A few weeks ago, I found a pair of touchscreen-compatible gloves at Modell’s. I think the brand is 180s. They aren’t that thick, but they are OK down to about 40F. So far the touchscreen function is working. It took me a couple days before I figured out the best way to press on buttons and type while wearing the gloves. On some of the rows of the keyboard, I have to poke straight at the screen. On the upper rows, it helps if I tap with more of the flat part of the fingertip. It’s starting to become second-nature, where I just use the most effective movement without thinking about it too much. I guess that happens after the tenth time poking at a virtual keyboard, trying to type a letter or add a space.
On colder days, I’ve been using them as glove liners for my thicker ski gloves. I can’t really go with the ski mittens idea because I’m mapping bike racks for the RackSpotter website. I need to be able to get the phone out quickly and type. Mittens would be far too cumbersome. If I were doing longer rides every day in sub-40F weather, I might think about getting lobster gloves or mittens. I haven’t used the Bar Mitts at all, although part of the reason is that I just skip riding on sub-35F days. There are a few of those coming up this week. If I ride at all on those days, it will probably just be some shorter rides on CaBi.
CaBi also helps to solve the problem of freezing toes. I just wear regular winter shoes/low-cut boots. They have a solid sole, unlike bike shoes, so it’s much easier to keep my toes warm.
I just remembered the first winter since I started cycling as an adult. I only had triathlon bike shoes, which have far less material and coverage than even regular summer road bike shoes. Nearly a third of the top is uncovered, to help cool off on long hot rides. But that’s not too helpful when trying to ride on sub-40F days. I did a ride or two in those shoes with medium-thick socks. Not a recommended set-up. Even after I got neoprene shoe covers, none of it worked at all on cold days. I finally got Shimano mountain bike pedals and mtn bike shoes, which helped a lot on winter rides. But even those still don’t quite work on sub-40F days. So it’s regular non-bike winter shoes for me when it gets below 40F. I wouldn’t say my feet stay warm, but they don’t seem to get painfully cold like they do in bike shoes.
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