Winter Cycling Gear

Are you new to cycling and are you trying to figure out how what’s the best winter cycling gear to help stay warm on cold rides? Want to stay aero so you can cut thru the wind?

When I woke up yesterday to head up to the bike shop to voluntarily lead a B group ride, the first thing that caught my attention was that it suddenly turned COLD again. Here we are in early spring and the temperature has been in the upper 80s all week. As soon as I walk out the door to load up my bike, I get smacked with cold air of 35 degrees. Just for the record, I hate riding when it is below 50 degrees.

Needless to say, I made a return trip into the house to gather up a few garments of winter cycling gear. Thankfully I had my arm warmers and my long riding pants in an easy to find place. I watched the temperature continuously go up to about 45 from the time I left the house til I arrived at the shop. On the way there I passed a big group of early morning cyclist. Each one of them were bundled up in full winter cycling gear.

Now, wearing all this winter cycling gear poses 3 problems to me.

1. Winter cycling gear is not cheap.
2. What you gonna do when you get hot?
3. When you take it off, where do you store it?

After thinking about our ride yesterday, I decided to write an article that may help others faced with this same scenario.

There is a ton of cold weather / winter cycling gear available on the market. You can search for riding tights (pants), light windbreaker jackets, thick warm cycling jackets, gloves, booties, leggings, knee warmers, face mask, toe warmers, and on and on. Now, maybe you can see why I mentioned problem # 3 above.

Winter Cycling Gear

Most of the winter cycling gear items are only necessary if you want to ride all thru the winter. Personally, I find it cheaper to ride on the indoor trainer during the winter months.

A day like yesterday was a perfect day to wear Cycling Arm Warmers. These can be purchased for about $30 – $35 and are very light weight and can be shed and stored in your shirt pockets as you warm up. The arm warmers are usually made out of some sort of spandex and form well to your skin, keeping you aerodynamic.

Although I opted not to wear mine yesterday, a second popular item is called Cycling Knee Warmers. Remember now, your knees are doing most of the cold air facing work. It wont take long for them to turn red on a cold morning. The knee warmers are also easy to shed and store easily in one of your shirt pockets. They too wrap yo your skin and are very aerodynamic.

The hands are another body part that always hit the cold air first. A lot of riders will either wear a pair of winter style thermal gloves. Another option is to wear a thin baseline gloves under your summer gloves.

These were the key cycling garments that allowed me to get thru our 35 mile B group ride yesterday. Now had it been much colder or continued at 35 degrees, I would have opted for my winter Gore jacket and a pair of riding pants. The jacket isn’t quite as aero as the tights mentioned above, however, it does a great job at keeping you warm. You can find these from $150 – $200 depending on the season.

It’s always handy to have yourself a pair of riding pants. They are light and do a good job at keeping you warm as well. They are aero. I find it very easy to start and finish rides with my pants on. However, if you need to shed them you can. They might be slightly bulky when you store them in your shirt pocket. It’s a lot better than being cold tho. Prices range from $60 to $110 depending on brand and season. My tip is to pick them up in early spring. You can usually catch a deal then.

So there you have it. This cycling gear should help you stay warm and also keep you aero. Too be honest tho, I hope I don’t need any of my gear for about 6 more months. Call me a warm weather rider

Happy Riding,

Cycling Guy

This article was specifically about

Winter Cycling Gear

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