riding in the cold

jdennison

I'm riding in Montreal, and I'm having trouble keeping finger tips and toes warm on the nasty days. Especially toes. I'm using old style toe clips and can use my Sorrels, but it's pretty inefficient. Anyone have suggestions on gloves/booties for -20 or lower temps? My daily commute is just under an hour.

stokell

Well, Toronto is the sunny south compared with Montreal, but if I may suggest a few things that keep me warm and toasty (sometimes too warm) in the winter. You seem to be okay with body heat so I'll confine myself to extremities.

Because I wear a suit, tie and dress shoes to work and don't have changing facilities, I wear Morino wool socks and a standard pair of heavy Oxfords. I cover them with some Serratus boot covers purchased from Mountain Equipment Coop. They quickly velcro on and off and keep even dress shoes clean and my feet toasty warm.

I have many levels of hand protection but my maximum protection if a pair of silk glove liners also from MEC and some Pearl Izumi gloves. The secret is to make sure the outer gloves are not too tight with the liners on. I think the slack creates a thermal barrier.

Oh, also I usually don't start out in the morning if the temp is below minus 25.

__________________
Allan Stokell
one less car
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/stokell

jdennison

Thanks for the input. I got a pair of thermal socks for xmas that seem to help a lot. My glove liners are not working as well as I wish, so I'll try your suggestion. This past week, the roads have been too messy to attempt riding, but this coming week, I hope to be back out. Happy riding.

stokell

jdennison,
Glad to help. We've had a couple of storms run across the great lakes recently. Saturday we had a wild blizzards, so today(Monday) I decided against biking to work because there was too much snow and the wind chill was near -25.

I've lost 4 days this winter to bad weather. My best winter was when I lost only 3, the worst (last year) was 17 days lost. It is usually late January and early February when I lose all the days. Ice storms, heavy snow and deep freeze temperatures do it for me.

I've been to Montrael in the winter. They seem to have a laissez-faire attitude when it comes to winter and clearing the snow. Toronto is really tight ass--there can't be more than a couple of centimetres, or the whole town shuts down.

I'm biking tomorrow...I don't care how cold it is!

__________________
Allan Stokell
one less car
http://www.crazyguyonabike.com/stokell