Senior Member
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Colorado Springs, CO
Posts: 5,974
Bikes: 2015 Charge Plug, 2007 Dahon Boardwalk, 1997 Nishiki Blazer, 1984 Nishiki International, 2006 Felt F65, 1989 Dahon Getaway V
Mentioned: 54 Post(s)
Tagged: 0 Thread(s)
Quoted: 1364 Post(s)
I've been commuting year-round for 28 years since moving to Colorado and I haven't experienced the problem you described. Once I warm up I'm warm for 15 minutes or more after stopping. Stoplights, trains, locking up the bike at a store, putting the bike away in the shed at home...I don't get cold doing any of those things down to 5F.
But then I remembered stepping off a curb on Dearborn Street in downtown Chicago two winters ago. It was only 20F, but that wet, icy slap in the face from the wind blowing in off the lake reminded me how cold winters the Chicago winters of my youth were. Walking around Northwestern Hospital and Michigan Avenue seemed impossibly cold for the temperature reading. Even 10 miles away from the lake it was bone chilling.
If you are at a long light I suggest hopping off the bike and running in place with high knee bends.
Other than that...layer, I guess. Over the years I have ditched heavy clothes, for more layers of thinner material, and the most important thing...
...a wicking base layer. Staying dry is staying wam.