Brrrr!

Cold is one of adventure riding’s toughest challenges. And if there’s one thing Adventure Rider Magazine likes, it’s watching other riders take on a tough challenge.

Lithgow in the Blue Mountains to the west of Sydney probably isn’t the coldest place in Australia. In the middle of Winter though, it’s fairly shithouse. We can remember lots of occasions where we’ve found ourselves either in the very early morning or evening, shivering like a dog crapping razorblades outside the Blackheath fish’n’chip shop, desperate for absolutely anything that would give some relief from the painful, artery-busting cold.

When we saw an ad from RideADV for its annual ‘Insanely Cold 2 Day Navigation Ride’ starting at Lithgow we thought, ‘Yeah! We can’t wait to experience that kind of misery again!’ We packed our winter woollies, grabbed some new gear we were keen to try, and headed west.

Basics

We’ve had a look at dealing with cold before. As with so many things in adventure riding, preparation is vital to survival. There are a few basic concepts all riders should understand before spending on gimmicks and gadgets.

First up, and most important, is keeping the wind off a rider.

The movement of air across the skin causes the phenomenon known as ‘wind chill’ and it can be a killer – quite literally. As the air moves across a rider’s skin it causes evaporation, and that causes temperatures to drop. The same happens when a rider’s clothing becomes wet. The air moving past the damp fabric causes the moisture to evaporate, and that makes the temperature drop.

So a rider faced with cold should be looking for every possible way to keep air from moving over their skin. Scarves, balaclavas and windproof apparel are a good start. Adventure helmets are a better option than motocross helmets in this context as well, preferably with a Pinlock inner visor or some other treatment to control fogging. 

Not always easy