My toes are frozen!

[SouthernBelle]

one thing I do is wear a pair of wicking footie type socks under the heavy socks. Helps keep the feet dry.

As far as affording shoes, keep your eye on ebay. I bought my Lakes and Specialized shoes for a dollar a pair plus shipping, totaling less than $10 for 2 pair of shoes. My Lakes are now my winter shoes. They are soft, warm and suedey inside.

[Crankin]

I have Sidi road shoes and I can wear Woolie Bully socks comfortably. I just leave the ratchet thing and the velcro fasteners quite loose. I wear those socks with Neoprene booties down to about 40 degrees. This week I went out and rode with temps in the thirties for the first time. I used the chemical foot warmers and it was heaven. Basically, I dress the same way i would for x country skiing. I also wore my longer smart wool ski socks, which are thinner than the woolie bullies, and helped to insulate my legs a bit.

Does anyone else have difficulty shifting and braking in lobster gloves? Mine are extremely warm, but I feel really restricted in which fingers I can use, so I've ended up taking them off and switching to my Am-fibs, which are almost as warm, but not quite. They were expensive, and now I think I may have wasted my money.

[hellosunshine]

what do u mean chamical foot warmers?


i find that i can detach my brain from my feet and ignore them,but the agony of getting home and into the shower,its untrue,worse than standing on an upright plug(if you have ever done that!)yes,bigger shoes,overshoes but between the shoea nd over shoes i sometimes put a plastic bag,with the bottom cut out.


also,cold weather advice,padded bras!awesome.

[suzieqtwa]

I'm not clip less ,but I bought some snowboard smartwool high socks ,and I went out 31 miles in 30 degree weather this morning ,and my toes were fine. I think they are thin enough to go under the clipless shoes. I hope so as I'm going clip less in a couple of weeks.
Suzie

[Maureen Valley]

Ladies...ladies...ladies.....

I have the perfect solution.

Move to Florida.

Then we'll form our own Velogirls group...(we'll call ourselves something else, of course) and ride WITHOUT foot warmers....leg warmers....arm warmers...any kind of warmer.

We'll ride til we drop in the Florida sun...which is what I did today. 25 miles on the West Orange Trail....beautiful, safe...and with the nicest of comfort stations.

Boo Bike performed like a champ. I wanted to quit a time or two, but she just kept me peddling til I could peddle no more. I hit 20 MPH a time or two...which is EXTRAORDINARY for me.

Let me know when you all come to your senses and live where you can ride year 'round. Don't listen to all those nasty rumors about hurricanes.

Hugs to all,
Boo and Me

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

What, and give up my whale blubber jerky biking snacks and sealskin underwear? No way!

[suzieqtwa]

Ya, and give up 7 months of clouds ,and rain..........Its a challenge to ride each day for me.

[Tri Girl]

Move to FL? That's crazy talk! Why would I want to live somewhere where I couldn't constantly complain about the heat/cold? It would take all the fun out of seasonal changes for me.
Really, I would LOVE to move somewhere like that (hey, I used to live somewhere like that- but somehow got "stuck" in the midwest and can't leave now). I dream of the day I retire to Tucson and live in harmony with the temperate climate of the SW (and I'm from AZ- so that's temperate to me)...

[Trek420]

Ladies...ladies...ladies.....

I have the perfect solution.

Move to Florida.

Then we'll form our own Velogirls group...(we'll call ourselves something else, of course) and ride WITHOUT foot warmers....leg warmers....arm warmers...any kind of warmer.

We'll ride til we drop in the Florida sun...which is what I did today. 25 miles on the West Orange Trail....beautiful, safe...and with the nicest of comfort stations.

Boo Bike performed like a champ. I wanted to quit a time or two, but she just kept me peddling til I could peddle no more. I hit 20 MPH a time or two...which is EXTRAORDINARY for me.

Let me know when you all come to your senses and live where you can ride year 'round. Don't listen to all those nasty rumors about hurricanes.

Hugs to all,
Boo and Me

ladies ladies, or california! we already have the velogirls, with jerseys and socks and rides and and...Don't like the velogirls there are at least 2 other womens cycling clubs, the lunachix and uhm another one I forget, oh and wombats for mtb gals (ok, that's 3) and a whole lotta TE'ers.

And, if you want frostbite you got it! We have mountains too.

Don't listen to the nasty rumors about earthquakes, crazy drivers, horrid traffic, sky high home prices....

[KnottedYet]

Oh, yeah, HOUSING prices! Holy sheep!

No, Oregon is where it's at: nice bungalows in Eugene OR for $150-$170k, award winning bike friendly town, an hour from the mtns, an hour from the ocean, not too much rain, not too much sun, and close enough to CA that you can ride with the crazed drivers through horrid traffic during an earthquake any time you want!

http://www.eugene-or.gov/portal/server.pt

[Maureen Valley]

Ok, ladies...you can brag all you want...but do you have an infestation of Pythons in your wilds? Do you have alligators that dine on fluffy little white dogs and toddlers if their idiot parents are dumb enough to let them waddle down to the water's edge? Do you have a voting system that can throw off an election by thousands of votes? Hanging and pregnant chads, anyone? And can you match child for child the numbers of kids the system LOSES each year? Never to be found again?

Boy....we're good, aren't we?

Best to all from....Flurr-Duh
Maureen
(transplant from Minneapolis!!)

[LBTC]

ladies ladies, or california!

Don't listen to the nasty rumors about earthquakes, crazy drivers, horrid traffic, sky high home prices....

You missed fires!
~T~

[Duck on Wheels]

You missed fires!
~T~

And rock slides They're part of the SoCal carbon cycle too -- brush growth, dry cycle, fires, wet cycle, slides, regrowth. Takes just long enough for a new "generation" to grab up the slide-emptied lots (not remembering to ask why they're empty) and rebuild. 'Course, I'm from NoCal. From my perspective anybody living in SoCal must be slightly loopy (though often in a good way).

[Trek420]

You missed fires!
~T~

oooh, ooh, fires and mudslides. How could I forget?

How long have I lived here again? And floods! Oh the floods. The Russian River, every bleeping year.

"Look at this lovely river front lot, like it's waiting just for me to build my dream cabin in the redwoods blub blub blub......"

We're diverse, I truly love that.

Everyone comes here, brings there food and it all grows here! Farm markets with Italian basil, Thai greens, Japanese eggplant, South and Central American squashes, Southwestern chilis ....

And can we talk? This huge gay community, it's not like I would have to go all the way to Seattle for example to meet the bikergal of my dreams.

[Duck on Wheels]

[QUOTE=hellosunshine;156343]what do u mean chamical foot warmers?
i find that i can detach my brain from my feet and ignore them,but the agony of getting home and into the shower,its untrue,[QUOTE]

That's not your power of (de-)concentration at work, that's a serious sign of frostbite when you lose sensation in your toes! You must get the sizes and layers right. Better to feel cold than go numb, better to stay warm than feel cold. Try smartwool bike socks. They may be the right thickness to keep your toes warm without making your shoes too tight (reduced circulation --> frostbite). And those little chemical heat packets work too. Just don't place them inside your innermost sock layer. They can get quite hot