Glove Choice
 

So I will try to extend my winter riding a bit longer this year. Typically I suffer the most with my extremities: Hands and feet. I live in Boston but am moving to chicago next year.

I have been looking at new gloves. I do not want to move to mitts or lobsters ( if thats the solution I would rather stick to the trainer I think). I have recently been using La Passion gear and have loved everything i got from them and preferred it to my pearl izumi stuff. Some reviewers mentioned their deep winter glove isn't warm enough? Alternatives I am considering are: Castelli Estremo, Le Col Deep Winter, and most recently the Pactimo Vertex WX-D. Any thoughts? Any one who has tried all of these? Particularly interested if the Pactimo ones are any good. They seem to be pretty cheap. I will consider adding liners and even putting in "HotHands": if needed.

Brand of gloves? They are still just gloves, and unless you realistically assess the imitations of that geometry, you may not like the result.
Bar mitts
Lobster claws - I can't think of anything about them that makes me miss the feel of gloves
Glove liners
chemical hand warmers (combined with mittens or lobster claws)

You can keep your hands warm down to very low temperatures if it's important to you.

This is probably too obvious, but here it is: Putting fingers together inside a mitten makes them warmer than having them separate in a glove. Chicago winter is probably going to demand bar mitts or serious mittens.

Liners help a lot.

But something I omitted above is that "Hot Hands" are pretty useless for keeping your fingertips warm when wearing gloves. They work well with mittens and lobster claws

Any lobster claws recommendations? Something that still feels okay to use the brakes and shifting comfortably? Also what are you guys doing for feet? Right now my plan there is for an overshoe with thick socks and Hot Hands if needed.

I have Pearl Izumi lobster claws now, but I've had several different brands. Key criteria are

(a) wind proof outer layer.
(b) soft felt-like material along thumb portion of palm for nose wiping
(c) roomy inside for good glove liners and chemical hand warmers.

Good glove liners make a huge difference, btw.

Feet? There's another thread going on that. Depends a lot on the kind of riding you are doing, the type of pedal you are using, and more.

The last many winters I've just been using some Nalini felt lined windproof shells with wool glove liners. For this winter I decided to finally get a proper winter glove and just got the Giro Ambient II since all my regular gloves are Giro. No real cold weather yet but they feel really good on my hands and comfortable grabbing the bars. My Nalini shells actually fit over the Giro's but I doubt I'll need that since 32 degrees is usually my limit.

https://www.competitivecyclist.com/g...ing-glove-mens

straight bar or drops? how far do you want to extend your riding season?

I just use a big pair of mittens. I start using them when it drops below 45 degrees (F), and they are good down to about -10 (F). Below that, I use mountaineering mittens, which are much thicker and longer.

I would suggest reading this article The Science of Warmth. In essence, the problems with extremities in the cold are often tied to an insufficient protection of the core, not of the extremities. If the core is well protected, the insulation needs for the extremities drop.

:thumb: I've been aware of this & as I ride my fingers warm. but can't seem to convince my toes

My fingers get cold very easily.
65F+ short finger gloves.
55-65: REI glove liners inside short finger cycling gloves. This works great.
50-55: REI insulated gloves. These aren't cycling specific.
In the low 40s: I recently tried REI goretext shell mittens with various liners and/or medium knit gloves. These didn't really work as well as I expected. But they are kind of nice as a temporary glove to bring along if the ride gets colder or hotter later. They fold down very small for my back pocket.
40-50: I have some old goretex shell gloves, and use one or two layers of glove liners inside. Shell gloves are getting hard to find. I like them since it's easy to air them out, wash the liners, and adjust layers during the ride.

below 40: I got some electric heated gloves! Ahhh. These are amazing. 4 levels of heating. They are bulky like ski gloves, though. I can pull off a glove, check my phone, etc, then my fingers are instantly warm again with the gloves on. I previously tried the disposable heat packets, those didn't help me.

I have Di2 shifting, so bulky gloves don't cause any problems. I can click the shift buttons easily.

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a few local riders have Bar Mitts, and really like them. That keeps the wind flow off their hands, letting their gloves work as they should.

I've noticed that my fingers start to get more comfortable after 40 minutes of riding. I suppose my core has warmed up, the blood is flowing better, and more is allowed out to the extremities. And this far into the rides, I feel fully "up to speed" in warm weather.

I even thought about setting up a fluid trainer in the parking lot and doing 30 minutes before a cold ride. Warming up without the wind chill of riding. Never tried it!

I read it, but think I disagree. IME, if your hands/ears/feet are warm, your torso will be warm; if your hands/ears/feet are cold, your torso will be cold. YMMV

Well I watched a popular science program with experiments where the same subjects were put into a freezer in different attire. They were asked to carry out some actions there after adjustment and all was timed. When their core was warm they could carry out those actions without gloves with no problem and stumbled when the core was poorly covered. They also had an Inuit there to contrast less impact of the core coverage by the attire for him. They even had a thermal camera to show how the body strategizes protecting the core.

I have two different sets of winter riding gloves:
1) A pair of Gore five finger gloves. They keep my hands very warm and I break them out anytime the temperatures are below 5 degrees
2) A pair of merino wool gloves from Isadore. They also keep my hands warm and I break them out for temperatures between 5 and 10~12.

The nice thing about the Gore gloves is they give a bit of padding just by the nature of how they are made. The merino gloves are just that. Merino gloves with no padding. On longer rides my hands can get sore from gripping the bars. Likely more of a comment about my riding style than the gloves.

Last year I finally solved cold hand issues riding during cold winter weather. I started using ski gloves when riding when temp drops below 20 deg F. I have a couple of cheap ski gloves, but hand tend to sweat in those and then get cold. Last year I go a pear of these:https://www.swanyamerica.com/product/x-change-glove/ and never had an issue with cold or sweaty hands yet. BTW-I can not stand lobster gloves.

Feet is another issue all together, larger size snow shoes with "hot toes" inside with wool socks only work for a couple of hours when the temp is 20 deg, or below.