If it's cold enough for your cheeks to hurt, you might want to consider a thin silky balaclava- they are very versatile. Here's what I wrote about mine:Quote:
Originally Posted by pardes
balaclava
If it's cold enough for your cheeks to hurt, you might want to consider a thin silky balaclava- they are very versatile. Here's what I wrote about mine:Quote:
Originally Posted by pardes
balaclava
Lisa,Quote:
Originally Posted by BleeckerSt_Girl
I've read your posts about that balaclava before, and I am going to get one. I just got some winter gloves, too, so the only problem area I have left is my feet. I think you are one who does not use clipless pedals, so I am curious about what you wear in cold weather. A hiking type of boot? I have never bought that kind of footwear in my life, so suggestions would be most welcome as to brands or even styles. I do have a wide foot, so that might limit my choices, especially if I want to layer socks as well.
Quote:
Originally Posted by pardes
Not really relevant to the discussion, however having worked in labs with mice & rats - basically almost everyone that works with them becomes allergic to them. It's the combination of their urine and the bedding, it's a pretty potent allergen and gets kicked up in the air. It is pretty common that people have to end their mouse working careers because of allergies. I'm allergic to both without having ever touched either with my bare hands. I'm fine with dogs still, but I'm mildly allergic to cats now (I didn't use to be). I'm also allergic to mouse saliva (have only been bitten twice) and cat saliva seems to be what triggers most of my issues with cats.
I'm not sure which animals the people at Harvard are working with - but if it's mice or rats, I'm fairly certain they don't run into those much in their daily life nor inhale their dander. I do have issues if I'm near someone's pet rat.
Back on topic -
I have a lot of wool, it's been kind of irking me for cold weather riding because it sort of absorbs moisture when I sweat. So I stop riding or pause, and all of a sudden I'm absolutely freezing because I'm wearing moist wool. No, I'm not layering too much - usually I've just got a sports bra and maybe a 260 weight icebreaker over that with a zip neck. The sweat's usually related to exertion. My main sweat areas are around the sports bra and underneath my camelbak, so I may need to swithc to riding without that and use waterbottles or something.
Other alternatives to wool that I've found that works well in the cold:
REI windtracker cycling tights
Marmot driclime pants (and jacket)
Patagonia windtracker (I could have just thrown myself off with this description)
REI mistral pants (sort of a light weight softshell pants that often go on sale at REI)
REI mistral jacket & I have this half zip pullover from REI that's the same fabric.
Sporthill shirts.
Arc'teryx squamish windshell (very light weight & cuts the wind, I know marmot has a similar jacket)
Arc'teryx switchback shirt & pants
Not so many of those are cycling specific.
Tramdock.com has some helly hansen prowool tights up currently - polyester inner layer, merino wool outerlayer.
Those may work for some of you allergic folks.
And they're hot pink. What's not to like?
back to wet wool - I've gone head over teakettle into a raceway at a trout hatchery, in November (icy cold water, snow on the ground). :o So long as there was no breeze, the wet wool did keep me warm. Fortunately, the hatchery manager was sympathetic, took mercy on me, brought some sweats and another sweater, and hauled my wet stuff off to the dryer so I could get my work done without catching my death of cold.
So with an outter windproof layer, wet wool will keep you warm, after you ring it out. :rolleyes: But I much prefer DRY clothes. :D
On the other hand, Pardes said she's allergic to wool, so all this is absolutely MOOT! Moot, I say. Which leads us back to Catriona's suggestions.
That really doesn't sound like wool behavior. What wool is well known for is being warm even when wet, which is why it's favored by sailors and sweaty athletes.Quote:
Originally Posted by Catriona
Is your gear 100% wool, or is it a wool blend? Even 70% is enough to keep my things warm and dry, and I sweat a LOT.
