Layering: It's What's for Winter

I think everyone who reads my blog rides more often than I do, in all kinds of crazy weather, and already knows how to dress for it ... but I figured I'd write a bit about how I, personally, handle personal temperature management when it's colder than the backside of a yeti.

Here's the run-down:

Feet

• Small wicking socks
  
• Tall socks (knee-high, in fact); wool if possible
  
• Another pair of small wicking socks (my feet get cold really easily)
  
• Bike shoes or my winter mocs, depending which bike I'm riding
  

Legs

• Cycling shorts
  
• Thin, silky thermals, or even honest-to-goodness 'thermasilk'
  
• Tights, or FHPs, or farking hipster jeans (stretchy)
  
• A couple of times, I have wished I owned knee warmers, but it was like -13C (8F) with a windchill of forking ridonculous at those moments.
  

Upper Body

• Merino wool sweater, slightly felted and shrunk to fit closely
  
• T-shirt
  
• Grey hoodie (it's warmer than my orange hoodie)
  
• Mountain Hard Wear rain jacket
  

Head

• If sufficiently cold, Junior Terrorist Society 'Ninja Hat' (AKA 'balaclava,' AKA 'baklava', AKA 'your Danish hat' — yes, that joke goes on for days)
  
• Else, fleece helmet liner that covers my ears
  
• And, as always, a helmet
  

Hands

• Cheap little stretch-knit gloves
  
• Crafstman work gloves with terrycloth thumbs, indistinguishable from proper full-fingered cycling glovers except for the 'Crafstman' logo ... hmmmmmm
  

Yesterday it was pretty darned chilly, though not as chilly as Tuesday. I rode a good forty or fifty miles or so without more than a minute or so inside at a time doing a round of somewhat ridiculously long runs, and I was quite comfortable (except when I briefly swapped my 'baklava' for my helmet liner, and soon learned that it was still too cold for that).

I'm still not sure what the cutoff is for the balaclava. It's annoying to wear when running deliveries around because I have to remove it every time I step inside a business establishment so nobody will think I'm trying to rob the place. This is especially true for banks, and we do lots of bank runs for different businesses (no, these do not generally involve carrying cash).

Swift's drive train is all hosed up, so I'm riding Quicksilver today (my poor baby! :::sob:::). It's actually really amazing how much faster a really good road bike with a working drive train is than a pretty-decent-but-not-great hybrid with a semi-broken drive train.

Anyway, I need to get back to the shop, so I'm going to close here.

Happy winter, y'all! I hope everyone has come through it safe and sound, and if you're out there riding, enjoy the snow!