chrisx

Thiughts on hats for cool weather cycling. I had a 45 north wool cycling cap, had until the other day. I liked the ear flaps on below 40 days. I expect the Canadians will answer one way and the cyclists from San Diego will answer another way. Some hats fit under a helmet or shade hat as you prefer.

As a non artic lover I am asking about well, not just hats but, gloves, knee warmers, things to help our tired old bones get through December.

I asked on the touring thread because cycle tourits have needs day trippers do not have.

Rob_E

Standard winter commuting gear is my Smart Wool beanie. In warmer weather I use a moisture-wicking skull cap to cover my bald head. But when it's cold enough, the beanie does great. It's not great for full ear coverage, but if it's cold enough that I think I need full ear coverage, I will also have a scarf. That's commuting, though. My scarf would be a bulky item to carry on tour. So far my solution to touring in weather cold enough to merit a scarf: don't do it.

Where I live and do most of my riding, it seldom gets below freezing, but when it does, I have a light wool baselayer to wear under my clothes. I have taken that some extended bike trips because it's a fairly lightweight way to sleep a little warmer and get moving in the morning while it's still a little chilly.

pdlamb

Where do you ride, and what are the temperatures there? I've got a whole mental chart that covers 10-60F. As you correctly guessed, what works in San Diego won't cut it for Alberta. Heck, even I don't know what Alberta would take.

Miele Man

When it's cold I wear a touque under my helmet. When it's really cold I wear a balaclava with an opening for my eyes. When it's really really cold out I wear a blue plastic dust-mask under the balaclava. That dust-mask keeps the balaclava dry and allows me to breathe in nice warm air. You'd be surprise at how much warmer that can make you.

the dust-mask I use.




Cheers

Tourist in MSN

I do not tour this time of year, but I have been on a couple tours where it was below freezing in the morning.

I am in USA, so it is a roll of the dice when you order something from Europe and hope that it will fit correctly, like gloves and mitts. That said I got some gloves like these from this seller about four years ago, great for cooler days, say mid 40s and warmer, also works well in rain. Has a little pocket that goes over the fingers to cut wind when it is chilly to make them more like mittens.
https://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/CLPXHW...le-race-gloves

When colder, I got some lobster mitts (they call them crab mitts) from the same people, they also work well.
https://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/PXLGWL...-winter-gloves

Below about 45 degrees (F) I always wear a neck gaiter, my head is warmer if my neck is insulated against the cold wind.

When it is cold out, I put a rain cover on my helmet to keep the wind out. If cold, say low 40s or 30s I also wear an ear band of polartec material over my ears too. From the photo I think I am wearing the ear band, but I could be wrong on that.



When I toured Iceland in June and early July in 2016, it was cool enough that my rain cover stayed on my helmet for the entire trip, never took it off.

Cycling shoes are well vented, below freezing I switch to hiking shoes or hiking boots. Above freezing, sometimes I wear waterproof socks, they cut the wind pretty well. If I am wearing regular socks, I might put a piece of plastic from a shopping bag over the sock at the toes to block the wind from going through my socks.

Long exercise pants over the bike shorts. The pants I have are some old Addidas pants that cut the wind really well, I have worn them down to about 20 degrees without any problem, they are not insulated and I also use them when it is in the 40s.

I keep a list of what works for different temperatures, after a while i compiled that list into specific items to wear in five degree (F) increments. Thus i can pull up that list and know what to wear for any weather, I do not have to try to remember what worked last year.

Jackets and vests, you will figure out fast what works and what does not, I will leave that up to you, if in doubt bring extra layers so you can add them during the ride.

I am guessing you are not going to go out when it is in the 20s, so I won't elaborate on ski goggles. If you buy any, make sure they fit well with your helmet, bring your helmet to the store so you can test them for fit.

