Gloves?

[accordioneur]

Just this morning I tried out Outdoor Research Lucent heated gloves. For the last couple of years I have had real problems keeping my hands warm while doing outdoor activities in winter, and so I decided to give heated gloves a try. These were the only ones listed as being waterproof (unfortunately, not waterproof enough for kayaking). They’re ridiculously expensive, but I’m willing to spend money to avoid being stuck inside in the cold weather.

It was a cold, dark 15 degrees when I left the house at 5 AM. I set the gloves on the middle of their three settings. My commute is only three miles – and my hands were reasonably warm throughout. Riding home it was in the 30’s and so I didn’t need the heat. I’m going to keep them.

[sethpo]

I’ve pretty much solved the cold toes with some Giro Alpineduro boots I lucked into on the Facebook group, my best warm LL Bean wool socks and toe warmers. I got a bit overconfident though and went with cheap Planet X mid-weight gloves and bar mitts this morning and my hands were a couple of unhappy campers that would have punched me in the face if they weren’t numb. I also realized, too late, that the liners in those gloves were too tight and did much better on the way home w/o them (and with an extra 10 degrees of temp).

I picked up some cheap Planet X lobster gloves last spring that were too warm for the 30’s but I’ve not tried them yet in anything colder w/o the bar mitts. I can’t see using them w/ the bar mitts b/c that’s just too cumbersome.

I also got a Castelli Alpha winter jacket for Xmas from Santa and that thing w/ a heavy wool baselayer was pure heaven.

[PotomacCyclist]

I read through several reviews of gloves with touchscreen-capable tips. Most of the reviewers say the material works at first, but it wears off quickly after a few weeks. I would be doing more than stopping and starting Strava on the phone. (I don’t use Strava anyway.) I would probably grind away the material in the fingertips fairly quickly. Doesn’t seem worth buying.

My phone has a setting to increase screen sensitivity so that gloved fingers will work. I tried it out a couple days ago. It kind of works, but it’s not perfect. Plus it’s just awkward trying to perform more precise functions on the phone while wearing gloves. It’s far from ideal.

I may have to go with the Freehands gloves.

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Re cold toes: I’ve had problems with this too. I’ve tried chemical toe warmers with socks, mountain bike shoes and neoprene shoe covers, but that didn’t work well at all. Maybe there isn’t enough oxygen circulating to activate the toe warmers with the shoe covers. I haven’t tried them without the shoe covers.

I’m not doing as much commuting right now, so I have the option to skip morning rides on sub-40F days (like today). At other times, I may have to go with regular winter shoes and skip the bike shoe/cleat set-up. The holes in the bottoms of bike shoes let in a lot of the cold. The metal of the cleats also pulls in the cold, or lets the heat inside the shoe escape. (The same thing happens with metal handlebars and Bar Mitts.)

If I were commuting more, I might switch to platform pedals for the winter and use warmer regular winter boots or shoes. I’ve ridden CaBi a lot the past few years. I haven’t had any issues using platform pedals. Perhaps they are a tiny percentage less efficient, but that doesn’t really matter for an amateur rider or a bike commuter, at least for short to medium distances.

On sub-40F days, I’ll probably just stick to CaBi or take Metro if I’m even outside at all.

[oldbikechick]

+1 for ski mittens. They are unwieldy, but for the occasional cold day, they are great. My hands were sweating today.

If it ever gets really cold, I plan on using these:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10353[/ATTACH]

I picked them up in China for about $3, but they look like they’d be very warm. There they were using them on mopeds and scooters.

[americancyclo]

@americancyclo 68033 wrote:

I use the cyclones down to about 45 degrees, colder than that and I switch to my snowboarding gloves.

I have moose mitts and those go on when the temps are under 30. I’ve found that the moose mitts will buy me an extra 10-15 degrees of warmth on top of my gloves, so at 30 degrees, I can still wear my 45 degree gloves with the moose mitts.

Updating to say I have not used my Moose Mitts in two years. They catch too much wind and are fumbly. I can’t use my bell and would rather use a thicker glove. So on days like today and yesterday when the Garmin reads single digits I use a Gordini Men’s Ultra Drimax Gauntlet IV Insulated Mitt Gloves that I got as a gift. Less than $40 on Amazon They’re not super fashionable and in warmer temps your hands will sweat, mine do above 30 degrees in these gloves. They do keep my hands nice and warm for my 50 min commute and i can shift reasonably well in them.

[huskerdont]

Everyone is going to find different solutions that work for them, but for me with my Raynaud’s, I just can’t keep my fingers warm if I use glove liners. If you’re using glove liners and your fingers are still cold, give the ski mittens a try. Take the liners with you and keep them in a warm pocket, and if you feel you need them, you’ll still have them to use and they’ll be warm.

