Sub Zero Riding

[Gregor]

Great pic man.

Thanks, that’s another good thing about snow, even a muppet like me can get a half decent piccy.

[ZRX61]

Icing up clothing is unpleasant, that's for sure.

I haven't even thought about sticking a newpaper inside my jacket in over 30 years

[Horse]

Icing up clothing is unpleasant, that's for sure.

Always fun to get off the bike after a ride in freezing fog, for a sheet of ice to fall of your chest, and strips of ice from along your fingers.

[Bigyin]

Always fun to get off the bike after a ride in freezing fog, for a sheet of ice to fall of your chest, and strips of ice from along your fingers.

This was the closest I got to getting a pic of ice sheet after a ride home but it already started to melt from walking in the house ….. entire helmet front was covered in ice apart from the visor I scraped clear while riding

[The Spin Doctor]

We hardly ever get decent snow in Kent but I love a chance to get out greenlaning on snow.

Hmm.

Mid 80s, the drifts on the A20 were deep enough to bury an HGV - I remember having to go the wrong way around the roundabout at Farningham and just the top of the trailer was poking out. I was bringing a food parcel down to my parents place near Maidstone. The B road through the village had been cleared but my brother and I had to dig a hole in the barrier the snow plough had left to get into the estate where they lived. The snow was drifted up to roof level at the front, so had to dig our way to the front door too. Just checked - it was 87. That was the year the army was called in to deliver supplies to isolated farms and villages, and the Isle of Grain was cut off for over a week. And I was still despatching, that year.

Then there was Feb 96... I'd just been in to the training school at Lydd to do my first day of work, and got caught in a blizzard on the way back. When someone saw me riding slowly and overtook a car forcing me to brake and swerve on the snow, I decided to sit the rush hour out in a bus stop. Next morning, it took me an hour to dig the garage door out till I could open it and by the time they'd ploughed the village road clear, I'd got a call from the school not to bother as there was a metre of snow on the training ground. Even though we dug the training ground out over the next few days (I drove down), we were closed for training for over two weeks before the snow and ice cleared.

And 2010... not particularly snowy, but there was snow and ice on the ground for three months in Canterbury after the first snowfall at the beginning of December was 'topped up' by several other snow events. It wasn't till the end of Feb that it thawed.

Oh, and I remember 63-63. My primary school in SE London was closed for three months.

[Bustaspoke]

Icing up clothing is unpleasant, that's for sure.

Always fun to get off the bike after a ride in freezing fog, for a sheet of ice to fall of your chest, and strips of ice from along your fingers.

BRR,When your wax cotton jacket & trousers have frozen solid,nostalgia eh?
I'm glad to say those days are behind me!

[Supermofo]

I did my car test when I was 30 and that was the end of obligatory riding in all weathers. Snow,fog and ice riding is horrible,I don't miss it at all,nor do I want to live up to the Billy Big Balls mindset of being a 'proper biker'.

I didn't get a car till I was 28 so commuted all year round till then but ditched it straight after. I remember chatting to my brothers mates who'd been into bikes for about 2 years and were about 10 years older than me at that point and we met up in Dec as it was mild and I was saying I didn't do winter anymore and they were telling me how they were 'proper bikers' and if you ride all year round you get used to it I couldn't be arsed to explain.

[Supermofo]

-4 according to the car this morning. As I left the village I saw the commuter bloke on his scooter I see every Thursday (my office day) coming the other way. Bugger that, must have been below -10 with wind chill for him. Roads were decidedly greasy too.

[Yorick]

It's not cold today, but a few folk on back of ferry in BIG scarves.

Summer gear but with the big scarves

[Trinity765]

-3 when I left for work. I started the car, turned on all the heated stuff, sprayed a bit of de-icer over the windows and drove to work with excellent visibility and arrived warmer than was when I left

[v8-powered]

I wussed out this morning and took the car to the railway station, first time in many years.

[Ditchfinder]

Despite only having a bike licence for around 6 years only ever got caught in snow once. I was riding back from my folks in the Midlands up to Preston. This was mid-March so wasn't really expecting anything major weather wise and as it was a Sunday evening took usual route up the A515 to Ashbourne then onto the A523 to take me up to Macc as the roads were much nicer than hacking along the A50 and then up the M6.

That weekend I had swapped from my GPz305 over to my Dad's 400/four which had recently been put back in decent shape and was looking forward to a summer of riding around the Forest of Bowland on it.

This was back in the 90's and I only had Wax cottons as riding gear.

It was a bit nippy but not too bad when I set off but was getting progressively colder by the time I hit Ashbourne, but cracked on to Leek anyway. On the northside of Leek the road goes up a steep hill which was always poorly surfaced so even though the handling of the bike started feeling a bit strange I just put it down to the shit surface and an unfamiliar bike. At the top of the hill I changed my mind as I popped out from under the trees into a blizzard although it hadn't really started to stick to the road yet. At this point if I should have stopped, parked the bike and walked back into Leek for the night but I figured it was probably just a shower and I'd be through the other side fairly soon.

