WINTERISING WIL

Some concepts are near-impossible for non-native riders to visualise. For example, British riders have very little idea what ‘Too hot to ride’ could be like. It sounds pretty nice, to be honest. Likewise, we have no idea that ‘this trail is really dusty’ is actually a bad thing. We’re so delighted by that first puff of dust seen on a late June ride to consider that a very dusty trail is anything other than a joyful experience.

And so it is with Wil, our new staff writer. He moved to the UK from Australia in late June to work for Singletrack. His travel route limited him to a single rucksack at the time, which didn’t leave much room for riding clothes, and even when his steamer trunk showed up a month or so later, there wasn’t much more than short sleeve jerseys and short shorts in there. It was quickly clear that Wil had no idea how to survive a winter here.

For our guide to helping you (and Wil) to survive the winter in comfort and style, we’ve split minging weather into two different sorts of ming – first up is hideously, shoe-squelchingly wet and then there’s face-numbingly, achingly cold. There are obviously as many variations of bad weather as the Australians have variations of ‘a bit hot’ but it’ll do for starters. And to make sure it’s not all depressing, we’ve also added a third change of clothes for those three unseasonably warm days we always get in February, as well as for that glorious ‘first nice day of the year’.