For cold toes, one bit of advice I received once seems to help, and that’s to wiggle them around some every now and then while riding. Otherwise they’re just sitting down there unused so they’re going to get cold.

[TwoWheelsDC]

@americancyclo 130994 wrote:

Updating to say I have not used my Moose Mitts in two years. They catch too much wind and are fumbly. I can’t use my bell and would rather use a thicker glove.

Yesterday was the first day I’ve used mine in a while. I also prefer to just use better gloves. The gloves that I do have, however, don’t do well below about 20-25 degrees, so I keep the Bar Mitts for the coldest days.

[Crickey7]

@oldbikechick 130983 wrote:

If it ever gets really cold, I plan on using these:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]10353[/ATTACH]

I’d be afraid of sticking my hands in there without first checking to see if a woodchuck had curled up in them.

[Boomer Cycles]

This what I used today, ski mitts w/ fleece liners, which worked better than my Planet Bike Lobster gloves from yesterday.[ATTACH]10356[/ATTACH][ATTACH]10357[/ATTACH]

[huskerdont]

As much as sub-20 days are difficult, I also find 38- to 43-degree days to be as well. Too cold for fingerless gloves, but all the gloves I had left my hands sweaty. So I picked up a pair of these Fox Sidewinder gloves (which I haven’t posted in “I saw this deal” because they are no longer on sale for the 20 bucks I got them for; now they’re $23):

https://www.westernbikeworks.com/product/fox-sidewinder-polar-gloves

They work nicely for in-between days like today–maybe a touch chilly, but enough air circulation that there was no sweat. And as an added bonus, they were only in bright orange in my size; I saw several people staring at them last night like I was some sort of freak who would wear bright orange gloves.

[hozn]

@huskerdont 131306 wrote:

As much as sub-20 days are difficult, I also find 38- to 43-degree days to be as well. Too cold for fingerless gloves, but all the gloves I had left my hands sweaty.

I’m a big fan of the LG gloves (WindTex EcoFlex II specifically) that have venting in the palm for striking a balance between keeping fingers warm and keeping palms from getting too sweaty.

(The Sidewinders also look pretty nice; I’m a fan of the orange.)

[huskerdont]

@hozn 131311 wrote:

I’m a big fan of the LG gloves (WindTex EcoFlex II specifically) that have venting in the palm for striking a balance between keeping fingers warm and keeping palms from getting too sweaty.

(The Sidewinders also look pretty nice; I’m a fan of the orange.)

Those Garneaus look good. Do they have good finger dexterity? One of the reasons I got the Fox gloves was people gave reviews saying they could do things like open their tire valves and such with them, and it turns out to be true. Not quite as important for commuting or training rides, but for mountain biking it seems little mechanicals crop up all the time.

[dbb]

For the cool rides where fingerless gloves are too cold, I use PI Multisport Thermal Conductive Gloves

http://www.artscyclery.com/descpage-PITCG.html?gclid=Cj0KEQiA2b20BRDj4buduIG-y9EBEiQAhgMGFZjwCJG7gE2gpC8_CyBhFqDq7XjVcJzm_hy-SLBC9F4aAjjY8P8HAQ

They are about $20/pair

[hozn]

@huskerdont 131322 wrote:

Those Garneaus look good. Do they have good finger dexterity? One of the reasons I got the Fox gloves was people gave reviews saying they could do things like open their tire valves and such with them, and it turns out to be true. Not quite as important for commuting or training rides, but for mountain biking it seems little mechanicals crop up all the time.

Yeah, they were better than average for finger dexterity. My only complaint with them is that they wear out after a year or so. So I do not have a set currently, but am tempted to get one as they are my favorite high30s-high40s glove.

(Right now I use some Gore Windstopper gloves for that temp range. I also have some PI cyclone gloves. And some ProViz gloves which are a tad warm.)

[huskerdont]

@dbb 131329 wrote:

For the cool rides where fingerless gloves are too cold, I use PI Multisport Thermal Conductive Gloves

http://www.artscyclery.com/descpage-PITCG.html?gclid=Cj0KEQiA2b20BRDj4buduIG-y9EBEiQAhgMGFZjwCJG7gE2gpC8_CyBhFqDq7XjVcJzm_hy-SLBC9F4aAjjY8P8HAQ

They are about $20/pair

That’s the glove I had for those temps before, but my hands would sweat and then get cold because of it. I will still use them, but for the low- to mid-30s.

This specificity might seem strange, but you gotta run with what works for you.

[Author]

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