Winter bike trail fashions

This is what I wore today, for a ten-mile commute, temperature and wind in the low 20s.

In the morning, the fingers and toes were a bit of a problem because the gloves were still wet from yesterday’s slushy shoveling extravaganza, and my good winter biking shoes are at the cobbler, having a premature stitching failure dealt with.

The gloves are a splurge, from last winter when everything was on sale because it was so unseasonably warm. When dry, they’re fabulous (completely comfy skiing in zero-degree weather; also comfy while icing up from a freezing mist). Wet, they work ok, but not great, but it took all day to get them wet, and for all I know the wet ran down my arms into the liners.

“Oversocks” are something suggested by Lou, the guy at foxwear.net, and by the woman at Vintage Etc., so I tried them, and they helped. Also, they made it easy to shove a handwarmer down near my toes, and that made all the difference. The oversock bottoms are wearing out fast, so I will need to silicone some leather onto the bottom of them, or something like that.

The wool undershirt, which does passable duty as a black wool shirt, is from Rivendell, and works very well with any sort of wind block over it. The windbreaker lets air in the regular zipper, if you open it, and up the sleeves, if you don’t velcro them tight.