Cold weather riding

(11/30/2013) No, I've not decided to become a jihadi. That's a photo of me in a fleece balaclava. I generally wear it when I ride in temperatures below 55°F and I'm not wearing a full face helmet. Yes, I'm addicted to riding. I love it so much, I'll ride even when it's close to freezing outside.

In this blog post, I will share with you some of what I've learned over the years--including riding in the winter in Buffalo, NY--on how to keep warm when riding in temperatures as low as 30°F. Below 30°F, you're risking icy roads and sudden death.*

Ride prepared

I recenty went for a Thanksgiving weekend ride, in the mid afternoon when the temperature rose to almost 50°F and the sun was shining brightly. I was quite comfortable on the outbound leg of the trip. I stayed at a friend's house for several hours and by the time I left, the temperature had dropped to about 38°F and the sun had gone down. If you've ridden much in temperatures below 45°F, you know how much the sun's radiant heat helps warm you even when the ambient temperature leaves something to be desired. Fortunately, I was prepared for riding even in freezing temperatures and rode home witout feeling very cold, except for my poor hands, which began to sting a bit. (That feeling goes away when they get numb. :-)

This recent experience got me to thinking of the many other times I've ridden in the cold and it motivated me to write about it.

Avoiding hypothermia

As I wrote in a blog post a while back, I have experienced moderate-to-severe hypothermia while riding. It got to the point where I had stopped shivering and was actually hallucinating or otherwise having very strange dreams while awake. Since then, I have worked very hard at preparing myself for cold and damp weather conditions where hypothermia could again become a threat.

Your top priority is always to keep the core of your body at its minimally functional temperature, which is somewhere between 95°F and 98°F. To accomplish this in cold conditions, you need to understand how to retain as much heat as possible in your body. I also want you to be aware that there are heated garments you can wear while riding that will add heat to your body.

Retaining Heat

Dressing properly in cold weather involves the concept of layering. In general, there are three layers of clothing you should wear to minimize heat loss from the core of your body:

1. Wicking (or base) layer, which contacts your skin
2. Insulating layer, which should trap air between layers 1 and 3
3. Shell, which should repel water and block wind

Layer 1 - Wicking (base layer)

The body loses heat in four ways: (1) evaporation; (2) convection; (3) conduction; and (4) radiation. For the most part, we're interested only in the first two in this discussion.**

We know that in warm conditions, our skin secretes moisture as a means of cooling. This process generates heat loss by evaporation. We sweat because our body wants to shed heat. If we want to avoid heat loss by evaporation, then we want to keep our skin dry by drawing any moisture away from the skin and allowing it to evaporate only after it's no longer in contact with our skin. Therefore, the layer against our skin should be good at wicking away moisture from our skin. Silk, wool, and certain synthetic materials are good at this.

In the photo above, I show a set of synthetic long underwear from REI. This reminds me of a story. An older friend of mine served in the US Air Force in the early 1970s maintaining planes, often outside in very cold conditions. He and his comrades learned to wear pantyhose under their uniforms. The panthose served two purposes: it wicked away persipiration and created a thin layer of insulating air. You know it had to be effective if these enlisted men were willing to go to such extremes to keep warm. Fortunately, we now have more masculine synthetic garments for our base layer.

Layer 2 - Insulating layer

The blue jeans with a bright red lining shown in the accompanying photos provide me with layer 2 (insulating), and in dry conditions layer 3 (shell) as well.

I own two pairs of these pants and recommend them highly. They are the Wrangler brand with a fleece+Thinsulate® lining. It is remarkable how well they block the wind and insulate my lower body. I purchased mine online from Sheplers.com.

For the upper part of your body, I recommend a fleece jacket for insulation. A Thinsulate®-lined vest, such as the Aerostich Kanetsu I describe below, also offers very good insulation for the trunk of your body.

Keep in mind that you typically lose a tremendous amount of heat through your neck and head. It is therefore very important to wear an insulating layer and shell for both of these areas. A good helmet--especially a full face--will do a good job of providing you with these two layers. A simple turtleneck shirt with a high-collar jacket will take care of your neck.

Layer 3 - Shell

The shell layer protects us from the wind and precipitation by minimizing how both of these elements draw heat from the layered protection zone around our body.

For my shell layer, I still prefer heavy leather because it offers a fashionable way to give me abrasion protection in the event of a fall while at the same time offering an excellent wind blocker. When treated with the right kinds of oils, leather resists moisture penetration and remains flexible even in sub-freezing temperatures. 