You did not ask about studded tires, but I have studs on one bike on both front and rear. Studded tires are very slow, avoid them if you safely can. And I bought a used studded tire last winter that I might put on the front wheel on another bike for those days when I do not think I will see any ice, but want to be prepared in case I hit some frozen puddles.

We had a cold snap here last winter, I just thought I would add this photo to let you know about a day that I would never consider getting on a bike.

mev

Less from touring and more from eight winters in Colorado without owning a car where I had a ~5 mile mile one-way commute...

Clothing for winter cycling wasn't really different than clothing for other winter activities like say cross country skiing.

I found each ~20F (~10C) step seemed to require an additional increment of preparation.
- At 50F or above, nothing particularly special.
- Around 30F, bike gloves get replaced with mittens, i might have a light wool hat. This is the limit below which I replace shorts with tights. Feet are still mostly OK.
- Around 10F, balaclava replaces wool hat, heavier mittens, might put a layer over the tights, use flat pedals and boots that allow socks
- Around -10F, balaclava, heavy mittens/double layer, multiple layers on upper torso, boots with extra socks
It didn't get much colder than -10F in those particular winter commutes.

When I go touring in slightly colder temperatures, I don't often go much colder than 20F. However, I'll also be out in the cold for longer than my five mile commutes.
- In arid climates where there is a big day/night swing; I can often wait just a bit until the sun has come out to psychologically and physically warm things up. I find a pretty big gradient between ~25F vs. ~35F on how comfortable I feel
- Standard cold weather gear: mittens, wool hat, tights, shoes with enough room for extra layer. Warm sleeping bag, ability to bring water inside to keep from freezing.

thumpism 

I like the felt hardhat liners you can buy at hardware stores. They're cheap, they keep your ears warm and they fit nicely under a helmet. You can also wear them while sleeping at night and they won't come off. My last one finally shredded from age so my wife cut it up for a pattern and sewed me up a new one. Pic coming.

Be prepared.






Stylin', right? Don't laugh, it works.

Okay, go ahead and laugh.

stardognine

Definitely wool, that covers your ears well. It keeps you warm, even if it gets wet. 👍

I recently grabbed a nice pair of mittens at a thrift store. They were like new, other than a smudge of grease, like someone opened their car hood with them on, and decided they were ruined. 🙄😉 Good old sheepskin on the inside, and sueded leather on the outside. They're very nice for temps in the low 30s F, so far, and probably much colder, I think. 🤔

hilltowner

Like others, I've found I have dialed in the need for certain pieces of equipment more through commuting, than touring, experience. That said, what I've discovered commuting has transferred well to touring. My cold weather touring has been shoulder season for the most part. At temps in the 40 degree range I've found a full under the helmet shell to be too warm. What has served me better has been the ability to add or subtract layers quickly. One thing that has been very useful is a pair of earmuffs. They are from Swix and are primarily used by cross country skiers. My ears seem to get colder faster than the area under the helmet. I can wear my usual summer sweat layer under the helmet and add or subtract the earmuffs as exertion levels dictate.

Andrey

I always used a wool beanie under the helmet. Now is my favorite is a Bontrager WIndshell cycling skull cap . All my wool caps shrunk over the years, Bontrager is very thin and windproof and also very breathable . If if gets too cold I add a wool neck gator or buff as a second layer, giving me a very wide temperature range from 55 degrees all the way to bellow breezing.

Rob_E

These are my gloves of choice: https://www.rei.com/product/155529/o...or-gloves-mens
They are not bike-specific and, as such, not padded in the places bike gloves usually are, so maybe for long days of riding they might not be ideal. For my commute, down into the 20s(F), they work great. But what I love about them is that they have a waterproof liner folded up in a pocket on the gloves. If the weather is wet, or if it's extra cold, the liner keeps the gloves dry and keeps the wind out. Basically if it's below 50, I use the gloves, and usually if it's below 30, I use the liners, although this morning it was upper 20s, and I was fine without the liners once I got moving. Lower than mid 20s and I have some mittens, but it seldom comes to that around here.

bikenh

I live and ride year round in New Hampshire. I have ridden 100 mile long rides when temps have never made it above 20 degrees F. I have started 100 mile long rides where the temperature when I left home in the morning was below zero F. I have ridden in the cold, and ridden long miles in the cold. I had a stretch several years back where I rode 1500 miles, minimum per month, every month for 18 consecutive months. I do no indoor riding.

