Calling all winter cyclists - and all wannabe winter cyclists! My question is simply: what, to you, is the biggest hurdle to overcome to start cycling in winter? I'm thinking especially of commuters here. Is it the lower temps? More rain and wind? Darker commutes? The need for more gear? Would you rather just do indoor stuff instead, and don't find it worth the hassle? Are you worried about ice, or not being seen?

I'm asking because we have a huge contigent of bike commuters at my workplace right now, but I can see the number dropping off rapidly now that mornings are getting cold. I run our winter bike commuting challenge, and I just now started thinking that it would be fun to try to recruit more people to winter commuting. I'm guessing that many people don't consider themselves "cyclists" and just commute in regular clothing, and get really cold once the temperature drops and they're riding in jeans and office shoes. And I'm also guessing that many people think that winter commuting is really hardcore and you have to have studded tires and really expensive lights and lots of extra gear, whereas in fact in Oslo you can bike for weeks in winter with regular tires and just need some annoying blinkies to be seen.

But you do need - something windproof over your ears and chin, good gloves, warm socks and lights, in addition to normal "winter sportswear", which most Norwegians have for XC skiing. So I'm thinking vaguely of offering a "winter bike shop" for the next two weeks, where I offer to coordinate buying helmet caps, Buffs, gloves and lights, all reasonable entry-level stuff, for the ones who might want to try winter commuting for the first time.

Whaddya think? Would this be a tempting offer to you, that you could come to work, hand over a little cash and be given the basic essentials? Or am I over-simplifying things here?