What I Wore

Yesterday morning it was zero degrees outside when I left for work.

Here's what I wore to stay warm.

From the bottom up!

Feet!

• Wool socks from Costco. It feels like every third or fifth trip to Costco, I grab a pack of wool socks. You just can't have too many!
• These knitted blue socks that my partner's grandmother made me a long time ago. They add a layer of insulation but mostly I wear them because my boots are way too big and I need some extra padding when I wear them.
• My boots. I've had these things since I was a young teenager. My dad brought them home from work one day because one of his coworker's husband died and so now she had all these big shoes, and what was she going do with them! And my dad was like, hey, my kid has big feet. I'll take 'em and give 'em to him. And he did. But these things are enormous even on my size 13s. But they're the best thing I've ever experienced as far as good winter/snow boots go.

Legs!

• Tights
• Jeans

Torso and arms!

• Two long sleeved cotton t-shirts
• Cycling jacket. You probably can't see it in the picture, but this jacket is littered with holes and tears. I've worn it daily, year-round, for over three years. It has survived one significant crash and a dozen minor spills. I'm rough on my gear. (Gear ~ body.)

Hands!

This is my problem area.

• Smart Wool glove liners
• These other gloves

I have yet to find a way to keep my hands warm. I have four or five different pairs of gloves—wool and leather, lined and unlined—that I use in different combinations, all to no avail.

What that means is that I can postpone Hand Freeze by riding with one hand behind my back (and no longer exposed to the wind), but that's not always an option because when it's icy and nasty out, I'm keeping both hands on the bars.

After that, I simply have to stop, get off, and warm my hands in my pits/pants. (Your arm pits and your crotch are two of the warmest parts of your body.)

What I have learned recently, though, is that I can keep my hands approximately 90% warmer by pulling my fingers in and wearing them as mittens. It's so much warmer! And it makes me think that I need to seriously consider some good, actual mittens. Or maybe some of those lobster gloves.

Head!

• Two Buffs: one "Original" and one wool.

My Buff, as I've said before, is my all-time, all-purpose favorite cycling accessory. I wear it in warm and cold weather, and don't leave the house without it.

I got a wool one this Christmas, and I really like it. I was surprised by how much longer it is! It hasn't replaced the old one, but I like to keep it on hand. When it's really cold, I usually wear the red one on top of my head, and wear the wool one as a scarf around my neck that I can pull up over my face if I need it.

On one even colder ride last week, I wore a smart wool balaclava under the two buffs, and was plenty warm.

cold cold cold

Bikes and the City made (an ironic) reference to the "cold" 40 degree weather they're having in San Fransisco right now.

Which made me grumble.

We're experiencing a prolonged snap of "cold" 5 degree weather. Which is problematic in that the streets having un-frozen for a couple days now. Cold weather I can handle, but I don't enjoy riding on ice because I don't enjoy falling down.

Consequently, I've been off the bike for two days now and commuting by car feels strange.

Winter cometh

35 degrees and raining.

I actually love this time of year and this kind of commute. Because of the thrill of persevering despite the elements, and because of the smugness that comes from being a member of the exclusive All-Weather Cyclists Club.

I love the Man vs. Nature element of it. I enjoy that I now have to start watching the weather ahead of time so I can plan for both my morning and my evening commute. That I need to at times be ready for varying amounts of rain and snow, which sometimes means having to stop mid-commute to remove or add layers.

Being ill prepared or under-dressed is less dangerous now that my commute is 10 miles round-trip than it was back when it was about 20 miles, but it can still suck plenty bad.

This is also the time of year when you see fewer cyclists on the road, and the ones you do see are in it for the long run, just like you are. This time of year, when it's freezing and raining, if you see another cyclist you nod or wave, and they smile back. The comradeship is near the surface and it's easy to spot a kindred, nutty soul.

This is when cycling becomes an indoor sport for the fair-weather (possibly smarter) cyclists out there.

Tales from the commute

There were two seriously treacherous stretches on the ride home tonight!

One was heading west on 33rd, and the other was heading west through City Park. Both bits were buried in icy, mushy slosh. I was sliding and skidding and wobbling and teetering and tottering.

Didn't fall though.

I had two encounters in City Park. One was an older fella who saw me coming, grinned, and waved. I smiled and said, "Hi!" and he said, in a sing-song voice that was a dead ringer for Goofy, "Hi, Brian!"

The other encounter was a couple walking towards me. The lady said as I passed, with concern in her voice, "Skinny tires!"

The Pete Seeger lookin' fella said, "Brave man!"

drift

So I've experienced this thing a couple times during my commute.

Sometimes, you accidentally lean into a bit of ice, and you can feel your traction slipping. And so if you don't want to develop an all out skid-n-crash, you can't move. So you don't brake and you don't pedal, and you can't lean out of the ice. So you just kind of sail along for a few seconds in helpless limbo, hoping that if you just coast for a second, you'll get your traction back before the ice pulls you the rest of the way in.

That's scary.

Cold Weather Tips

Here are some friggin tips!

• Your cheapo hardware store safety glasses are fogging up? Drill some small holes around the edges of the lens. They'll fog less, and defog more quickly.
  
  
• Colder this evening leaving work than you thought it would be? Stuff your shoes and gloves with paper towels from the break room!
  
  
• If your hands are freezing from too much air resistance, tie your scarf across your handlebars to shield them a little bit.
  

snowy snowy snowy

I had planned on taking the bus home this evening since it had been snowing the whole blasted afternoon, but I got cold waiting at the bus stop with my bike, so I decided to pedal along the route to warm up, thinking a bus would soon catch up to me.

But no! I rode the whole way home!

At the 30th & Downing RTD station, I read the bus schedule and learned that the next bus was 25 minutes away. Decided to press on.

Going down California, around 29th, it was pretty awesome to see Downtown just slow fade in, and emerge out of the snow.

Tried to get on the Mall Bus at the 16th Street Mall, but the driver said over the speakers, "No bikes on the bus!" and opened the doors again for me to get back off.

I camped out in the elevator at the end of 16th street for a while to let my hands warm up.

But I made it all the way back. It was snowing, but it wasn't devilishly cold, or icy.

Although, once home, I did strip down and dive under the bed sheets the second I got in the door.