Cold weather riding
 

The last two days I've ridden to work in fairly cold weather. It made me wonder, how cold it too cold WITHOUT heated gear?

I know this might be relative based on where we live and such, but I'm still curious.

I ride down into the mid/upper 30's and do fine....

What gear do you use?

I've been looking at the Fieldsheer Adventure/Hydrotour stuff...

Humidity, temp, sunshine vs cloudy, fit and quality of existing gear, under garments, layers, speed, rain or dry, full fairing, no fairing, touring style fairing ect. all play factors in how cold is too cold without heated gear.

http://www.twowheelfix.com/showthrea...ht=hypothermia

this thread has some hints.

Well you are no fun.

ill ride down into the twenties with some thicker layers and long underwear. seriously as long as my neck and hands stay warm im ok

Here is my winter gear.

Jacket: Joe Rocket Honda Endurance Textile Jacket

http://www.newenough.com/closeouts/t...le_jacket.html

Gloves: Tour Master Winter Elite

http://www.newenough.com/gloves/insu...le_gloves.html

Thermals: Military 100% Polypropylene. Top & bottom

http://www.zuwharrie.com/gallery/alb...28Small%29.JPG

http://www.zuwharrie.com/gallery/alb...28Small%29.JPG

Pants: Jeans

Boots: Wolverine work boots. LOL

Over pants: I have two different ones. For extreme cold I have a pair of military 100% Nylon pants. They say "Extreme Cold" on them LOL. I have a lighter insulated pull over with suspenders I got from Academy for $25.

http://www.zuwharrie.com/gallery/alb...28Small%29.JPG

http://www.zuwharrie.com/gallery/alb...28Small%29.JPG


Armor: Alpinestar *hybrid*. I call it a hybrid cause it's has the looks of both versions 1 and 2.

http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/l...et007Large.jpg

http://i284.photobucket.com/albums/l...et008Large.jpg



Yes I do wear all of these at once sometimes. LOL Over my armor I usually wear one sweater.

I did come home sunday from a trip and it was foggy and in the low 30's. I did fine about half the way, then finally started feeling the cold through my gloves. The jacket is nice but it fits rather large around the stomach/waist.

So when it is cold do you find yourself riding differently? For example, when I'm cold I tense up.

Depends. As long as any of my body parts dont stay cold long enough I'm fine. If my chest gets really cold I tense up some and get the shakes.

I really don't like being ballooned up with all the added cover but it's better than being cold. LOL

A guy on my cbr forum highly recommends Alpinestar WR-2 gore-tex gloves. I was going to get them but newenough doesn't keep much of alpinestar stuff at their main building so I didn't get to try them on. The guy said like most alpinestar gloves, the fingers are long.

http://www.newenough.com/gloves/insu...le_gloves.html

As long as you have shit to cut the wind, cold isn't that bad. 36º is about the coldest I ever rode... well... rode with any gumption (above 50mph)... Rainsuit with meshie suit under it and a sweatshirt... I was good. Leather perforated gloves were chilly pretty quick, but I could reach down and grab my header with my right hand (which hurt) and tuck my left hand up against the front jug on the Buell... that helped. Feet were a bit numb after 45 minutes or so... again, perforated boots with only a single pair of socks. Could have used a neck gaitor or something...

Come to think of it... fuck it riding in the cold sucks.

Did 15 degrees a few times on the TL. Layers and use the best thermals you can afford and a good pair of gloves. Something to cover your neck/throat is a must.

Were you and I married?....You sound like an ex...:lol

I have a set of these....they are wonderful....

http://advrider.com/forums/showthread.php?t=106303

http://www.geocities.jp/kz1300_japan...ppo-hands1.jpg

In general, 45 is as low as I go for more than a few minutes. The older I get, the higher that number gets.

Before I learned of the joys associated with owning a BMW (not bragging….it’s just none TOLD me these things or I’d done what I could to get one SOONER :lol: ) I bundled up with my snow ski gear and it worked just fine :idk:

I wore overpants that you can get at any ski shop that block ALL wind whatsoever, and my ski jacket with my ski gloves. They weren’t the big ass cumbersome jobs you wear when playing in the snow…they were form cut to allow you to grip your poles and move your fingers. But they were warm.