My reasoning for what I do is very simple...sweat kills. It kills either way for being too hot and your body can't cool itself down or because you are sweating and it is cold outside and you saturate your clothes and then ride into problems and now you have to fix a broken chain, a flat tire, or any other mechanical issue. Sweat is the evil enemy. During the summer months it essentially cannot be avoided unless you stay in a nice air conditioned room the entire summer. During the winter months you have to do everything possible to make sure you are not sweating. If you soak your clothes they will continue to suck the heat right out from your body while you are trying to ride or perform bike maintenence.

Sweat is not call evaporative warming...it is called evaporative cooling. It is not designed to keep you warm. Sweat is designed to cool you down since you are already too warm. The second you find yourself out riding in true winter conditions and you start sweating..you have already screwed up. You have put on too many clothes for the conditions which exist.

I do not overdress. I ride chilled most of time. I rely on body heat to keep me warm, not the clothing. I can ride dressed the way I dress all day long and have no trouble. I have ridden plenty of 100-125 mile long rides during the dead of winter without any problem of staying comfortable. I am not warm, but I am comfortable. I can reach down and my belly will be nicely chilled pretty much anytime during the day while doing a long ride. The rest of body is comfortable. I can stop for 15-20 minutes outdoors, protected from the wind, even on a cloudy day, and I will still be comfortable. The first 10-15 minutes of any winter ride I will be cold. I want to be cold the first 10-15 minutes. My body heat from riding has not started up yet. It will take 5-20 minutes for the body heat to kick in depending on the outside air temperature, the colder it is the longer it will take. I use to ride with a long sleeve cotton tshirt and did not think a thing about it. I knew how to use my clothing to my benefit. I never take clothing off while riding...I'm not that stupid. I rarely, only about 10% of the winter days, ride dressed in layers. My only layer over summer clothing is a wind layer, not an insulation layer.

My non summer clothing setup is as follows...broken down by temperature range:
60-45...I still ride with summer clothing. I let my body adapt me to the cold weather by not putting on extra clothes to keep me warm. I let my body adapt to riding in the cold weather. Around 50 degrees I will put on a fleece ear band I bought in the hunting department of Walmart many years back. Also around 50 degrees I will switch from regular cycling gloves to some homemade fleece mittens.

45-(10-20 degrees, depending on wind speed)...in the old days. I was wearing a light weight long sleeve cotton tshirt with a wind breaker over the top. I was wearing cycling shorts with wind breaker pants over the top. I wear neoprene cycling booties over the regular summer shoes. I change out the light weight fleece ear band for a freebie skier fleece ear band I found at the dump. I do no other facial/head protection of any kind. The trick was always how I used the wind breaker jacket. It had a zipper which ran down just below the boobs. I would start out with jacket zipped up and when I would start to feel myself getting clammy between the shoulder blades, generally 10-15 minutes after I left my house, I would unzip the jacket and ride unzipped all day long unless I took a long break somewhere and had to restart the heat engine again. Like I said I rode many 100+ mile long days dressed this way. I never had any trouble. I never had any scares while riding dressed this way. Generally I normally switch over to ragg wool pop top mittens around 35-40 degrees depending on wind speed. The ragg wool pop top mittens give you fully glove coverage for the fingers like a mitten does while at the same time giving you the pop top feature so when you need to use your finger individually you can, and you can without taking the mitten off like you would normally have to do with regular mittens. I thank bikeforums for this tip many years back. I wear no facial protection or any other head protection.