I own a ridiculously expensive Willie G. Harley-Davidson leather jacket. I've had a long love-hate relationship with it and maybe some day I will blog about it. I will say that it offers exceptional wind protection. It ought it; it's so damned thick and heavy.

I own two pairs of chaps. One lined and one unlined. The lined pair, shown in the photo at left, creates a layer of insulating air in the upper sections, and this makes them very functional in cold weather. They're a tight fit over the lined jeans, but the combination has gotten me through a sudden snowstorm.

Avoid the wind as much as possible

In order to minimize heat loss from convection, we want to minimize how much of our body is exposed to the wind. I grew up in Buffalo, New York, where damp winds of 20mph and greater coming off Lake Erie are common, especially in the autumn and winter. I learned about wind chill through much painful experience.

Note that even if conditions are dry, there will still be significant convective heat loss in areas exposed to wind, even in the small eddies behind our fairings.

When riding in rain or wet snow, we will also experience significant heat loss from evaporation on the surface of the shell layer. How much depends on the humidity and exposure to the wind: lower humidity and higher wind at the surface of our shell layer will accelerate evaporation and thus the loss of heat.

Heated Garments

More than a decade ago when I resumed my riding hobby, I purchased an electric vest. It was a Widder and it didn't last long. I liked the way it fit and looked, so I purchased another one. Amazingly, it shrunk a size for no apparent reason (OK, I got fat), and so I ordered a larger one. That one soon quit heating. Apparently a wire broke inside.  Somewhere in all this I purchased a pair of Widder electric gloves (shown in the photo at left). I still have one or two of the vests. They're lightweight Thinsulate® garments that offer some heat loss protection even without the heating elements.

Heated gloves versus heated grips

I wore the gloves a few times but it was a hassle connecting them each time I wanted to resume riding. I recommend heated grips instead, if you can swing that. The gloves are also quite bulky. However, for long rides in the cold, they offer superior thermal protection. 

Aerostitch electric vests

I purchased an Aerostitch Darien riding suit back in 2001 or 2002. I'm still using it. So, when I gave up on the Wiider gear after the third vest stopped working, I went with an Aerostitch Kanetsu heated vest (shown in the photos below). I love it. It's been very reliable now for more than five years and it does a great job of keeping my neck warm.

The trick to making a vest most effective is choosing how many layers to wear between it and your skin. On my recent Thanksgiving ride, I wore it over the REI undershirt, which is as close to my skin as I ever wear it. On warmer days, when the temperature ranges from mid-50s to mid-70s, I will wear the vest over the undershirt and a second shirt, often a turtleneck.

Having the electric vest on a ride is great because it allows you to operate in cooler temperatures without the need for bulky clothing on top. If conditions become warmer, you can simply press the power button to turn off the vest. If the ambient air temperature continues to rise, you can pull over and stow the vest in your saddle bag.

Gear like the electric vest prove especially helpful on cross country rides where on one day you might be in the Arizona desert and two days later you're at 10,000 feet in the Colorado Rockies and above the snow line. (That's happened to me.)

My friends have teased me since the first day I rode plugged in. But after a few times in the mountains at 40°F, their sentiment turns more toward envy than ridicule.

A tip for keeping your feet warm

There are two key prerequisites for keeping your feet warm in cold weather: (1) keep them dry; and (2) insulate them from the wind. The three layers rule applies to your feet just as much as it does to the rest of your body.

A great lesson I learned a few years back, from my friend Cutter, is the use of galoshes. I bought a pair on eBay ealier this year for about $30 and they work great as a shell for keeping my feet dry and warm. They're certainly not much to look at, but they work great! 

Remember to avoid riding after dark at this time of year because of possible icy road conditions and wandering deer; and never ride when the roads are know to be icy.

Keep the shiny side up!

-The Long Rider

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*OK, I realize you can have icy roads above 30°F. However, if you stick to riding in daylight in cold conditions, you can reduce your risk of riding on ice by observing road conditions very carefully. Do not ride at night if the temperature gets down to 35°F or colder because you cannot see where snow and ice may have accumulated on the road.

**If you become soaked through all the layers of your clothing in a heavy rain or snow, you will actually begin to lose heat by conduction through the moisture, much like a scuba diver in a cold ocean.