Toasted Toes and Hot Hands: Solutions

[Zen]

I haven't ridden in cold often enough to need them but I'm wondering...

These must be the same thing as those icyhot pads for your back or the stick on heat things for menstrual cramps. I wonder how cost effective it would be to take the big ones and cut them into the small pieces you need?

[Sarabeth]

Hey, Zen

That's a thought -- I could try it on one of the little paks first. I think the package instructions say don't cut open. The Contents: Iron powder, salt, activated charcoal and vermiculite. But I might try it anyway and see what happens!

I have used the ones that are sold for use on your back (ThermaRest, think that's the name/brand). I used them when bike riding in the Rocky Mountains (bike tours: Ride The Rockies and Bicycle Tour of Colorado) in the very early morning hours when it is really cold. Going down the descents really fast the air rushing up over my shoulders trigger the muscles across my back/upper shoulder - and I get this really tight muscle that stings like crazy. But by putting one of those heat thingies on my skin up there across the back, just below my neck -- it stops that muscle from tighting up in the cold air.

[Mr. Bloom]

Silver loves them (she's thin). I like them (I'm more naturally insulated).

[OakLeaf]

You can't cut them. If you did, the contents would just spill out.

They're sort of a thin pressed papery fabric filled with iron filings and I think charcoal. When you take them out of the package, they have a chemical reaction with oxygen that makes them heat up. They'll stay warm for 4-6 hours. Someone posted in another thread (and I've heard it elsewhere recently) that if they're still warm when you finish whatever you were doing, you can seal them tightly in ziploc bags and get another use out of them.

They're available at sporting goods stores and farm stores and often times just at random stores like drugstores or groceries in the winter.

[Crankin]

I use them for my feet when riding and feet and hands when x country skiing at low temperatures. I have tried to use the hand warmers when riding, but I can't find any combo of liners/gloves that I have that are big enough. I can barely shift the gears on my road bike with my Amfib gloves that are really quite warm down to 30, so I end up wearing liners with lighter gloves, which make things pretty tight. It's OK with my other bike with flat bars.
I have liners for skiing that have a holder place for the packet, but I just can't get them to fit under my cycling gloves.

[BleeckerSt_Girl]

I have nothing against the idea of using high tech means to keep toes and hands warm, and my intent is not to criticize others' choices- but to simply post my own view- I personally don't like the 'throwaway society' concept of repeatedly buying plastic pouches that are only good for one or two uses and can't even be recycled- just more plastic non-biodegradable crap for the landfills. I'm waiting (and hoping) for them to come out with slender little wireless heating pads for gloves and boots that use rechargeable power and aren't too bulky. Meanwhile, I use lots of layers of wool and other insulation materials and do the best I can with that. Wearing well insulated winter hiking boots helps me a lot.

[RoadRaven]

I personally don't like the 'throwaway society' concept of repeatedly buying plastic pouches that are only good for one or two uses and can't even be recycled- just more plastic non-biodegradable crap for the landfills.
Meanwhile, I use lots of layers of wool and other insulation materials and do the best I can with that.

A good view to have, Bleecker. I am glad you voiced it, and like you, my intent with this response is not to criticise individuals, but rather to make a sad observation on the watsefulness our societies in the west have accepted as a normal and acceptable way of behaving.

I'm with you... layers of wool, plastic bags (recycling old bread bags! ) over gloves, between layers of socks... I have even used a plastic shopping bag tied to my crop top and pushed down the front of my chest/belly when it started snowing unexpectadly just before a race one day.

[PamNY]

I have nothing against the idea of using high tech means to keep toes and hands warm, and my intent is not to criticize others' choices- but to simply post my own view- I personally don't like the 'throwaway society' concept of repeatedly buying plastic pouches that are only good for one or two uses and can't even be recycled- just more plastic non-biodegradable crap for the landfills.

Ah, but have you given up toilet paper? There's a good bit online about this and I developed a brief but morbid fascination with that level of commitment to reuse.

The hand/foot warmers under discussion are not at all high tech. The outer packaging is plastic; the inner part is not.

Pam