45-(10-20 degrees, depending on wind speed)...now. Several years back, I believe it was late April 2016 a good friend and one of the co-founders of Cannondale bikes gave me a set of cycling arm warmers. I tried them out with the last remaining bits of winter chill in the air and decided the following winter I was going to do some serious playing with them. Now, I have changed the above arrangement around. Now I ride with a short sleeve cycling jersey with arm warmers safety pinned to the jersey. I pretty much never unzip the jacket. The cycling jersey does a much better job at wicking any sweat away. I rarely notice any clamminess between the shoulder blades anymore unless the temperature is in the upper 30 or warmer.

down to 32 degrees. Yes, I have ridden in cycling shorts only, no wind pants, clear down at 32 degrees F. I have did it two maybe three times. The first time I was caught off guard and got caught out when the temperature dropped much faster than I thought it would...an evening ride home. I was surprised how comfortable I felt riding with it that cold. The second time I did it very intentionally,..a morning ride where the temperature was suppose to climb into the upper 40s/lower 50s I think there was a bit of snow on the ground the second time around. I would not want to try it if the wind was blowing.

Below the 10-20 degree level clear down to -9F(my personal best thus far)...Same setup as above with a homemade fleece pullover between the jersey and the jacket. I switch out to uninsulated cycling tights instead of cycling shorts as well. I continue wearing the same ragg wool pop top mittens all winter long. Typically as it starts getting down below 10 degrees and anytime it is raining or snowing I take plastic shopping bag and wrap them around the mittens to act a wind/moisture shell. With the pop top mittens I wear the shopping bags wrap smoothly around the gloves. When I use the plastic bags for rain protection when wearing the fleece mittens they do not fit as nice since the fleece mittens are not as bulky. I may put on a skiers face mask but generally I don't unless it gets below zero or the wind is blowing like stink.

For the feet I wear the same merino wool socks year round, during the winter month...morning, noon, and night, on the bike and off. They are generally in the range of 70-75% merino wool. I buy them for $3.99 a pair locally.

You want to look for long sleeve pop top mittens, not the short sleeve ones which is quite easy to find. The long sleeves help to keep the wrists protected from the cold air while you ride. My long sleeve mittens come up the arm about 4-6 inches above the wrist. They tuck under the sleeve of the wind breaker quite nicely.

The wind breaker is more like a flap jacket. It is not tight fitting. It flaps in wind big time. During the fall/spring months when riding with the local group they always talk about my wind sail flapping in the air and how they want me out front so they can ride in my draft. Hence why it always worked so well to unzip it when I was wearing a cotton tshirt. The wind could get in behind the jacket to help dry off the back side of the body and keep everything high and dry.

Remember the two warmest parts of the body are the head and the heart. The cooler you can keep each of those two parts of the body the safer you will be while riding during the winter months. If you start trapping the heat in both of those areas you will start sweating and sweat is not your friend. In real extreme cold, like NW Canada/Alaska/Scandanavia/northern Russia, etc. putting on the head protection probably is another story. The dress code would also be another story. Here stateside and across most of Europe...I would not do it.

For doing bike trips during the winter months it would all come down to planning the daily routine...much more stringently than during the summer months. I would not think a thing of riding here around New Hampshire/Vermont/Maine on a winter bike trip. I would not change my clothing any at all. I would change the way I ride a bit but not by much. I would plan my route much more meticulously than I would during the summer months simply for protection...in case I needed it. Then again, when it comes to winter bike trips, it does not come down as much to the riding aspect of the bike trip as it does the camping aspect.

Ride smart, ride safe.

rumrunn6

curious how riding in the cold while touring, is different from riding in the cold fur just a few hours (aka day trippers)

Tourist in MSN

One more thing. Winter, often you will find you need to stop at an intersection, and there often are deep puddles of salty water where you might want to put your foot down.

Some bike shoes have a huge hole in the bottom where the cleat hardware is. And if you step in water, the water will flood into those holes.

