Commuting - gas savings vs. startup costs

[redrhodie]

I went through a similar thing with cold weather riding. I thought I needed all this stuff, and then once I got into it, I realized my favorite warm thing was and old turtleneck sweater I had with a moth hole in it.

I say give it a try before you go out and buy a whole bunch of new stuff. I think it's better to buy things as the need arises, not by speculating what you'll need. I definitely wouldn't have bought the armwarmers I spent too much on, or the full-finger gloves. I find I prefer my regular bike gloves with those $1-$2 stretchy knit gloves over them.

It sounds like you have a lot of time constraints. If commuting doesn't end up working out, you don't want to feel like you wasted a lot of money on it.