Favorite Clothing/Accessories

[trekchic]

I am in the process of building my cycling wardrobe and accessories. Just wondering if anyone would share their favorite kind of shorts, tops, helmets, gloves and which cyclocomputer is best, which heart rate moniter....you get the idea!

OH..............great news: MY BIKE IS IN!!!!!!!!! YEAH!!!!

KIM IN TN

[Veronica]

I really like the Polar's 710. It does lots of things - shows speed, altitude, cadence, temperature, heartrate (and all that goes with a regular heart rate monitor) It downloads to the computer and helps me track how I've been doing.

Veronica

[ChainsOflove]

I have totally basic of any gizmo-computer type things. You really don't need a lot of bells and whistles.

Most bike clothes run very small.

[Irulan]

tank top jerseys. My favorites for warm weather riding, I can not stand to be hot.'

Camel back for drinking.

full finger glove w/no padding. I never thought I'd like these, but Iove them. They aren't hot and the protect against everything from tree bark to gravel.

Irulan

[trekchic]

If anyone has a store in their area called Academy Outdoor Sports, they have bike shorts (6 & 8 panel) from $29! I got 8 panel shorts for $32.99! They run true to size, too. I am a medium or 8/10 in clothes and got the med. shorts.

Do you have to buy a biking tank or can you use a running tank that is made of lycra?

[Irulan]

any wicking tank top will do, I go to the mountain gear (www.megear.com) tent sale every summer and stock up.

But as most of you know, I sew a lot of my own.

Irulan

[MightyMitre]

My fave item at the moment is my string vest. Sounds gruesome but its brilliant as it makes all my jerseys nice and snuggly. It's made by Sportful and is excellent at wicking ,so even when it's boiling I don't get all damp and clammy - especially at the all important tea-stop.

2nd fave - my Specialized women specific mitts with special gel bits to stop pressure on the nerves in the hand. Brilliant fit!

[annie]

Okay, MightyMitre,

What it a string vest? It doesn't sound gruesome, but a little obscene....... ;)

I tried to look it up on a Sportful website, but didn't have any luck finding a website in English and I don't understand Italian or German, darn!

The tea-stop sounds nice......... do you manage to fit that in on every ride? We don't have many of those in Iowa. It's generally a stop at whatever little bar is open in whatever little town we are in. :) Or else a convenience store. They don't have tea, only fake cappuccino, the kind that comes out of the push-button machine and tastes like sweetened hot chocolate.

[MightyMitre]

Hi Annie - I haven't had any luck trying to find a picture of my vest. ( The sportful website is www.sportful.com and there should be a little flag on the right for English) However it doen't show the vest anyway.

I'll try and describe it - you know those grocery bags you can get made out of brown string like a net, well similar to that, only NOT brown eek:p , but white. The holes are a bit like fishermans net only smaller so it traps air round your skin and keeps you warm. It's made out of soft wicking material and is quite handy before or after racing if it's very hot, as you can walk about with it over a crop bra top and keep cool while not feeling totally naked.

Up till December we generally have a tea- stop on our club rides. There's a few little cafes dotted around, some in the most unlikely places, and they all welcome cyclist.

We sometimes base a ride around a cafe agreeing to meet up at a set time, so the stronger riders can go off and do more while the less strong ( usually me :)) can take the shorter route.

A lot of motorcyclists groups use them as well - not quite biker boys - more your middle aged man whose finally earning enough to buy himself the big flash motor bike of his dreams. It's nice and sociable to have a stop for a cuppa and in the winter it's bliss when it's freezing cold or wet.

It's kind of a British cycling tradition, left over from the days when cycle-touring was popular in the 50's, when big groups of boy (and girls) would go out on long touring rides for the whole day. A suprising number of the older members of our club met their husbands/wives this way.

After Christmas, things get a bit more serious in our club, in the build up to the new season and we don't always stop but's nice when we do.

[lbuxx]

Originally posted by Irulan
any wicking tank top will do, I go to the mountain gear (www.megear.com) tent sale every summer and stock up.

But as most of you know, I sew a lot of my own.

Irulan

Irulan,

I am new to the board (not new to riding) and saw this post about how you sew alot of your own riding gear....

Do you have any instructions on how to sew (oh yeah I don't know a lick about sewing, but was hoping to beg a family member) jerseys?

I've recently been diagnosed w/ PMLE which is a sun "allergy" and have had absolutely NO luck finding long sleeve LIGHT WEIGHT summer jerseys made from like solarweave or some kind of sun protecting cloth...I am losing my mind trying to figure out how I'm going to get on my bike when I can 't even stand to be in the sun for a few minutes....

Thanks for any help,

Leslie