PRE-TRIP EXPERIMENT #1: BRRRR
I went for a ride today in order to test my cold weather outfit and also to return an item to my local Cycle Gear store (pants that are too short, again). The temperature gauge on my bike read 0° Celsius, and according to weatherunderground.com wind was blowing around 5 mph. I took the highway for the majority of the errand, the MPH needle hovering around 75. Here’s what I wore:
- silk long underwear, top and bottom
- thick cotton socks
- my leather/canvas army boots
- jeans
- light sweater
- thin wool shirt-jacket thing
- leather jacket
- insulated waterproof gloves
- silk scarf
By the time I got to the store my fingers were frozen and my ears were cold, but otherwise I felt pretty good. Heavier or wool socks would have been better. While I was at the shop, I picked up a Turtlefur balaclava. That plus the silk scarf kept my head and neck perfectly warm on the ride home, although because the balaclava comes up into the helmet, I fogged up the visor every time I stopped. When I took my helmet off at home, it was damp inside. Ew.
I have to figure out the glove situation. Evidently insulated waterproof does not mean windproof or warm. My fingers were seriously, seriously freezing. On a longer ride I would have been miserable.
What else? Well, I’m either far more comfortable on the bike than I was a mere week ago, or mentally I’ve just decided that since my bike and I are going to be together for a long, long while, we might as well play nice. Or maybe my bike just likes the cold. Whatever it was, this was the most comfortable (as in seating position, etc) I’ve been and most agile the bike’s been. I decided to take the Windsor Street exit off Mopac, to check out the tight, decreasing radius turn. We did it at some speed, and it was too, too easy. Also damn fun to zip around and out of it. I say “we” because that’s how I’m thinking these days: my bike and me. A cross-country roadtrip team. I think my bike is a boy, and I think he needs a name. Suggestions are welcome. For reference, a picture of him lives here.
Anyway, the chalkboard gets two updates today: (1) warmer gloves, or some modification to my current gloves (glove liners?). Or somehow make my windproof bicycling gloves more suitably warm. And (2), I think I like the army boots for riding more than my actual motorcycle boots. Can’t quite pinpoint why, I just do.
Oh, there’s a (3). Chaps. Yeah. I think it’s a certainty. Do not ever expect to see pictures of me in them, however. When I wear them, I will vanish like smoke before your very eyes. Rumors will abound, but documentation will be non-existent. Chaps ghost.
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