Motorcycle Sport & Leisure Magazine 672 - April 2019 Back Issue

The other day when I was riding to work, I glanced at the dash and nearly wobbled off my perch when I noticed the air temperature: -1.5C. It had only been plus 1 when I set off, so the difference wasn’t huge, but seeing that minus sign before the digits was a bit daunting. Still, I was warm with plenty of layers, heated kit and heated grips, and the road ahead was nice and dry so I didn’t need to worry about ice.

As an added bonus I soon found a long line of traffic ahead of me at a complete standstill, with plenty of room to filter past. It was like it was meant to be. It made me think though: what is it that makes us ride all year?The more I think about it, finding good, sensible reasons for riding in winter is tricky. I usually tell myself that taking the bike makes sense because I can get from A to B quicker. However, even if the actual travel time is less on two wheels because you can filter your way through congestion zones, it takes so long to get all your layers on and off that any time benefit is marginal at best.

Sometimes I try the economy and ecology arguments too, but the first one goes pop when I stop to fuel up and come out of the services with my arms full of chocolate because I’ve ‘earned’ it for braving the weather.The second one is a bit shaky too, given that my car has a smaller engine, better MPG performance and reasonable CO2 emissions compared to a lot of the bikes I ride. If I was lucky and didn’t get stuck in traffic jams the carbon footprint probably wouldn’t be much bigger.