Gear Up

by Herb Dardano

The goal here is to share my thoughts on what I believe are the most important pieces of equipment in order to enjoy a pleasant or semi pleasant ride on cold or sub-zero temperatures. Assuming you already have descent winter pants and coat or coats on; the most important parts to keep warm are your extremities. (Opinion piece here) These include your head, eyes, nose, hands and feet. Hands and feet are probably the one that really start to get very cold and painful on a longish winter ride. Keep in mind, pain may arise from just a few minutes of riding if your layers are not thick enough.

If you have experienced a ride in sub-zero or close to zero temps before (going off of degrees F), then you know how painful it can be. It will force you to either stop or turn around and call it quits. Poor head cover will feel like a major throbbing headache. I have experienced all of the above in the past. Another tricky situation to keep in mind are layers. While these can improve the ride significantly not knowing which layers to use may result in lots of sweating which can lead to dangerous cooling body temps (more on this topic later).

In conclusion, most of the gear I will share with you is not specific to cycling. When it comes to winter riding, your winter hiking gear will actually work better. Synthetic clothes seem to not breath well making you sweat more. For this reason, wool is your best friend! The boots and the gloves are actually winter hiking gear that work very well for me. The boots are specially super light and are almost 90% wool which keep your toes and feet pretty comfortable for at least 40 to 90 minutes. If the temps are in the 30s or below I always put on a plastic bag on top of the socks. This allows your feet to stay even warmer. I have not experienced sweaty feet, but I do understand each person may have a different experience as far as sweat goes. You will need to experiment what works best for you. In my opinion, life is a constant flow of experience and exploration. Don’t know where I heard/read this.

Here is the list of the items and brands so you can have an idea. (Not paid advertising, just giving you and idea and letting you know what I use in case you are interested).

Vasque Lost 40s

Gear list:

Gloves: Gordini Gore-Tex plus-warm (most REI or out door gear shops should carry these)

Boots: Vasque Lost 40s (These are discontinued, can still be found on ebay in descent shape)

Hats: Wool Hat, Full Face Mask

Scarf: Wool Neck Warmer (this has been an awesome addition, from AmundsenSports)

Socks: Vagabond Wool Socks (reach all the way to my knees, classic from Amundsen Sports)

Eye Protection: Cateye Photochromic Glasses (Amazon)

Essentially what I have figured out and continue to figure, came from trial and error and also from bikepacking.com if you have not heard of this site. You should definitely go check it out! Its pretty awesome and a great resource if you are into bikepacking or just getting started. (Note that this is not paid advertising, just mentioning a tool that has helped me a lot in this whole bike-packing life style).

Thanks for reading today’s post! Hope you can get yourself a nice ride today, and some much needed sunlight.

Winter Riding and Why.

Tips I’ve learned the last five years cycling in trails around home in Iowa.

Gear that I must have on every ride. I will cover each body section/part one journal entry at a time.

At the moment for the new year, I’ve decided that I want to push myself and stay on the bike every day for the month of January. Since its easy to push it back and say “tomorrow I will do it.” Its my challenge now to make sure I don’t let that be the case. Let me tell ya, it already feels like on most days, I don’t want to get on that saddle and go for those easy 10 miles. However, once those miles have been ridden, its night and day how much better I feel.

Interesting because two of my best friends both live in warm weather areas, well one of them, the other one just travels enough to warm weather areas. Anyhow, they both dislike the winter and its short days. I probably feel the same way but truth be told, its the knack of mine, to go outside and do something physical, be it a walk, run or ride outside where I can get some of that winter sun even; that I actually rid myself of that depressing feeling most people experience in the cold weather after the snow flakes fall, the snow settles and the wind has created week long drifts.