Anyway it wasn't a shower and about 13 miles and 2 hours later when I finally reached Macclesfield and the first open pub I had passed since Leek I called it a night. The locals rang around the local B&B's and managed to find me one a mile away which had a room or I would have slept on the pub floor. I had never been so cold and have never since either.

Remarkably I managed to not drop the bike but I probably went through an inch of sole on my paratrooper boots 'tripodding' all that way. The brakes were so shit on that thing it couldn't lock a wheel even on snow.

[Taipan]

Thick frost on everything this morning, so I stayed in bed longer! Not much better after 8:30 am when I went out to the scoot and wiped the frost of the seat, mirrors and speedo!

Kit wise I put a hoodie and gillet over my tshirt to keep me warm under my new jacket and it worked well. I also wore bike boots instead of trainers. I had over trousers on and despite my legs being fairly well sheltered on teh scoot, my knees felt a bit cold. I really should wear proper bike trousers when it's these temperatures. My trusty lobster claw gloves held off the cold until the last bit of the motorway but my hands soon warmed back up again in town.

Once the windshield arrives I think i'll be pretty comfortable in most weathers on the scoot. Just wish the damn thing would hurry up and get here!

[Rockburner]

Thick frost on everything this morning, so I stayed in bed longer! Not much better after 8:30 am when I went out to the scoot and wiped the frost of the seat, mirrors and speedo!

Kit wise I put a hoodie and gillet over my tshirt to keep me warm under my new jacket and it worked well. I also wore bike boots instead of trainers. I had over trousers on and despite my legs being fairly well sheltered on teh scoot, my knees felt a bit cold. I really should wear proper bike trousers when it's these temperatures. My trusty lobster claw gloves held off the cold until the last bit of the motorway but my hands soon warmed back up again in town.

Once the windshield arrives I think i'll be pretty comfortable in most weathers on the scoot. Just wish the damn thing would hurry up and get here!

Have you not got one of those leg covers for the scoot? They always looked warm to me.

[Taipan]

Thick frost on everything this morning, so I stayed in bed longer! Not much better after 8:30 am when I went out to the scoot and wiped the frost of the seat, mirrors and speedo!

Kit wise I put a hoodie and gillet over my tshirt to keep me warm under my new jacket and it worked well. I also wore bike boots instead of trainers. I had over trousers on and despite my legs being fairly well sheltered on teh scoot, my knees felt a bit cold. I really should wear proper bike trousers when it's these temperatures. My trusty lobster claw gloves held off the cold until the last bit of the motorway but my hands soon warmed back up again in town.

Once the windshield arrives I think i'll be pretty comfortable in most weathers on the scoot. Just wish the damn thing would hurry up and get here!

Have you not got one of those leg covers for the scoot? They always looked warm to me.

I have one in the shed-of-plenty that came with something, but i never used it. I might look at one of them but tbh your legs are pretty sheltered behind the front panels on a sh300 anyway?

[the_priest]

I have done the AWB thing. Not now thanks. Warm car, warm toes and fingers, music and heater on. Triumph is hiding until the Spring!

[Taipan]

You lot put the Bok on me!! I got cold coming home tonight, really fecking cold. So cold I was shivering and even considered turning off 10 miles before home to go into a pub or Lakeside, but I thought they probably throw me out thinking I'm a shivering junkie!

By the time I got home the cold was in me. I couldn't even lock the scoot. I sat down with my gear on and just waited for my hands to stop burning with cold! I kept thinking, as soon as these fingers start working again I'm going straight on the internet and putting Sunny Boy Yorick on ignore!

[Yorick]

You lot put the Bok on me!! I got cold coming home tonight, really fecking cold. So cold I was shivering and even considered turning off 10 miles before home to go into a pub or Lakeside, but I thought they probably throw me out thinking I'm a shivering junkie!

By the time I got home the cold was in me. I couldn't even lock the scoot. I sat down with my gear on and just waited for my hands to stop burning with cold! I kept thinking, as soon as these fingers start working again I'm going straight on the internet and putting Sunny Boy Yorick on ignore!

[Yorick]

I remember as a kid commuting 15 miles from Leeds to Bradford, I used to stop outside Armley nick and grab the exhausts until my hands warmed a bit.
One morning it was showing 14F on the big Yorkshire Post tower.

Brrr.

[Dickyboy]

I remember as a kid commuting 15 miles from Leeds to Bradford, I used to stop outside Armley nick and grab the exhausts until my hands warmed a bit.
One morning it was showing 14F on the big Yorkshire Post tower.

Brrr.

Wanna get thasen a guzzi, perfect for warming yer hands ont cylinder heads.