Cold weather riding gear roundup

 If the roads are reasonably dry, I tend to push the edges of the seasons and get out there when it's pretty cold. So far this has been a pretty dry winter and I'm still getting out on rides into December despite the new zwift setup.

The thing is it's hard to be comfortable when it's in the 30s and that kind of means a lot of specialized winter bike clothing. What I find most important is keeping my hands and feet warm. Then wear a warm enough jacket and you'll probably be ok for a little while at least. A buff/neck warmer is also a big must have. From there it all kind of gets optional.

Until this year my go to setup was a pair of hand me down 45nrth fasterkatts a size too big, running tights over regular bib shorts, and a softshell jacket that seems to be meant for running and xc skiing. it's fairly slim fitting, or was when I got it, but now it's a bit flappy. My gloves were pearl izumi softshells that are pretty warm, but have some holes in them now and the padding in the palms is annoying and adds unnecessary bulk. So it was all kind of patched together, but worked well enough.

Thanks to working at MBW this year I had a little extra cash plus some pretty good discounts and decided I needed to get some better stuff for winter.

Firstly, bib tights. I've wanted some of these for awhile and now that I have some I'm wondering what I was thinking just doing tights over bibs or leg warmers for all these years. They're super warm and cozy and so much better. The ones I have are pearl izumi amfibs, but there are plenty of similar ones out there. I want another pair so I can ride more between loads of laundry.

Probably more important are the shoes. I went with shimano's MW7 goretex shoe and they are really warm. I've seen sub 20f, and been out for 4 hours in below freezing weather and my toes were happy the whole time. I'm surprised at how much warmer these are than the fasterkatts, and they have a nice flap over the top to keep water and grime out of the tongue and boa laces. My only problem right now is there's a small gap between the bottom of the tight and the top of the shoe, so your sock gets wet and then eventually there's water in the waterproof shoe. I'm thinking I need some little flaps or sleeves or something that I can have under the tight and over the top of the shoe.

So what else? Oh yeah gloves. You need to have good gloves. I'm still trying to figure out how to handle the really cold days but for low 30s my new POC thermal gloves are pretty nice

The other ones are the PI amfib lite, which are a great cool weather glove, say high 40s. No padding or insulation on the palm so you get good feel from the bars and controls but some light insulation and wind resistant on the back. This is my 3rd version of these gloves.

Probably my only gripe with the POC is the wrist opening, which is just big and open. Some sort of a cuff or closure would help keep warm air in your gloves. Also they're expensive, and I doubt I would have bought them without the "pro deal." Pros are they really warm for their weight and allow good control and dexterity.

When it's like, 20f out there they don't cut it, and I think bar mitts are probably the only solution for that. I'm thinking about trying to see how well I can ride with light over mitts, and eyeing lobster gloves, but those won't work for one finger braking on a mountain bike. My other thought is battery powered heated gloves.

My other big cold weather riding purchase was a new jacket. Pearl Izumi's "PRO insulated jacket." PRO means it's their nicest stuff, and generally slimmer fitting. MSRP for this thing is $225. So I'm not sure what's going on with this basic, shapeless jacket missing some important features.

The one thing it has going for it is the fancy polartec alpha insulation, which is really light and warm.

But as a cycling jacket, it's fairly mediocre. I'm going to cut this short though and make a whole post about it later.

Well that about covers it. Wear an appropriate number of layers under your jacket and then don't forget the buff/neck warmer. The other thing I've done is stuff my thin, light, down jacket in a pack or frame bag and that can get put on over top of everything if I need it. When I was up on university mountain a few weeks ago I was glad to have it for the descent down the open ridgeline in the wind.