Riding in the cold is a really nasty feeling that I had the displeasure of recently experiencing one early Sat morning on my way to Shannonville. 10-degrees out at 130km/hr makes for one wicked wind chill for two hours.

Eventually the cold got through all the layers and I started shivering…bad. I felt like one of those toy monkeys with the cimbels but instead with my knees banging against the tank. I began to loose all feeling in my hands and tears began trickling down my face. Halfway there and I couldn’t take it anymore and stopped for 10min…I should have stopped longer.

Back on the bike and the pain quickly returned. Now my stomach muscles are even twitching and my arms and shoulders are shaking right along with my legs.

When I finally saw my exit…I went for the brakes and couldn’t squeeze the lever!!! Not only was the brake fluid thick from the cold but the real issue was more so my hands were frozen…again the tears poured as I squeezed as hard as I could through the pain. Once I got off the bike…I kept all my gear on (except for my helmet, which took over 5min to get off because I couldn’t undo the strap for the complete lack of feeling in my fingers) and I wrapped myself with a blanket but it still took 40min to stop shaking. Lessons were learned that day.