New List, Cold Riding

["Tom Brown" <tbrown@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Marc:

A couple things no one has mentioned.

I found some gloves called "Hot Fingers" that are really warm...made for
snowmobiling, have a nice curve to them and a grippy inner surface for
handling controls.  The fingers are a little bulky, but they keep the hands
nice and warm.  They cost $25.  @ Galyans.

Also found and used some chemical toe pads last year @ Galyans on a
post-Thanksgiving ride back to Chicago in high teens/low 20s.   These things
take almost no space on the bike and you can keep them for those really cold
days. They're adhesive on one side.  I stuck them to my liner socks, then
put heavy socks over them and immediately put on boots.  If you put your
boots on right away, these liners last for 6 hours.

Neoprene "skin diver" gloves are absolutely the most windproof, waterproof
gloves you can get. They are also very good insulators.  The problem with
them is that they do not breathe.   You're hands sweat in them and the sweat
can get cold.  They also take a bit of extra grip to hold the throttle, but
with heated grips, there's probably nothing more foolproof in real cold.   I
always carry a pair of these on a winter tour and hope I'll not need them.

- -TB

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