Riding in Winter
October 2026
Most EKAM members choose to ride throughout the year. The colder, gloomier and usually wetter Winter months bring their own challenges. More than ever, this is the time to double-check your motorcycle’s condition and road-worthiness – and your own preparation, using IAM Roadsmart’s acronym IAMSAFE.
ILLNESS: Check whether you have any illness or physical symptoms that could affect your ability to control a vehicle safely.
ATTITUDE: Assess your mental focus, frame of mind, and human factors like impatience or anger.
MEDICATION: Consider if any prescription or over-the-counter medicine might cause drowsiness, slow your reaction times, or impair performance.
SLEEP: Evaluate your level of fatigue and ensure you have had enough rest to maintain alertness.
ALCOHOL: Confirm you are completely free from the effects of alcohol or residual impairment.
FOOD: Check that you are properly fueled and hydrated, as hunger or dehydration impacts concentration and judgement.
EMOTION: Reflect on your stress levels or emotional state to ensure you will not engage in high-risk driving behaviors.
The following is an excerpt from Bennetts Bike Social.
How do I stay warm when riding in winter?
Our mantra here is ‘Get warm to stay warm’. Choose your kit carefully – leathers are great in the summer but horribly cold in the winter – especially if they have perforations.
Textiles are much better suited to winter riding, but you’ll still need to layer up underneath.
While there are plenty of motorcycle related brands that offer base and mid layers (don’t forget that BikeSocial members get discounts on many), the good news is that you don’t have to spend a fortune. Walking clothes are ideal and readily available from the likes of Mountain Warehouse at reasonable prices. Try to go for technical fabrics, they may feel cold at first, but soon warm up and wick away any body moisture quickly, meaning you won’t get as cold.
Consider wearing thick tights, not only do they keep your legs warmer, but they provide great defence against drafts around your ankles.
Put your gloves and boots on the radiator for an hour before you leave. Putting on cold kit can be horrible (even worse when its damp too) and making sure you are warm before you leave the house at least gives you fighting chance of staying warm.
Try and put your kit on the back of a chair near the window – even weak winter sun will warm dark textiles. At the very least bring your kit in from the garage or utility well before you need to wear it.
Put a pinlock insert in your visor. Winter riding is difficult enough without your visor fogging up at every exhalation. Most helmets come with pinlock posts on the visors, and many come supplied with an insert in the box. Practice fitting it to make sure you get a nice even tight seal and keep it meticulously clean to avoid scratches or hazing.
Consider wearing silk or merino gloves inside your riding gloves. So long as they don’t add too much bulk, they can add some much needed insulation as well as being to be tucked under your base layer sleeves to ensure an airtight seal.
Wear something in Hi-Viz – the road isn’t a fashion catwalk and as unfashionable as you may think Hi-Viz is, you need to do everything you can to be as visible as possible. Remember, if it’s hard for you to see through the fog and murk, it’s just as hard for everyone else to see you.
If your bike is your only choice of transport over the winter months, consider investing in some heated kit – even just a vest will mean that your core stays warm, but if you can stretch to gloves too, then even better.