Our favourite kit for riding through spring

Spring is one of the best times of the year to ride a bike, because the sun is back (at least sometimes, anyway), the temperature is warm but not too hot and it’s great to be back outside after a winter where a lot of riders understandably retreat to indoor cycling.

It's also that point in the year where you can't ride in summer kit, but full winter kit will leave you sweaty and uncomfortable, plus you need to remember that not being summer yet you can't just roll out the best bike on those paper-thin race tyres an expect to ride unscathed. So here are our kit picks for spring, the things we like and the things we wouldn't ride without. 

Leg Warmers

Layering in cycling is a subject that garners a whole host of opinions. There are those riders that’ll happily go out in shorts whatever the weather and at the other end of the spectrum the riders that are fully covered until the weather is a least double digits, and even then it’s hard to tempt those legs to see daylight. We’re firmly at the wimpy end and, as such, leg warmers are one of the most used pieces of kit that we own.

Our very favourites are Pearl iZUMi’s ELITE leg warmers. They have the PI Dry treatment which we’ve banged on about more than a few times here and it’s the sort of water resistance that you dream of in a leg warmer. Using a thermal fleece fabric, wide gripper at the top of the leg and a zipped closure at the bottom, they’re pretty much the perfect leg warmer, in our opinion. Plus, if you don’t really ride in the rain, there’s a version without the PI Dry tech for £15 cheaper which is a bargain.

Vittoria Corsa Control

It's spring, people, not summer so let's not get ahead of ourselves and go chucking those race grade tyres onto the bike too early. We all know that spring in the UK can just as easily throw up a horrible, rainy ride as it can give you four hours in glorious sunshine so you still need a set of tyres that have a bit more protection against punctures.

Taking the 320 TPI Corespun-K reinforced casing that the classic Corsa uses, and adding textured shoulder tread into the mix, the Corsa Control is a performance road tyre that's just a little better at staving off anything looking to delate your riding joy. They're available in clincher or tubeless ready (TLR), but if you're after that tan-wall look then that's cilncher-only. 

Madison Isoler Merino 3-Season Socks

 If you're not big on overshoes then you at least need some quality socks to help keep your feet warm. Full-on winter socks are probably slight overkill at this stage in the year - unless there's a cold spell - but most bike shoes are so well ventilated now that going for lightweight socks while the temperature can still hover around 10 degrees is pretty brave. 

Madison Clothing's Merino 3-season socks are, as you'd imagine, made for riding through spring, summer and autumn. They're a very nice compromise between warm and breathable and come in a variety of funky colours, too. 

Dynaplug Racer Pro

As you can tell from the choice of the Corsa Control tyres above, we're firm believers in not throwing caution to the wind when it comes to punctures just because it's a bit sunnier. If you're riding tubeless - and if not, then give it a go - then the new Dynaplug Racer Pro is your new best friend. As you've probably figured out from the name, tubeless tyres dont run inner tubes, so fixing a puncture is a slightly different proposition to just changing an inner tube.

Dynaplug takes the direct route to fixing a puncture on a tubeless tyre: plugging the hole. It's wonderfully simple, find the hole in the tyre, then use the Dynaplug to insert a viscoelastic plug that not only fills the hole but wont budge while you ride home. It's so good, you can trim the plug later and keep riding those tyres if you want to. In conjunction with sealant, it really is a fantastically quick and effective way to get back riding again if you have a flat. 

Lights

 The clocks may have changed, but it still starts to get dark if you're trying to make the most of the longer days with a post-work ride. After a helmet, lights are one of the most important bits of safety equipment for any cyclist and making sure you have at least a quality rear light on your bike for almost any ride (yep, sunny summer rides too) is a sensible move. 

Light and Motions Vya Pro rear light is a super cool piece of kit for anyone who wants something motion-sensitive, plus with a 100-lumen max output it's a powerful little thing, too. But for our money the Vis 180 is still hard to beat. 150-lumen max power, multiple modes, 180-degree visibility and a run time of up to 32hrs on the 'paceline' setting or 12hrs on low.