3 ms·
I commute by bike 2 or 3 days a week outside of Portland Maine. Last week had the coldest days so far at 17F (-8C). Generally my face and breath are always fine
by yardshop 3y ago
I commute by bike 2 or 3 days a week outside of Portland Maine. Last week had the coldest days so far at 17F (-8C). Generally my face and breath are always fine fully exposed, but my fingertips always get very cold even in the 30s. My ride starts off with a couple uphills so that warms me up pretty well, and I alternate pulling my fingers into the palms of my gloves from one hand to the other. The traffic is not usually _too_ bad, so the joys of biking generally outweigh all the other irritations!
- mkoryak 3y agoI messed around with connecting my external bike light battery pack to hand warming elements that I wrapped around my handlebars. It kinda worked a little bit.
- yardshop 3y agoThat's a neat idea! Maybe I could rig something like that up with one of my Ryobi battery packs.
- wlesieutre 3y agoThey make "hand deflectors" for motorcycles that are basically little windshields for your hands, have you considered trying something similar on your bike? Or are you not moving fast enough for the wind to be an issue, it's just how cold it is?
- yardshop 3y agoThe wind definitely affects things, but its also partly glove choice and mostly less good circulation than in years past. Gripping the bars and also keeping fingers on the cold aluminum brake levers speeds the heat drain too. Mittens would be better but I have to find a non-bulky pair. I will look at these deflectors too, thanks!
- imp0cat 3y agoHandlerbar-mounted bike mitts help a lot.
- justinator 3y agoBar Mitts/Bike Pogies! https://www.cyclingweekly.com/products/smitten-with-mittens-im-in-love-with-my-bar-mitts-even-if-real-cyclists-dont-like-them https://www.cyclingweekly.com/products/smitten-with-mittens-...
- nicolapede 3y agoThanks! Those look exactly what I need! I struggle to keep my hands warm below -3C.
- yardshop 3y agoI will look into them, thanks! I couldn't actually read the article, it said "Thanks for reading 20 articles this month, please sign up" and blocked the rest of it, even though I've never been there before. Will try on my less ancient PC! I'm wondering how they accommodate shifters and brakes but I'm sure they do since I saw them all over NYC last time I was there.
- Moru 3y agoThere are several versions that fits different bike handles. I still haven't found anything that fits mine though so have to survive with double gloves. There are also lobster gloves where you pair two fingers next to each other to keep warm and still be able to use the breaks and shifters.
- yardshop 3y agoI have something like the lobster gloves. They are REI three-finger gloves where the index and middle finger are separate, and the ring and pinky are together in a shell pocket and each in their own liner pockets. They are my best ones so far and fingers don't get quite as nippy that way. But the shells are bulky and have extra long cuffs. Tradeoffs!
- mckn1ght 3y agoI have Dogwood Designs pogies on a flat bar with SRAM NX shifters and SRAM Level brakes and they work well. I saw a guy's blog post [0] that shows them on cruiser bars, just to give you an idea of the variety of setups they can accommodate. They make them in two warmth ratings, down to -15°F [1] and below -15°F [2] [0]: https://jnyyz.wordpress.com/2022/01/11/dogwood-designs-pogies/ https://jnyyz.wordpress.com/2022/01/11/dogwood-designs-pogie... [1]: https://www.907bikes.com/product-page/dogwood-designs-winter-pogies https://www.907bikes.com/product-page/dogwood-designs-winter... [2]: https://www.907bikes.com/product-page/dogwood-designs-winter-plus-pogies https://www.907bikes.com/product-page/dogwood-designs-winter...