{"id":137,"date":"2013-11-26T02:14:05","date_gmt":"2013-11-26T02:14:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/drsfenner.org\/blog\/?p=137"},"modified":"2013-11-26T02:19:02","modified_gmt":"2013-11-26T02:19:02","slug":"the-temperatures-a-droppin-the-riding-continues","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/drsfenner.org\/blog\/2013\/11\/the-temperatures-a-droppin-the-riding-continues\/","title":{"rendered":"The temperature’s a droppin’. The riding continues …"},"content":{"rendered":"

I had a great ride, mountain biking, at ‘da Moon<\/a>\u00a0this evening. \u00a0It was a brisk (cold) late November\u00a0day: \u00a0I started at 4:00 and rode until 5:30. \u00a0The temperature was ~32F (measured at Courtdale via iPhone weather app). \u00a0Towards the, the wind picked up a bit. \u00a0The sunset was 4:45 at Kington and I swapped my semi-brown shades for my helmet light around 5:00.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

So, why all those details? \u00a0Well, I want to give folks that are new to riding in colder weather some context. \u00a0And, I’m about to provide a starting point for cold weather riding. \u00a0Please note: \u00a0this is a starting point. \u00a0If you are a stronger rider than me, you might need *less* clothing because you’ll be doing more sustained work. \u00a0If you are weaker than me, you might well need more clothing, for the opposite reason. \u00a0But, these recommendations are, hopefully, better than nothing.<\/p>\n

Head<\/h3>\n

For late Fall and winter riding, I always wear my “urban” style helmet. \u00a0It doesn’t have the usual vent holes that a normal trail helmet has. \u00a0This keep heat in and wind out. \u00a0Mine is a Giro Section and I wear it with a super light weight beanie whose main task is to keep wind off my ears. \u00a0I have a heavier fleece one that I’ve never worn. \u00a0The one I wear is sort of the equivalent of lightweight base layer Under Armor or such.<\/p>\n

Torso<\/h3>\n

I’ve been experimenting with my torso gear this season. \u00a0I 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. \u00a0Overall, this worked pretty well. \u00a0My fingers were a bit cold (necessitating some arm-pit hugging) for the first 45-50 minutes, but after that, they were basically fine. \u00a0Fingers? \u00a0Shouldn’t you be talking gloves? \u00a0Well, yes and no. \u00a0My gloves are very nice (see below), but in reality, you hit a point of diminishing returns on hands and feet. \u00a0After that point, you need to just up your core temperature and feed your extremities warmer blood.<\/p>\n

Hands<\/h3>\n

This is a quick one: \u00a0my Sugoi Firewall gloves are wonderful. \u00a0I’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.<\/p>\n

Legs<\/h3>\n

I went relatively light on the leg gear today. \u00a0This was possibly why my toes were pretty cold on the second half of the ride. \u00a0I 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. \u00a0When 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. \u00a0This is mainly for the additional warmth they provide my knees. \u00a0My knees are generally good these days, but the extra temperature — and a bit of wind blockage — is appreciated. \u00a0As it gets colder, I also hit the weight more; squatting and riding can be a lot of load for the knee. \u00a0A little extra loving is good planning.<\/p>\n

Feet<\/h3>\n

As I said, my toes cooled down in the second half of the ride. \u00a0However, I was wearing gear that has seen me down to about 15F. \u00a0I was wearing a pair of uninsulated (or lightly insulated) Lake MX156 boots. \u00a0These aren’t the heavy duty winter boots. \u00a0They are neither waterproof nor are they heavily insulated. \u00a0However, they serve nicely for most colder riding I do. \u00a0And, I think I got them for $50. \u00a0Those boots, along with the heaviest pair of socks that LL Bean makes, do really nicely. \u00a0If my toes are too cold, generally it means I should have worn heavy weight cycling tights.<\/p>\n

As it stands, for tonight, I think a heavier base layer would have done the trick. \u00a0I think it would helped with the fingers early on and with the toes towards the end.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I had a great ride, mountain biking, at ‘da Moon\u00a0this evening. \u00a0It was a brisk (cold) late November\u00a0day: \u00a0I started at 4:00 and rode until 5:30. \u00a0The temperature was ~32F (measured at Courtdale via iPhone weather app). \u00a0Towards the, the wind picked up a bit. \u00a0The sunset was 4:45 at Kington and I swapped my […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,6,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-137","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-mountainbiking","category-mrdr","category-recreation"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/drsfenner.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/drsfenner.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/drsfenner.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drsfenner.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drsfenner.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=137"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/drsfenner.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":143,"href":"http:\/\/drsfenner.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/137\/revisions\/143"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/drsfenner.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drsfenner.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/drsfenner.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}