Cold feet on a winter ride isn’t a particularly great experience. If you’ve ever gotten things wrong on a cold winter ride, such as not wearing overshoes, and experienced your feet go from cold to numb to freezing and painful, the ride in question may well be burned into your memory and you probably won’t want to repeat the experience any time soon. Worry not though; we’ve got a guide on how to keep your feet warm while cycling so it never happens again.
Freezing extremities during winter cycling are just one of many challenges cyclists can face as the mercury drops. If you are somewhere warmer perhaps you won’t need everything here, but if you live somewhere where the temperatures really drop, then a lot of the points below will be relevant.
There are points on equipment and clothing choices along with some less obvious tips and tricks to keeping your toes toasty, allowing you to focus on the riding.
Tips and tricks to keep your feet warm on the bike
First up, we’ll start with some of the less obvious things you can do to try and keep your feet warm on the bike.
1. Don’t start with cold feet
Starting a cold winter ride with warm feet before you leave the house will help stave off the chill, at least for the early part of the ride. Nipping out to the garage in bare feet will sap your feet of warmth before you even start, so keep them warm right up to the time you are ready to go riding and your feet will stay warmer for longer. The same is true for the rest of your body as well, stay warm and cosy before it’s time to head outdoors, and you won’t be starting on the back foot.
2. Tape up vents on your shoes’ soles
Taping up any shoe sole vents or openings can help minimise the amount of cold air, as well as water, entering your shoe from below. If the shoes you use during winter have larger vents, tape them up and you should benefit from a marginal gain in temperature. If it’s raining, the spray from the road can also get in through these vents, which won’t help, so taping up vents can also solve this problem. I’d recommend some Gorilla adhesive tape for this job, it sticks where others don’t.
Keeping your feet dry is key, so investing in a set of the best road bike mudguards will definitely help too.
On a side note, whilst were talking about the soles of shoes, ensure your cleat screws and or bolts have grease or anti-seize on the threads, seized cleat bolts aren’t fun to tackle when changing cleats and winter water and salt…
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