Now THAT is a challenging job.Quote:
Originally Posted by bmccasland
"...absolutely MOOT! Moot, I say." That was very funny.Quote:
Originally Posted by bmccasland
With all the great suggestions here, I found some great microfleece alternatives and just ordered a balaclava (that is a weird word, if you ask me) and I found some decent tights and for good measure a couple of neck gaiters (one or a hat, one for the neck if the balaclava doesn't work). So BRING on the cold weather!
My wool's 100% merino wool - icebreaker 260 weight. The bras are patagonia sports bras, also wicking. I was biking in ibex or smartwool short sleeve tops this summer, and I was definitely making them moist as well. Apparently, if you sweat a lot, I must sweat absolute buckets.Quote:
Originally Posted by OakLeaf
As long as I'm moving I'm fine, when I stop, the wind blows through it, I lose the warmth of exertion and wet wool sucks.
Wearing a camelbak on my back pretty much ensures that sweat gets trapped back there.
I've been using some pullover REI softshell top that I bought a few years back and it's working better than the wool does for me. It unzips down to my navel, so I can adjust the amount of ventilation I'm getting as I'm riding.
It's sort of sad because I've been doing away with most of my wicking stuff the last few years and stocking up on wool... And now I'm bringing all my synthetic wicking stuff back into circulation. But this is the first year I've biked this much, previously just used my wool for kayaking, camping, and skiing. Or to wear around and be blissful in my wool luciousness.
I think with wool and the cold, layers are the key. You need a baselayer to wick and outer layers to protect.
I also think that if you are standing still long enough, you'll get chilled.
Sometimes after a longer ride, I'll get home and be hungry so I won't change right away. I get chilled from the sweat even though I'm in my warm house.
Brrr. Winter.
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Originally Posted by bmccasland
Not really. Start with permanent vertigo. Have all your attention on the lovely rainbow trout swimming in the raceway that you need to catch, reach over with your dip-net, and discover that it's deeper than your thought ... sooo reach, reach, reach.Quote:
Originally Posted by pardes
And fall in.
At least the water was fairly deep, so I didn't get hurt. Fish raceways are not exactly designed to be diving pools.:o
Dumping into a trout hatchery, indeed! I'm impressed!!!
I'm much *less* allergic to cats than I was when I came out here. I shared a house with them, but kept them in other rooms, adn every time one came near me ... welp, sometimes I'd just have to pet the critter, and then I'd go wash my hands.
You know, I didn't so much as catch a cold for two full years. However, the allergies abated and so did the habit, and my immune system returned to "above average." Note to self: It's October. Pretend you're petting cats again!! (Leaving room to wash hands)
I'm still allergic to wool... and down... and pretty much anything from an animal if it's *next* to my skin.
I just splurged on a jacket from Cheepa nd Steep earlier today. I hope it gets here before Monday when we'll have a hard freeze - but I never did find my parka wehn I moved and found that wearing two jackets worked even better. I figure if I'm wearing five layers, I look like Michelin Mama but road rash will avoid me, and when spring comes people are sure I've lost 15 pounds!
Don't care, I'm still impressed. First of all rainbow trout are beautiful to behold and I think you still agree with that.....and I understand what you mean about the vertigo of rushing water. As a kid I used to watch rainbow trout in a creek and was always amazed at the disorienting feeling of concentrating on one object within a moving background. I always thought it was magic.Quote:
Originally Posted by bmccasland
I agree. I was thinking it could even be useful to put my thin windbreaker somewhere in the middle to really block the wind. The experimenting is fun! And you are right, they will think we've lost hundreds of pounds in the spring when we stop wearing so many layers!Quote:
Originally Posted by Geonz
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Originally Posted by Geonz
Hey you two, don't forget to pack a patch kit and a pump, in case your 'cocoons' blow a hole somewhere! :eek: ;) :DAttachment 7663Quote:
Originally Posted by pardes
Oh GAWD, now every time I'm wearing sixteen layered jackets, I'll see a MIchelin man...er woman in my head ready to blow a flat. :eek::eek:
Surely everyone here remembers getting bundled up in a snowsuit by your mother so tightly that you couldn't move and looked like an astronaut who couldn't move their arms or legs and just bounced around.
