A Litter Colder!

Yesterday was a blustery, windy day – too bad to ride. I mean it was windy! There were wind advisories issued, and forcasts of winds up to 60 mph. Personally, I don’t think it was that windy, but it was more than I wanted to ride in.

This morning the wind calmed way down, and we were left with a wonderfully crisp, cool autumn morning. The thermometer outside my kitchen window read 28 degrees, and the neighborhood flags were hanging almost straight down … perfect for an invigorating commute to work.

I’m trying to dress better for my rides this winter. Last winter I tried to get by on the cheap by using various layered items purchased at the local *$#mart. This year I coughed up some dough for “real” cool/cold weather biking clothes, and I’m very interested in finding out what works and what doesn’t. There’s very little accurate (read: non-commercial) information out there about cool/cold weather riding, simply because the U.S. cycling business is so oriented toward the racing wannabees. But I digress.

Today’s outfit consisted of :

Light balaclava, heavy balaclava, helmet, helmet cover
Base shirt, short-sleeved jersey, arm warmers, heavy cycling jacket
Heavy gloves
Cycling shorts, wind-front tights
Poly socks, wool socks, MTB shoes

Results:

Head and ears – warm
Face – cool nose and eyes
Neck – hot
Hands and arms – warm enough
Chest, shoulders, back and torso, butt and thighs – warm
Knees and lower legs – cool
Feet – too cool

So, it looks like I mostly guessed ok for this morning. I think I’ll not double-up on the balaclava again until the weather gets really frigid, because I don’t like my neck being hot. And it looks like I need to put winter riding shoes higher up on my wish list. Other than that I’m ok.

And the good news is that after spending so much time getting my riding stuff ready, I only forgot a few work-related items. So here I am happily at work going commando, with my shirt tail out to cover my belt-less pants, and wearing my cycling socks with my loafers. Ha! Cracks me up.!