brrr

[totient]

I have a rule about biking in the cold, which I like to phrase as "never go out wearing all of your gear". That's maybe a little confusing: what I really mean is "always bring spare gear with you". This morning's 15 degrees was cold enough for the neoprene face mask, and any colder and I'd want the glove-liners in my pocket in addition to the winter gloves I had on my hands. I have a spare pair of socks here at work with me in case it gets really bad. At some point I should look into neoprene overshoes that work with street shoes as the winter bike does not have clipless pedals (and now that there is salt on the ground, the summer bike won't come out again until after the second good rain in spring).

Comments

[radioactiverich.livejournal.com]

I'll second that: brrrr. You have a good rule there which I break all the time. (The only bit of gear I don't wear generally are the rain pants.) Then again my commute is only 7.5 miles, so if I get into trouble I'm not far from home (and there are ample opportunities on the way for stop-offs and such.)

[i-leonardo.livejournal.com]

i have great luck with polypropylene socks; much easier to get things that fit over your feet than over your shoes. many winters of positive experience with them. when i want some protection over my shoes, maybe because it's wet or windy, i use nylon or gortex ankle gaiters. and i always wear the rain pants in the winter, regardless of the weather.

[palmwiz.livejournal.com]

i always wear the rain pants in the winter

15 degrees is not cold enough for the rain pants. I'll break those out when it gets below 5.

[i-leonardo.livejournal.com]

it's not the baseline temperature that gets me, it's the wind chill.

[miss-chance.livejournal.com]

Last winter I wore tights under my pants (sometimes two or even three pair) and then had to do this whole undress-redress thing when I got to work. This winter I'm going to try this rain-pants as wind-breaker technique instead, but I have nice, fancy breathable ones, so I'm not sure how well this will work.