I mentioned waterproof socks above, but did not elaborate other than to say they can cut the wind. The possibility of water flooding into my cycle shoes is part of the reason that I wear hiking shoes or hiking boots in really cold weather. But, sometimes instead wear my waterproof socks with cycling shoes.

The guy that suggested I consider waterproof socks was an REI employee, he said he used Sealskinz socks. I instead bought Dexshell, saw some on a good price on line. I wear a liner sock inside the waterproof sock.

2manybikes

I think it depends on the distance of the commute. For just a couple of miles one can make a mistake, and have something too cold or too hot.
On my about centuries, in below or close to freezing I have learned a few things. Chemical warmers don't last long enough. When in the 20's F co2 inflators can freeze the nozzle solid and not work. If you warm them up under your clothing and work very fast you can get good enough to ride if the tire is not too big. Multiple layers of windbreakers works and allows for adjustments as needed. If the insulation of your socks is not quite good enough, a sandwich bag over the front of your foot can work. It's about the same as adding an extra windbreaker over your jacket. Tell everyone that it takes a couple of minutes to remove your mittens and dig out your cell phone, so you add at least five minutes of time stopped for just one call. Tell them not to call unless it's an emergency. When they call anyway, you may not have a place to pull over too. etc. etc....In my case, I need to dig out my glasses too. argh!
I'm sure you can add a few things I did not think of.

bikenh

One big difference the amount of weight you are carrying on the bike...aka the amount of effort you have to move the bike. If you are riding an empty bike it takes a lot less effort and will build up less body heat than it would when touring.

2manybikes

The cold can take away some of your fitness. In the cold I am usually riding heavy bikes with fenders too. On a two mile commute some people may not notice the difference. On a long ride on the same route it becomes more noticeable.
Sometimes when the nice weather comes along, and, I ride a lightweight bike, I'm often surprised at how fit I am. If I get a tailwind at the same time I feel like Superman. But with more pockets.

And yes, your clothing weighs a lot more. It might require more strength to bend you legs.

Tourist in MSN

I have toured where some of the time was below freezing, but the weather was generally expected to be above freezing almost all the time. I avoid touring in colder weather where it might be below freezing all day, but I do day rides in winter, sometimes with studded tires for up to a couple of hours.

The longer you are on the bike expending energy, the more likely you will be sweating. Likely not sweating everywhere, but it is not uncommon to be sweating in your torso area while you have toes freezing. There have been times that the palms of my hands were sweating while finger tips or my thumb were getting numb from the cold. Sweat accumulation when it starts to evaporate will be very chilling, so sweat is your enemy.

A few hours on a day ride means you will be home where you can deal with your laundry in a timely manner. And maybe fix up some hot chocolate and relax before a warm shower. But while touring, maybe not. When touring, for me a typical day is usually somewhere between five and seven hours on the bike, sometimes ten.

I think I took these photos the first time that I used my (at that time) brand new studded tires for the ice. First was on sheet ice, second was in an area where it had not been plowed. Yeah, this is off topic, but just trying to make a point here, this was a day trip, minimal weight on the bike and an hour after I took the photos I was home warming up and dealing with damp clothing. Sorry the photos are sideways, my phone photos are often oriented wrong.

bikenh

I don't think you loose fitness during the winter as much as the aerodynamics change during the winter and it flat out slows you down. The air density increases so you are slicing through the air, instead your are pushing into the air. On top of that the bulkier clothing is not as wind friendly and neither are the bare trees. Typically starting in mid to September I start noticing the air feeling heavier when I ride, only on cold days even when I am not wearing any extra clothing. Everything works against you so notice it a lot more starting around October 1-Columbus Day time frame. It keeps getting worse clear up until you are riding through snow. I previously had a stretch of 444 consecutive days on the bike so I was not loosing any fitness, by the fitness standard but I still noticed the much thicker air when fall into winter came around.