rholland1951

Clothes--and other gear--for winter riding is a sub-discipline unto itself. I find what works for a given ride varies somewhat as the temperature falls by 5° increments, and attention must be paid, separately, to torso, legs, hands, feet, head, face/neck. In addition, the presence of wind, rain, and snow matter; these are best managed by good shells, worn over insulating layers, and designed to breathe.

Beyond that, there is the road/trail surface to consider: will there be ice? will there be snow? If snow is present, what is its condition; snow is weirdly polymorphic, as all those old jokes about the Eskimo words for it indicate (those jokes are righter about snow than they are about linguistics or cultural anthropology, by the way). This leads to consideration of studded tires, fat tires, and tires with aggressive treads, each of which will help in some situations, but not necessarily in others.

What's really at stake is how many days of a given cold season you're able to ride in reasonable comfort and safety. One approach is to assess your existing riding clothes: can you ride comfortably down to 60° in them? Then ask yourself: what about 55°? 50°? 45°?... and so on, down to 35°. A lot of winter days are cool or cold, but still above freezing. On many of those days, the roads and some of the trails are clear. Paying attention to freeze/thaw cycles helps you judge that. You can set yourself up for those days with a couple of different pairs of gloves, a couple of weights of base layer (merino or synthetic, torso and legs), a good insulting layer, and a good shell. Below the freezing point it's a different world, you may want to add some heavier insulation, and rain and wind will lead you to increasingly sophisticated shells, to say nothing of tire choices motivated by snow and ice. The N+1 rule applies to winter riding gear at least as well as it applies to bikes, and to gloves in particular. But understanding what sorts of conditions your existing gear will and won't support is really helpful in determining that any day you do ride is a good day and a good ride. Almost nobody rides every day, but some come mighty close.

That's broad strategy (I know, you didn't ask for it); looking through old posts on this forum during the winter months will turn up lots of stories about what specifically has worked well for people over the years, and what hasn't.

Choose your target conditions, prepare, and enjoy. Spring is coming.

rod