This month I would like to give a simple warning to all our motorcycling members – winter is coming!  I know that is a bit obvious, but what will it mean to you if you are on two wheels?  Well extra hazards of course, and unless you are one of the many motorcyclists these days who hang up their leathers until spring, you will have to learn to recognize and cope with them.  There are of course many of them, but I will deal here with only three. 

Frost

Frost is fairly visible, so it shouldn’t present you with too many surprises.  It is usually encountered in the morning when you are riding into work, melts slowly during the warmer daylight hours, and may re-appear as darkness falls.  Because it only occurs in very cold weather when you will be aware that your tyres are also very cold and do not offer their maximum grip, you shouldn’t come upon an area of frost riding fast and leaning far over on a bend.

While cars and other four-wheeled vehicles will remove some of the frost from the road surface, you are likely to be riding on a different area of the carriageway.  Also, long after some of the frost has been exposed to sunshine and melted, you will still find some present in areas shaded by trees, buildings, fencing or parked vehicles (which may have been driven away only seconds before you arrive on the scene).  Remember too that the sun’s movement means an area which is basking in sunshine when you arrive may have been in shade only a short while earlier.

As usual, if you are uncertain about the amount of grip available, a precautionary dab with your boot on the road surface can tell you a lot.  This is a valuable technique worth practicing, but remember it’s always done with your foot behind or to the outside of the footrest and never in front of it!

Ice

Ice presents the ultimate surface hazard.  Grip is virtually absent.  It can be expected to form on stretches of the carriageway that are exposed to the cold from underneath as well as on top such as on flyovers and bridges.  Dips in the road may hold frozen puddles, and openings in walls and hedgerows will permit cold winds to blow across and chill the road surface.

Listen to the weather forecasts; they may predict a sudden cold spell following rain.  A bird bath or a jar of water placed in the garden will confirm below zero overnight temperatures before you get on the bike in the morning.

Watching vehicles ahead for unusual movements such as snaking, or sliding down the camber, can provide early warning of ice but ultimately, if you have reason to believe that ice is probable there is no justification for riding.  Control over your survival will be taken out of your own hands and placed into those of following drivers.  This is because you will slow right down if you suspect ice ahead, but following drivers of cars and heavy vehicles will not feel equally at risk, and in frustration they will follow closer and closer behind you in their impatience to pass.  If you do encounter ice and fall they will be unable to stop or to swerve around you.

Snow

Falling snow is horrible stuff to ride through.  Apart from the disturbing visual effect, it can obscure lamps and indicators, screens and visors within a hundred yards or so.  Using your glove to wipe them will lead to a frozen hand within a few miles, and nothing mists up so readily as the inside of a visor that has snow on the outside.

Car drivers have wipers to clear their screens, of course, but snow still presents them with a problem.  The wipers push some of the snow to the right hand side of the windscreen, up against the door pillar and this creates a pronounced blind spot.  You need to bear this in mind when you are approaching a vehicle whose driver is waiting either to pull out from a side turning on your left, or to join a roundabout.

The effects of snow settling on the road surface can be rapid and dramatic.  Road signs, cats eyes, road markings of all sorts, and even the kerbs can become obscured in minutes.  This can lead drivers to believe they have right of way across your path when they don’t, and you could make the same mistake.  And don’t forget that some pedestrians suddenly prefer walking in the road to walking on the pavement when there is snow on the ground.

There are different types of snow.  The sort that is good for snowballs because it sticks together so well, will fill in the tyre tread pattern and quickly build up under the mudguard.  This leads to a lessening of grip on the road surface and a growing braking effect from the compacting snow between the tyre and guard.  The result will be that the wheel eventually stops turning.

If snow is settling rather than melting, all of the considerations relating to ice will apply.  If you consider your journey is essential despite such extreme conditions, it’s worth carrying enough cash for an enforced stay at a hotel.

A heavy fall of snow overnight can cause another problem.  When leaving for work, car drivers will clear snow from windscreens and hopefully from rear and side windows, but it is quite usual for them to leave it on the bonnet and roof.  I think the motivation for this is probably a heroic display of how tough were the conditions that these drivers had to overcome.  There isn’t a problem at the low speeds achieved as they drive through the housing estates or villages where they live, but if their journey to work includes a stretch of dual carriageway, or motorway, the situation is far different.

You do not want to be behind one of these snow covered cars when it reaches the critical speed at which the snow on the bonnet or the roof lets go.  The stuff on the bonnet may suddenly ride up onto the windscreen, overcoming the wiper motor and removing all vision.  Anything from a violent swerve to an emergency stop in an attempt to dislodge it is now possible.  If the snow on the roof lets go when you are riding behind you could be struck in the face or the chest by a lump weighing almost as much as a bag of coal.

 An HGV can present a slightly different risk, particularly if it is being used for long distance work.  It may deposit a large quantity of snow from its roof onto the carriageway in an area of the country where no snow has fallen.  Predicting this is virtually impossible and that’s why we have the first rule of safe motorcycling – always ride at such a speed and in such a manner that you can stop on your own side of the road, and under control, within the distance ahead that you can see to be clear.

I hope I haven’t put anybody off from winter riding, but as always it pays to be prepared.  Now then, don’t be a wimp - get out there and ride!

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