God love our mothers.
Ha ha! :D Make sure you put out that cigar, too.Quote:
Originally Posted by pardes
I was the one in ripped Salvation Army jackets and cotton pants with the sleeves and legs way too short, my wrists and sneakers getting full of snow. Snowsuit?- not in my world. :cool:Quote:
Surely everyone here remembers getting bundled up in a snowsuit by your mother so tightly that you couldn't move and looked like an astronaut who couldn't move their arms or legs and just bounced around.
Now I'm grown up and I'm thrilled to have wonderful warm clothes. Merino......droooool....
All my life I froze and hated winter. Now I love it and love being out in it walking, biking, and snowshoeing. :)
After a challenging day, nothing is better than firing up the laptop and seeing the Michelin man on a bike smokin a stogie. HAHA. He is now my wallpaper.
About wool...I have wool socks and a wool 'flimsy' shirt. This ls shirt is very thin, but it keeps you so warm. I never realized that I should be looking at more wool things because if that insulation power of the flimsy shirt says anything...
Pardes-have you checked sierratradingpost.com for leggings, etc? One of the best places to find wool stuff. I got the flimsy shirt from their store in Reno. Boy do I miss going in there!!!
Yeah, remember how it felt when some grownup took your rubber rain boots off your frozen feet and started rubbing them hard to "get the circulation moving again" ?Quote:
Originally Posted by BleeckerSt_Girl
we were little, we didn't have good snow wear, but we sure wanted to go out and play!
and then when all our clothes were wet, we couldn't go out anymore; and had to watch the OTHER kids playing in our snow fort.
Lisa, so sorry about the bad old days. I had my share too but they didn't involve not having warm enough clothes, they were the kind you don't talk about because you are too ashamed and then you end up a warped adult and THEN start talking about it to iron the million warps out of your psyche. Finally.
Yes, I know what you mean about the joy of being able to dress warmly after being cold due to someone else's "oversight." In my case, I had surgery for a brain tumor in 1994 which was a grand success. The only exception was the fact that it totally screwed up my thermostat and I bought more coats and jackets and warm fuzzy things to wear than I bought in my combined 49 years that I had been alive before that. I'm not quite so cold-blooded now but I still buy more coats than I'll ever wear out. I think I must still be compensating for that first year after surgery when I could NEVER get warm no matter what I wore.
I think when the body is under stress it has a harder time keeping itself warm, since some energy is funneled off to healing particular areas. Great that your surgery was such a success!Quote:
Originally Posted by pardes
Then you'll like this one too :D :Quote:
Originally Posted by TahoeDirtGirl
http://www.cyclofiend.com/Images/misc/camelad.jpg
You left out this one:
http://www.bicycle-gifts.com/jpg/q45.jpg
That's really a super domestique.
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Originally Posted by Biciclista
Anyone else have parents put plastic bags around their feet underneath regular shoes when it snowed? I was one of six kids and snow boots weren't a big priority for my parents--I think they figured that if you didn't fit a pair of available boots now, you'd grow into a hand me down pair eventually! But I remember having maybe four pairs of boots for all six kids, so you'd stick your feet in plastic bread bags held up with rubber bands and then play in your sneakers. It didn't work very well, but it was better than nothing.
Years later, when bike touring, I tried the same technique to keep my feet dry in the rain. It didn't work very well then either.
Sarah
We did that, too, Sarah. Our boots, if we had them, always had holes in them after the first few walks to school.
Karen
We did that, too, Sarah. Our boots, if we had them, always had holes in them after the first few walks to school. The kind you pulled over your shoes and buckled, and then you had to pull your shoe all the way off and struggle the shoe out in the cloak closet so you could go in the classroom.
Karen
I have put plastic bags in my shoes for running, not for cycling. But I guess it would work.
