Wow how cold is it

This morning as I stepped off the front porch it was 15. Much like the entire country the cold of winter is pounding on us. This being my first winter bike commuting I have learned a few things. Like the rain gear that I bought does not stop the cold very well. I also need to get some boots and some better gloves.

Because I live in the PNW were there is water of some type falling from the sky often. I thought rain gear would be a good buy. I still feel that it is, however I do have some very nice polypro tops and bottoms to help fight off the cold. Some of this gear was issued to my while I was in the military, and some has been purchased out of pocket. The silk weight does very well to keep you warm and pull sweat off your body. The middle weight works very well at keeping heat in. I have figured out over the last two days that the silk goes on first a old t-shirt and then the middle weight. Then my showers pass rain jacket goes on. The combo on my top half works well. The only thing that I don't have that would make it nice are some very warm gloves.

The bottom half is another story. Because my body stays warm most of the time, I don't always get everything I should for the bottom half. So only having silk weight polypros and the castelli pioggia pants. My legs get a little cold. They are almost to cold. I know that we as cyclist have to watch what we are doing so as not to get to hot or to cold. So I am going to have to rethink what I am doing. I will also need look into some warmer foot wear.

Also over the last two days of riding I found out that my tail light which works great and I like very much does not like going over the frozen ground to much. I think that the jolting and bouncing around cause the light to much motion and the light turns it's self off. O the things we learn. The other thing that I have learned is that riding on the ice is a little easier then I thought. As I was going home last night and I rode across the ice and frozen snow I thought about how I would let my downhill bike float under me in a rock garden. So armed with that knowledge I relaxed my grip on the bars and had my legs take more of the work holding my weight, I rode home with out any problems.

Keep on spinning.