Bicycling in Cold Weather

I want to bicycle at casual speed for 5 to 10 hours a day in
temperatures 20F-35F. How should I dress? This is what I think:

1. Wicking base layer
2. 100 wt fleece top
3. Waterproof shell
4. Midweight running tights
5. Warm streamlined winter boot/shoes
6. Woll socks
7. Fleece hat
8. Windproof gloves

Is this ok? I don't want to freeze and I want to have a comfortable,
painless ride.

wrote:

I want to bicycle at casual speed for 5 to 10 hours a day in
temperatures 20F-35F. How should I dress? This is what I think:

1. Wicking base layer
2. 100 wt fleece top
3. Waterproof shell
4. Midweight running tights
5. Warm streamlined winter boot/shoes
6. Woll socks
7. Fleece hat
8. Windproof gloves

Is this ok? I don't want to freeze and I want to have a comfortable,
painless ride.

It will vary by individual, but at these temperatures, I
think the only real problem will be hands and feet.

Once you get going, pedaling will keep you mostly warm
enough, even over a 5-10 hour period (a very long winter
ride!). Hands and feet could end up forcing an early
end to your ride.

I wouldn't skimp on the socks and glove protection, even
at 30-35F which isn't especially cold for a "normal"
duration ride. If you can layer up your hand and foot
protection, you can adjust as the ride progresses. It
will give you an idea of just how your extremities will
handle the cold for that long on the bike, and how to
dress without excess.

Best to avoid sweating as much as possible during cold
weather rides. A wicking layer is really worth having,
but try slowing down or speeding up dependent on your
"sweat state".

I personally find my hands ice up within the first 20
minutes of my ~1 hour commute, then start warming, even
in sub-20F temps. My feet on the other hand just slowly
keep getting colder, possibly leveling out at close to
the end of the commute.

I'd definitely need to add more foot layers if I was
going to be pedaling 5-10 hours!


SMH

On Fri, 10 Dec 2004 22:05:57 -0800, rk73737 wrote:

5. Warm streamlined winter boot/shoes

8. Windproof gloves

Keep hands and feet warm and you'll be happy. I'm real happy with
the CX ski gloves I got a while ago, as their thick on top with a
thin control palm. Sounds like you're on the right track as comfort is
pretty personal. Some folks like those neoprene face masks, but I don't
think you'll need them above 25 degrees or so. Hopefully you'll have a
small pack with you so you can adjust add/remove layers as needed.

Do bring thick and greasy lip balm--the constant cold wind is brutal on
your kisser!

BTW, this post showed up four times on my news server
(earthlink.west)--either you're hitting the send button too many times,
your version of Mozilla is borked, or your ISP's news server is
kooky--just letting you know.

On 10 Dec 2004 22:05:57 -0800, wrote:
I want to bicycle at casual speed for 5 to 10 hours a day in
temperatures 20F-35F. How should I dress? This is what I think:

1. Wicking base layer
2. 100 wt fleece top
3. Waterproof shell
4. Midweight running tights
5. Warm streamlined winter boot/shoes
6. Woll socks
7. Fleece hat
8. Windproof gloves

Is this ok? I don't want to freeze and I want to have a comfortable,
painless ride.

First, I ride through out the winter, in NJ, generally rides up to 40
miles ( 3 hours) in temperatures of 20 and above. I doubt I could
ride for 5 hours in 20 - 30 as my feet would become too painful. So
with that said here is my advice:

This is a tough call. The temperature variance is a bit large. As
others have said you'll have trouble with keeping from over heating to
being too cold. You'll have to adjust your layers as the temperature
changes and depending on other conditions. The wool socks work great,
I like the thick ones, also something windproof across the top of your
feet will help. I tend to wear booties at 20 but I leave the backs
open to keep from overheating (they're neoprene). Just make sure not
to have your foot wear tight, you want them loose but not too
loose. At 30 - 35 I prefer not to have a windproof shell on but you
may want some wind block across your knees, it makes them more
comfortable. For my chest I wear a windproof vest with a mesh
back. Below 28 I wear a windproof jacket. Gloves are a real pain for
me. I tend to find windproof gloves cause my hand to sweat too much
and then they get cold. You'll have to adjust accordingly for wind,
and cloudyness. The more wind the more you need windproof. But also
the less sun the colder it feels (you're not absorbing the suns heat).
Like I said, tough call.

--
Linux Home Automation Neil Cherry
http://home.comcast.net/~ncherry/ (Text only)
http://hcs.sourceforge.net/ (HCS II)
http://linuxha.blogspot.com/ My HA Blog

I want to bicycle at casual speed for 5 to 10 hours a day in
temperatures 20F-35F. How should I dress? This is what I think:

1. Wicking base layer
2. 100 wt fleece top
3. Waterproof shell
4. Midweight running tights
5. Warm streamlined winter boot/shoes
6. Woll socks
7. Fleece hat
8. Windproof gloves

Is this ok? I don't want to freeze and I want to have a comfortable,
painless ride.

You've gotten a lot of good advice so far, but one thing glaringly missing
is that, on a ride of 5-10 hours, the danger of blowing it (in terms of
dressing appropriately) are substantial. If you're doing a shorter ride
(say, 2-3 hours), you're never more than an hour and a half from home, so if
things don't work out, you turn around and head back, and suffer mostly from
temporary discomfort.

But if you're four hours away from home, and haven't planned a bail-out
option ahead of time, things could get very bad very quickly. In my
experience, you can ride comfortably in cold weather for extended periods of
time if everything's right (the clothing, how hard you're working, lack of
wind, etc). But changing conditions even slightly can result in a
less-than-pleasant experience... what felt so nice before suddenly becomes a
terrible nightmare. And once things get bad, it seems to take your body a
very long time to recover when things get nice again... if it recovers at
all.

--Mike Jacoubowsky
Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReaction.com
IMBA, BikesBelong, NBDA member