What the hell was I thinking? These are the very words that were running through my head yesterday morning on the M3 heading towards London just after both hands went numb due to the cold.
The plan had been a simple one....wear extra layers, wrap up warm and take the bike to work in order to avoid the worst of Friday afternoon/evening rush hour. See, it sounds so simple when put like that.
When I woke, it was dry and the sky was clear. No clouds, just stars and a sliver of the moon, but bloody hell was it cold. I hadn't seen ice on the windscreens of the cars on my road for ages, but they all had that crystalline look as the bike's headlight struck them in the darkness.
Despite having not rained, the mix of early morning dew and road salt had left, what appeared to be a thin layer of black slime on the roads. This in turn, was flicked up by the cars around me, right across my visor. Yep, splendid.
This is when it got interesting! The start of the journey had been okay, my hands just hurt, but I could feel them and the visor was reasonably clear, but on the M3 it got so bad, that a) I couldn't feel my hands and b) I couldn't clear the grime properly from the visor, leaving me staring through a streaky mess. I had to stop.
My commute is usually achieved in one hit, sometimes this includes a petrol stop at the start, so stopping three quarters of the way to work is rare. The exit for Fleet Services couldn't come quick enough and when I arrived, my first problem was getting my flippin lid off. Slowly, slowly catchy monkey. After about four mins of, frankly, faffing around, I freed my head from its HJC branded tomb and went inside to warm up.
Getting out of work earlier than expected helped and I managed to do the vast majority of the ride home in daylight. The only downside, was the setting sun, but with a semi-tinted visor on, I was able to see well enough to avoid ploughing into the back of some saloon.
Getting home safe, I parked up and sprayed the bike down from the hose in the garage, rinsing off the road salt that was now covering the bike and just sat down, thankful it was all over.
If there's one thing I can say about using a bike to commute on, no matter how long the distance, its always interesting.
The plan had been a simple one....wear extra layers, wrap up warm and take the bike to work in order to avoid the worst of Friday afternoon/evening rush hour. See, it sounds so simple when put like that.
When I woke, it was dry and the sky was clear. No clouds, just stars and a sliver of the moon, but bloody hell was it cold. I hadn't seen ice on the windscreens of the cars on my road for ages, but they all had that crystalline look as the bike's headlight struck them in the darkness.
Despite having not rained, the mix of early morning dew and road salt had left, what appeared to be a thin layer of black slime on the roads. This in turn, was flicked up by the cars around me, right across my visor. Yep, splendid.
This is when it got interesting! The start of the journey had been okay, my hands just hurt, but I could feel them and the visor was reasonably clear, but on the M3 it got so bad, that a) I couldn't feel my hands and b) I couldn't clear the grime properly from the visor, leaving me staring through a streaky mess. I had to stop.
My commute is usually achieved in one hit, sometimes this includes a petrol stop at the start, so stopping three quarters of the way to work is rare. The exit for Fleet Services couldn't come quick enough and when I arrived, my first problem was getting my flippin lid off. Slowly, slowly catchy monkey. After about four mins of, frankly, faffing around, I freed my head from its HJC branded tomb and went inside to warm up.
Getting out of work earlier than expected helped and I managed to do the vast majority of the ride home in daylight. The only downside, was the setting sun, but with a semi-tinted visor on, I was able to see well enough to avoid ploughing into the back of some saloon.
Getting home safe, I parked up and sprayed the bike down from the hose in the garage, rinsing off the road salt that was now covering the bike and just sat down, thankful it was all over.
If there's one thing I can say about using a bike to commute on, no matter how long the distance, its always interesting.
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