get the big ones with a rain0flap down the back, if you want to go for the stormtrooper look.

If not, you can get a form-fitting one which, in the absence of a helmet doubles as a very Gallic beret. Ooh la la!

The rules for the core (several jerseys, vest, the whole appendage-warmer thing) seem to work well for most. The head, hands and feet however are intimately personal. We've given you an insight into what works for us, what works for you might be (almost certainly is) different. The TA can put up with cold feet but we have an almost immediate sense-of-humour failure when our hands get cold. Others we know have cold-impervious hands but are martyrs to their feet. Or ears.

We thought about making a funky graphic for this, showing the temperature ranges in which these work and the potential overlaps, and in fact we were having a geeky old time doing it, but then we remembered the Jens Factor, which is less useful (space-suit?) but infinitely funnier.

As a learned man is reputed to have once said; a wise man learns from the mistakes of others. Generations of cyclists have endured frozen toes, fingers, ears and worse to lead us to this point. Yet, you'll still need to do some experimenting to dial things in. Just remember, no capes dahling!

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*Yes, we know Quasimodo had kyphosis not lordosis but did you ever know us to let a fact get in the way of a perfectly good line?!