apologies for the ‘on trend’ title, thought it would be useful to have a thread on little hacks we’ve all done to make winter riding more pleasurable.

for me

british army lightweight Goretex Trousers as a very good cheap pair of waterproof riding trousers.

little piece of cut down rrp neoguard used to protect the loam shelf on my Santa Cruz tallboy. Held in place with sticky Velcro.

lightweight gaiters to create a better barrier between the above waterproof troos and the sealskin socks.

childrens shoe hangers from the asdas used to hang pairs of gloves up to air

there’s probably more but all I can think of right now, I’d be interested in what others are doing

Mudguards are great for keeping the crap off.

Go running instead.

A piece of old inner tube wrapped tightly round the seat clamp to stop water getting into the seat tube.

Ride on the road instead.

Ride indoors when its raining.

I bought full length mudguards for my gravel bike. As a result my riding has been far more frequent than it might have been.

Polish the bike in winter to help the crap not stick 😉 that includes inside of mudguards – works a treat!

James

As soon as the boot driers are in any form of sale on amazon, buy one. Dry shoes and gloves every time.

Mudguards. Carefully selected and positioned so they actually work. I see a lot of riders whose mudgurards don’t. Also those who would rather look like a coal miner than besmirch their bike’s appearance with mudguards. Bizarre. Although it turns out with a wider downtube than tyre and barely any fork clearance my gravel bike only needs a rear one.

Gaiters. Trousers if cold/wet enough, which should overlap boots. Long socks.

I find more mud and slop sits in between finned brake pads grinding away than normal ones, so ditch them.

If you’ve got several bikes, pick one to use through winter rather than trashing the whole fleet.

Fenwicks suspension lube. Amazing what can be brought back to life with that stuff. Creaking brake levers, stuck cables.

Make sure feet are warm at the start of the ride.

I put sugru in the holes where the cables go to stop water getting into the frame. It’s easy to remove when replacing cables.

You can even use it around the seat post clamp. Amazing stuff.

Plumb your hot water up too your hosepipe

Toasty

Compiling a list from above, all good stuff.

already have a shoe drier and they are fantastic!

hot water hosepipe sounds amazing though!

I’ve moved house and I’m missing it…

On a mixer tap… washing the dog, bike,car or me was lovely in winter

I never knew I needed hot water from the outside tap until now. That’s my next project.

One MTB for winter riding with rigid forks fitted and larger chainring, used on and off road.