I remember growing up with no winter hats, or elderly bobble winter hats that I wouldn't be caught dead in at school, a thin autumn jacket that I wore all winter, and yep, pastic bags in my shoes or folded newspaper to add to the soles. And I remember going to one skiing class and being so cold I could hardly move. My parents weren't really stingy or poor, just clueless about how to dress well in winter to actually do something outside, not just survive moving from door to door, and they were very big on non-consumerism, jumble sales and recycling everything. Which is fine when you're an adult and can make your own decisions about what you want to wear, a little harder for a 14 yr old in the 80's.
My son has the most functional winter clothing I can lay my hands on. And nothing expensive or high-fashion, but clothes that no-one will ever point out don't fit in.
Pardon the hijack, this sort of hit a nerve :o
This is not really my discussion since I live in California, after all, but thank you for making me feel a little less ridiculous about my kid's winter wardrobe, lph. I have a bunch of friends with babies the same age who are already planning all the indoor activities they'll need to keep their toddlers occupied all winter, while I am thinking, dude, this is Sacramento. Sometimes we have a rain and wind storm bad enough to keep us inside all day. Sometimes it freezes. Sometimes it's foggy and gross. But except in the worst of the windstorms, you can go outside. And I am not raising a hothouse flower here.
So she has itty bitty base layers, a fantastic fleece jacket from REI that allows her to move her arms and play, another Smartwool hat (we learned how great that was last year -- I could take her out in the pouring rain and the hat sheds water so well that only her face would get wet, which she LOVED), gloves and plenty of Smartwool socks. She hated being inside when it was hot and smoky all summer, so I have no plans to stay indoors all winter. That is why we pay exorbitant housing prices, for pete's sake, so we can bike and hike and run around all winter.
And for when it's actually cold, I still have my Mamacoat. Nothing like extra body heat to keep everybody warm. Won't work for cycling, though!
I can't imagine staying inside all winter...
Those moms must have never played in the woods. But, seriously, I can't imagine not having boots or a winter coat in New England. I had a lot of wool as a kid!
That line, "itty bitty base layers," just CRACKS me up every time I read it. Please PLEASE post some photos of these itty bitty base layers.Quote:
Originally Posted by xeney
Do you remember the scene in "Three Men and a Baby," where they took the baby to a construction site in a tiny tiny hardhat. Same idea, it just makes you smile and smile.
I will, if it ever drops below 80 degrees here!
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Originally Posted by xeney
That's not nice to brag!:rolleyes:
EEEKS! Forecast for tonight in Newark and tomorrow's bike commute: 39 degrees, rain, wind! I'm breaking out the CuddlDuds and rain pants!
I can't say we were deprived or anything as kids, there were 5 of us, so we just tended to wear all the clothing we owned in the snow or cold - so my parents definitely had layering down!
There were a few sizes of snow boots and if you didn't fit those, then there were a couple of pairs of knee high mens galoshes that we'd use.
We weren't particularly cold - but I definitely can stay warmer layering with smarter better clothing choices now.
I keep trying to give my Mother some nice fleece jackets, rain coats, or wool and she always refuses.... So now if I want to give her something like that, I wear them a couple of times, and then I'll sort a bag of clothes to donate to goodwill or the church.... I then give my Mom the bag of clothes and tell her that I want to donate it and she should check if she wants anything out of the bag....
So she of course then takes the nice jackets or whatever, and gives me hell for being so decadent that I was going to give away such nice jackets or clothing...
And a while later I'll hear all about how could i have tried to give away such a warm or waterproof jacket and all about how great it is... And am I sure I don't want it back?
She's cute.
There's a Norwegian brand called Janus that makes inexpensive but functional merino wool underwear for kids. My son has literally spent every winter since he was born encased in first a navy blue wool "bodysuit", then a navy blue polo sweater. He hasn't started wearing it yet, but once he does he won't take it off until spring :)Quote:
Originally Posted by pardes
Oh - and great lateral thinking, Catriona!