I had a great ride, mountain biking, at ‘da Moon this evening.  It was a brisk (cold) late November day:  I started at 4:00 and rode until 5:30.  The temperature was ~32F (measured at Courtdale via iPhone weather app).  Towards the, the wind picked up a bit.  The sunset was 4:45 at Kington and I swapped my semi-brown shades for my helmet light around 5:00.

So, why all those details?  Well, I want to give folks that are new to riding in colder weather some context.  And, I’m about to provide a starting point for cold weather riding.  Please note:  this is a starting point.  If you are a stronger rider than me, you might need *less* clothing because you’ll be doing more sustained work.  If you are weaker than me, you might well need more clothing, for the opposite reason.  But, these recommendations are, hopefully, better than nothing.

Head

For late Fall and winter riding, I always wear my “urban” style helmet.  It doesn’t have the usual vent holes that a normal trail helmet has.  This keep heat in and wind out.  Mine is a Giro Section and I wear it with a super light weight beanie whose main task is to keep wind off my ears.  I have a heavier fleece one that I’ve never worn.  The one I wear is sort of the equivalent of lightweight base layer Under Armor or such.

Torso

I’ve been experimenting with my torso gear this season.  I picked up an unlined softshell (I got a Patagonia Guide on a nice sale) and I wore that with a lightweight, long sleeve Under Armor shirt.  Overall, this worked pretty well.  My fingers were a bit cold (necessitating some arm-pit hugging) for the first 45-50 minutes, but after that, they were basically fine.  Fingers?  Shouldn’t you be talking gloves?  Well, yes and no.  My gloves are very nice (see below), but in reality, you hit a point of diminishing returns on hands and feet.  After that point, you need to just up your core temperature and feed your extremities warmer blood.

Hands

This is a quick one:  my Sugoi Firewall gloves are wonderful.  I’ve ridden with them down to about 15F; as I mentioned above, as it gets colders I manipuate my torso and leg gear to keep my overall temperature higher.

Legs

I went relatively light on the leg gear today.  This was possibly why my toes were pretty cold on the second half of the ride.  I wore a lightweight pair of tights (running style that I’ve had forever, I wish I could find them again for the $20 I paid) under my Fox baggy shorts.  When it gets below 45F or so, I frequently also wear a pair of wrestling knee pads that have a fair sized neoprene sheath on them.  This is mainly for the additional warmth they provide my knees.  My knees are generally good these days, but the extra temperature — and a bit of wind blockage — is appreciated.  As it gets colder, I also hit the weight more; squatting and riding can be a lot of load for the knee.  A little extra loving is good planning.

Feet

As I said, my toes cooled down in the second half of the ride.  However, I was wearing gear that has seen me down to about 15F.  I was wearing a pair of uninsulated (or lightly insulated) Lake MX156 boots.  These aren’t the heavy duty winter boots.  They are neither waterproof nor are they heavily insulated.  However, they serve nicely for most colder riding I do.  And, I think I got them for $50.  Those boots, along with the heaviest pair of socks that LL Bean makes, do really nicely.  If my toes are too cold, generally it means I should have worn heavy weight cycling tights.

As it stands, for tonight, I think a heavier base layer would have done the trick.  I think it would helped with the fingers early on and with the toes towards the end.