rumrunn6

yeah it's a call you have to make. I have 3 bikes, 2 w/ straight bars, those 2 get studded tires. I move the barmitts from one to the other. road bike w/ drop bars has barmitts but I'm less likely to use it cuz it doesn't get studs. OK for cold rides on dry roads or paved trails. maybe it's easier to have just 1 bike?

rumrunn6

17 degrees? yup, put the barmitts on

rumrunn6

mid-50s? gloves are just fine

rumrunn6

figured I'd put the drop bar mitts on. after work temp will be 36F, but feel like 30degrees. I know they look super dorky, especially on the bike rack. but tonite my hands will be happy as clams

yup worked out just fine

GrainBrain

Had them on last week going into the wind for an hour ride to single track, pulled em off on the return. Probably one of the most useful bike things I've bought. I pushed them the other day for 3 hours at 8° to -2° well into the dark. I've been using gloves "rated" for 32° to 40°. Hands always warm, though that 8° ride took about a half hour to "snap in" to warm.

GrainBrain

Still haven't got a drop bar set, probably won't. Got my fat bike setup for winter and I love riding it.

rumrunn6

35-25 degrees? yup

Alan K

Bar mitts never - good possibility of getting liberated from bicycle stand by the end of the day, but my heaviest duty mittens come out at around 5F that keep my hands comfortable when temp dips down to 10 below zero F (at this temp, the thumb being separate, does get cold).

Trakhak

After I got nerve damage (or whatever it was) from being caught in wind and sleet 30 years ago, with a 3-hour ride home with knit cotton gloves, my hands need all the protection from cold they can get. (Out on a brisk walk on a 50-degree-F day a few weeks ago with a friend of mine, she remarked on my wearing winter gloves while she was bare-handed. I just said to grab my hand. Her hand was warm, bordering on hot; mine felt freezing cold to her.)

So the bar mitts go on at 50 degrees F and stay on until the temps are consistently back to 50 degrees F and higher in the spring.

Thanks for reviving this thread. My winter riding is complicated by the fact that, even after a nerve relocation operation, ulnar nerve syndrome in my left elbow and hand makes my left ring and little fingers go numb early in every ride unless I rest that hand on my bolted-on aero bar. But using the aero bar requires taking my hand out of the bar mitt.

So I've been thinking of some way to come up with a bar mitt for the aero bar. Since my rule is that the solution to 90% of such problems is within 20 feet of where I'm standing in my house, I poked around and found a potential fix: a Blackburn CamelBack-like hydration system knockoff that I bought on employee discount back around 1990 and never used.

I pulled the bladder out of the bag, folded the bag in half, slid it onto the front of the aero bar, and looped the shoulder straps under the handlebar and over the forearm pads. Looks a bit goofy, but I'm OK with that. (Like bar mitts alone don't.)

Alan K

I would choose goofy any day over something that ‘looks’ good but doesn’t provide adequate protection.

Many years ago I bought mittens made by a company called Outdoor Research (or some such). They were rated for far lower temperature than I found them to keep my hands warm. So they became my mittens before the real cold snaps came along - for use around 25-10F. I bought another set that was made from leather that could keep my hand warm all the way to 20 below zero F (except the thumb). These mittens are huge and do get in the way of manipulating things but I get around that issue by keeping my bike on a slightly lower gear so I don’t have to change it too often during the entire trip (only on an uphill stretch, I need to hit the lower gear, which I can manage with my ‘paw’ (the brake lever can be used as the shifter on old XTR).If I have not removed tags from inside, I will let you know the brand just in case you may wish to consider them.

Don't bother with OR, I just checked the reviews on Amazon, the new ones are not good, despite the fact that they are still over $200 (I believe they changed the production facility and made them worse).

Thigh Master

Around 32F, with only summer bike gloves, below 20F or so I wear summer bike gloves gloves with Outdoor Research fleece gloves I’ve owned for years and are great above 32F without Bar Mitts. And like others have said, amazing how much humidity can build up inside the Bar Mitts. It’s tolerable but at times I’ve considered making my own vents in them.

rumrunn6

my straight bar mitts have 2 velcro closure straps, up front, around the bar, which I suppose I could loosen, if I wanted some airflow. I guess I don't feel the need because I regulate comfort w/ various gloves, depending on conditions. I have used lobster gloves w/ them but that's overkill. even at 17 degrees, my fingered winter cycling gloves are adequate