“RE: Ride #86: Brr. Shiver. Cold Weather Cycling Gear.”

On 10/21/04, Lisa Williams said:

>In the coldest weather I wore a Pearl Izumi insulated,
>windblocking jacket.  I still wear it all the time for general use
>because it's so comfortable.  I bought it a few years ago, and
>looking at the current lineup, I can't really tell which one is
>"today's version." But doubtless they have something like it.

Would you believe that in ten years of riding, I've never once owned anything from Perl Izumi!?

It's simply a matter of price. PI's stuff is always the most expensive in the shop.

>I know layering is considered key, but under this jacket I just
>wore a t-shirt of some wicking material.  It was really warm.

What's the coldest weather you rode in? You said that you rode year-round, but you haven't said what part of the world you live in. If you're in Southern Florida, I'm not going to put much stock in your advice for cold weather gear. ;-)

>I generally wore a pair of PI Thermafleece tights -- the AmFib
>ones are warmer, but stiff and uncomfortable.

My problem with tights is that I'm fairly certain nobody makes anything long enough for me (38" inseam). I can get away with separate leg warmers by just not pulling them up as high. As long as they overlap the shorts, nobody has to know!

>Two things that help a lot in all but the coldest weather are a
>helmet cover (a stretchy thing like a shower cap that stretches
>tightly over your helmet and covers the vents)

I haven't had a problem, yet, with my head getting cold, but the temps have stayed in the 50's. I've been anticipating this problem, though, and wasn't sure exactly how I'd solve it. I'll look at helmet covers the next time I'm at my LBS. (I knew what they were, actually, but hadn't really looked at them yet.)

>and some shoe covers.  The helmet cover is nice for rain, too, and
>they often come with some reflective piping to add visibility as
>days get shorter.

I could have used shoe covers (dare I say it? Ok... "booties") today. When I was done with my ride, the longest toes on both feet were numb from the cold.

I have to say this: couldn't they come up with better names for this gear? :-) Daniel's always worrying about "looking like a geek" in his cycling gear, but I don't have that problem. My hangup is the names of all this stuff. "Look at Seth, the Real Man(tm), riding his bike in the winter! He's wearing booties, tights, leg warmers, and I think that's a shower cap on his head!"

Oy.

>Are you really averaging 19mph?! that's amazing.

Actually, no. :-) If you look at the overall stats for the year, you'll see that in October I'm averaging slightly over 20mph.

Seth