UniChris

What are people wearing on their lower halves, and to keep their knees warm?

I'd been wearing running tights over summer cycle shorts, but for a colder ride yesterday layered the running tights on my one pair of chamois tights. Mostly it worked but around 15 miles in my right knee became quite unhappy, and I remembered something I'd read somewhere recently about temperature being a problem for joints.

Stopped and what it turned out I had was a heavyweight Walmart plastic bag, which I proceeded to wrap around my leg, stuffed in between the two layers of tights. By blocking the wind that seemed to make a huge difference the remaining 7 miles home, but was definitely feeling some aftereffects last night.

Now I'm trying to decide what to make or buy. I have some uniqlo "windproof" pants that I've been using on some shorter utility rides, but they're substantially cotton and a bit bulky so I don't really want to use them or a ski/snowmobile type overpant for anything over ten miles.

Somewhere I saw a recommendation of cheap drugstore type knee pads as a warmth solution, could do that but they don't look like they have all that much vertical coverage. Also have some neoprene / foam ones I used to wear for light impact protection until I decided they were just rubbing sweaty leds raw in the summer - guess I could put those back on over everything, but sort of want to find some kind of windproof heavy lycra and whip something up on the serger, thicker on the front and thinner on the back.

And then there's only having the one pair of chamois tights, which are discontinued and being uncertain about their available replacements. Part of my thinks I want to figure out two layers (vs just one) of non-cycling tights or tights + pants that I could wear of the collection of summer cycle shorts.

What are other people wearing for determined rides in cold weather, vs shorter utility ones?