I could go to 30 or so in JUST that on a TLR/R1 type limited wind protection bike. It was rough and generally I would shiver pretty badly but I dealt. Once I rode in 28 degree weather for 100 miles to southern VA to meet some buddies for a ride. I had to leave the house at 5am in December for this ride (was supposed to get to mid 50’s so we decided to do a 350 mile loop of shady valley and back) and when I GOT there the sun finally decided to rise and bring the temp up to a blistering warmth of 32…..THAT was a day that took me a week to warm up from.

NOW….with the heated grips and wind protection of the RT I can do in the 20’s easy, but my main fear with THAT kind of temperature is ice across the road. We don’t have any resemblance of decent snow/ice removal here in NC because it happens, what tach? Like 3 times a year?

I just recently got a pair of Gerbin’s heated gloves for the motard days…so I should be good down to 30 on IT too now. But that will require the ski pants and a baklava too.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fLp2AYGlrFY
Totally couldn't help myself.

Might have to check these out. Being a girl, I have a hard time finding decent gloves that fit me well enough that I can still function comfortably.

Gaitor! This is the word I was trying to think of the other day.

Sorry, obviously not a good memory for you.

WTF are those?

Anyone know where to get those silk glove liners? My hands are always the first to go.

I bought mine at the local dealership.

I live in Los Angeles :?:

So I'll buy you a pair here and send them to you.

Racedoll, I'm a small guy so I've lived with not finding right fitting clothes all my life. I"m 24 and last year I was finally able to fit 32 waist jeans, instead of fitting between sizes. LOL

I have girly sized hands so finding gloves that fit are really important to me. I like tight fitting gloves (bad idea for winter gloves I know) so I can feel things. It irritates me to wear big gloves. Even work gloves being to big get on my nerves.


Maybe someday we'll be wearing some nanosuits and dont have to worry about bulky clothes.

They have all these in stock so they'll ship same day.


http://newenough.com/browse/search?query=silk

Maybe it's a Japanese thing (since they are smaller people), but Kushitani gloves are the best fitting ones for me. They are mens and a little long in the fingers, but for the most part fit me really nice. The best fitting gauntlet style with all the protection I wanted.

I bought a pair of Teknic gauntlets and the fangers are about half an inch too long. :td: I'll probably just sell them off.

That's a very nice offer, and I appreciate it, but...


Just grabbed a set, thank you!

:willy: :willy: :willy:

If it drops into the mid to low 60s I need thermals and my hood. I am a baby when it comes to the cold. :lol:

Right now we're in the cold jacket in the morn and hot jacket after work. It's like two seasons every day here.

layers...

thermals top and bottom
ski socks
+
t-shirt +pajama pants or pair of gym pants that are multi layered
+
Jeans
+
turtle neck long sleeve shirt
+
fleece
+same old AlpineStars jacket I wear year round
+
same old boots I wear year round
+
my old pair of Olympia Windtex gloves
+
this facemask thingy I don't wear too much because it's aggravates fogging on my glasses


It's been awhile since I did some cold weather riding but I'd have no problem riding into the 30's with that set up.

Since I switched to morning rides, hitting black ice at 6am just doesn't seem fun anymore.
Could be because I'm a little older.
could be because I suck at Ice riding

I ended up riding through a blowing snowstorm in Utah once, that's the worst weather I've ridden in. Add to that having no coolant (water+water wetter required for track events) and you get the added fun of not being able to stop. Rode in the 20s in NJ once, that sucked.

Just rode in to work. It was around 32.

Jeans, shoes, hoodie, jacket, gloves, and lid...

There was no wind coming off the harbour, so it wasn't bad..

How far?

Any hiways?

10 minutes through town.

If I had been doing highway I'd have thrown on my ski pants.

I have a nomex firefighting hood that I put on that makes a huge difference. It stops all wind from going down my jacket or freezing my neck.

I assume UNDER the helmet?

Its currently up to about 34, and its supposed to rain! :lol: I should have a good ride home.

Caster, I don't cover my head with it.

I just use it as an expensive over engineered gator.

It really makes a huge differece. Allows me to drop an entire under layer.

When I usually wear a sweater, I can just throw that on and go.

Gotcha (just gathering info for cold motard days)

Yeah, from my limited experience, rain gear helps as much as actual cold gear. Even cheap rubber pants and a windbreaker from Wal-Mart makes a huge difference.

This is what I use. It's very thick and I put it on before my underlayer to keep it in place. I let the hood flap behind..

http://www.thefirestore.com/store/pr...429_Photo2.jpg

layers. Lots and lots of layers.