Best month for cycling

[Pale Rider]

If you could only cycle for one calendar month, which month would it be?

I reckon the winter months are a bit cold and dark, not to mention ice on the roads which seemed to hang around late in the days last winter.

April can still be cold/frosty, so May is a possibility.

June or July can be too wet or too hot.

August weather strikes me as muggy if it's warm.

September can be OK, but is a bit in betweeny in terms of the seasons.

So my pick of the cycling year is October, particularly before the clocks go back.

Cool, autumnal, often bright, and still enough daylight for a long day ride.

What's your favourite month for riding?

 

[gavroche]

August as I prefer dry weather.

 

[avsd]

May as I tend to go to Spain or Italy to tour before it gets too hot.

 

[bpsmith]

May has proven to be the best weather on average, recently.

 

[grellboy]

September. In my experience (and I should know because i always go back to work in September after six weeks off!) the weather is very often sunnier and drier than August, the roads are a little quieter and the crap that shreds your tyres every winter is yet to hit the roads. And later in the month you might even get a bit of autumnal colour if you are lucky, although these days Autumn seems to be later and later.......so maybe October is better then lol!

 

[GuyBoden]

April to Oct, but autumn is when most the farmers cut the hedges, around here at least, so you need good tyres.

 

[Sea of vapours]

If forced to pick a calendar month I'd go with October for much the same rationale as yours. If 'a thirty or thirty one day period' is allowed then I'll opt for mid-September to mid-October on the basis that late October can get a bit windy and wet, and commensurately cold. Also, I tend to be fittest at that point in the year so that makes rides better.

 

[NorthernDave]

September is the best. The weather is still good enough to enjoy cycling in shorts and a short sleeved top, the roads are quieter, you've generally got a decent level of fitness built up from all the cycling you've done over the summer and you'll have fine tuned your bike exactly how it should be. Yep, it's September for me.

Although May runs it a close second.

 

[Oxo]

Think I will go with May. A fair chance of decent weather and the rest of the summer and autumn to look forward to.

 

[HLaB]

The best month ? today its June, tomorrow its July

 

[DanZac]

September for me, kids are back at school so campsites are quiet, roads are quieter, weathers still normally almost as good as August and it doesn't tend to be as windy as the early summer and spring months.
Plus as others have said the old legs will have hopfully had a full summer of riding in them so I'll be at peak fitness, unlike January when its peak fatness.

 

[mjr]

May. It's fairly good weather, plus there's so many cycling events on that you couldn't do them all even if you could be in three places at once!

 

[tallliman]

September or October for me too. Often there's little wind and some lovely days.

 

[welsh dragon]

April, as that seems to be the only month over the last few years that it doesn't rain in Wales. We seem to have only 2 kinds of weather here over the past few years. Cold and wet, or warmer and wet. April seems to be the best month. Decent warmth, little to no rain. Lots of flowers, trees coming to life after the long winter, and of course the sun shines. Best time of the year.

 

[Flick of the Elbow]

December, when a couple of hours on the bike is all it takes to fully justify a farmers market gravy laden steak pie with mash, carrots and sprouts washed down with a full on Cab Sauv or Malbec. Followed by 70% chocolate and a glass or two of a sherry casked Speyside malt.

But if you'd asked me this in December I would probably have said September or October.