Is it Spring Yet? Riding in Winter.

It's beginning to thaw outside, just enough to get me out chopping the ice in the driveway and hoping I can drive to Port Dover on Friday 13th.

It's conventional wisdom that you don't ride a motorcycle in winter. But there are some ways to cheat, and I don't mean driving the car.

Everyone who cheats old man winter has their own sense of fair play. Some may use a sidecar to stay upright, yet think that an electric vest makes it too easy. Others may think the very opposite. I generally don't ride in the winter much now. My first three winters of motorcycling were spent in Africa, and when I came home I guess I just wasn't thinking about winter when I bought a motorcycle. Then I moved up to northern Quebec, just to make things worse. For about six more long winters I worked on various schemes to get me out riding the bike, and though nothing was perfect, I gained experience. And I found out that to ride in the winter you are best off if you take every advantage you can. Except I draw the line at sidecars, which I consider to be the first step on the slippery slope to four wheels.

When riding in winter, I sweat the details: the motorcycle, the riding gear, the road surface, the weather, the route. A ride in the winter can range anywhere from taking my Honda 175 out to bust a few snowbanks in the back yard, to taking off on a trip to California. Every type of trip has its own optimum setup.

My favourite was the early Spring southern getaway - Florida for example. The basic strategy was to watch the weather channel and make a break for it when it looked like I had a few days of warm dry weather. Then coming back, it would be hopefully be a bit easier as spring was coming soon.

The gear: Warm boots, a variety of gloves and mitts, long johns and warm over pants, a neck warmer, full face helmet, electric vest were all critical.

The motorcycle: A windshield, leg shields that go all the way down to my toes, something to shield the hands too.

The route and the weather: Most people think weather forecasting is crap, and it was, when I started riding in winter. Today it's hundreds of times better. The accuracy up to four days ahead of time is mind boggling to me when I think of how bad it used to be. And on the same day, you can often pinpoint to the minute and within twenty miles where you will hit rain, if you have a current weather radar such as an Apple iTouch or a Blackberry (which actually I don't.) I use the weather forecasts to judge whether the roads will be dry, and the temperature warm enough. Usually if it has not snowed for a few days, the freeways will be dry, so that's easy to figure out. When travelling, I don't use Motel 6 simply because they don't have the Weather Channel.

When I set out on a longer trip, I make an effort to figure out what the weather will be where I am going each day. No good leaving home in sunny weather then run into a blizzard five hours later in Detroit. I try to anticipate the direction and speed of the weather systems, then time my trip to zip through between them. With a little experience it's possible to avoid 90% of bad weather by adjusting either the route or the timing. It's actually more difficult near home because the route is fixed. But if I'm in the middle of the USA, I can easily deviate 500 km off my route just to miss a weather system, and still get where I'm going.