bikin

[moominmolly]

So, it was theoretically my LEAST favorite weather to bike in this morning: 30ish, precipitating, damp enough to fog up my glasses, and windy enough to be unpleasant on bare eyeballs. But in reality I had a lovely ride in. Wearing the perfect clothing made me warm and toasty, which is a good start. The snowflakes were pretty, and not wet enough to be aggravating on my glasses. A guy stopped me to compliment my braids and ask directions, just friendly, and I had an answer, which made me feel good. I'd put my iphone on speaker mode and tucked it speakers-up into my bra, so I had music playing on my ride but not loudly enough to be distracting or bad. I sang along. Nothing special happened. It's nice when an experience can feel transcendentally wonderful simply by not being awful.

Missing my favorite face mask today, I wore my Wintersilks balaclava. It's a distant second best to the ultimate face mask, but still much more serviceable than a plain fleece balaclava. I also love how thin it is; I have an enormous noggin, and so not much can fit between my head and my helmet. I appreciate it being a natural, thin, warm fabric. Besides, it smells kind of cool.

NEW FAVORITE WINTER URBAN BIKING GLOVES EVER: The Manzella Hi-Viz Hatchbacks. They're black fleece gloves that fit my hand well, with a reflective stripe across the back of the hand and a removable wind-blocking high-viz-yellow finger cover that can slip over your fingers to turn them into mittens. This makes them not only great for blocking the fierce wind that can quickly freeze my hands on a bike, but very effective for signaling turns. Why aren't there more gloves with reflective and high-viz backs? I always want them in the winter. Now I have them. Rah rah rah.

I also wore my favorite winter tights today. They're thick, with fleece inside and smooth nylon lycra outside, big reflective dots on the thighs and stripes on the calves, and ankle zippers. They're warm and yet on crappy wet days like today, the snowy wet crap is relatively easy to brush off. They are Pearl Izumi tights, but the tag says they're from Winter '04, and the newer models have a lot less reflective stuff on them so I'm not providing a link. Actually, this is a thing that seems to regularly happen with Pearl Izumi: they make fantastic products, and I will fall in love with one because of its combined wonderfulness and massive reflective tape and then they will remove all the reflective bits and I'll get sad.

Other clothes: cotton/wool sweater, high-viz/reflective shell, bike shorts, wool socks, hiking boots.

Comments

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

so what was the perfect clothing?

late last night mine was a horseback-riding jacket, polarfleece horseback-riding pants, tall sheepskin boots, ski gloves, and of course the lit-up helmet. my fingers got a mite too cold though...

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Edited to add them! The fingers are the worst part. On SUPER cold days (or nights), I wear ski gloves with silk liners inside.

[dancingwolfgrrl.livejournal.com]

Did you know you can get Smartwool glove liners? I covet them.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

NO!!! Oh my god I want them. I want to wear all Smartwool all winter, but I am not rich as that would require me to be. But Smartwool glove liners! Man.

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

Smartwool liners could be arranged, if you like. I haz discount from EMS. ;)

[oneagain.livejournal.com]

What were the perfect articles of clothing you were wearing?

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

Edited to add. Mostly I'm in love with my gloves.

[geekpixie.livejournal.com]

Thanks for posting a link to the gloves. I have huge problems with my hands getting cold, so recommendations are excellent. I'm at the point that I might get the mini reusable hand heater things just to make sure they don't get too cold, since my hands are fairly allergic to cold exposure. (And I live in Boston, yes, I know)

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

They are not THE warmest things I own for biking, but they seem like the best compromise under most conditions. Also, I've totally used handwarmers and love them.

[qwrrty.livejournal.com]

Yay gloves! I love my fingerless mittens but have always been annoyed by the lack of reflectivity.

[moominmolly.livejournal.com]

If you ever want to go in on an order to Identi-Tape (http://www.identi-tape.com/), let me know.

[desiringsubject.livejournal.com]

Also, do you know about Seattle Fabrics which sells Reflective grosgrain ribbon in many colors, and scotchlite piping (http://seattlefabrics.com/ribbon_and_tapes.html), as well as reflective cording (http://seattlefabrics.com/cord.html) and lots of other great stuff!

[dnereverri.livejournal.com]

I'd put my iphone on speaker mode and tucked it speakers-up into my bra...

Wow. So many bizarre-but-off-color comments to make that I don't even know where to start.