Cold Friday
Nov 30th, 2007 by Jeff Moser
Man, it was cold today. The Pavilion Sign at Mills Park advertised 24 degrees F when I passed by on the morning commute. Although with no winds, it wasn’t all that bad. Riding in 24 degrees gives me confidence that it won’t be that bad commuting when the snow starts to fall. I still have more weather armor to put on.
The real cold came at the lunch time ride, as the north winds tried to pierce any part of clothing not protected by wind stopper. 32 degrees with a wind chill of 24. All of us complained about not being able to feel this or that at some point in the ride. My pinkies went numb. Once we got up into the canyon though, the sun came out and the canyon walls blocked the wind. It felt like fall again for the brief time we spent up in the canyon.
Today’s riders were me, Scott, Marcus, and Keith. The climb was fast paced, but it was keeping me warm. We paused for a bit at the top of the creek trail, and the guys agreed to let me go ahead and find a good photo spot. I’m lucky that day after day, people put up with me and my camera! Two days off the trails, and I was feeling a bit sloppy. I made a few mistakes on the creek trail, and one almost resulted in a crash. I pulled it together for the 2nd half of the descent though, and had a good rest of the run.
I posted these pictures over on Flickr, and one viewer in New Zealand had this to say, “It’s weird. Your photos still look like summer but the riders are all wrapped up. This guy looks like a vicar on his way to church in July.” That cracked me up! He’s right though…it does look pretty warm in these pictures!
The wind died down for the commute home. Like the commute in, it was cold but pretty tolerable. Nevertheless, I was still glad to be home and warm up with a hot bowl of French onion soup, a half a loaf of bread, two big bowls of salad, and a couple glasses of wine.
It is amazing how summer-like the pictures look. Glad to see your still out there ripping it up. Our trails would be a mess to ride on right now.
Really jonesin’ for a ride right now!
Anybody have any suggestions for a decent winter MTB pant? I have some nice tights, etc, but looking for something a bit baggier, no chamois needed, but warm enough to ride mostly all-year round. I can stick some tights underneath as needed for colder weather…
James
I have a pair of “Black Bottoms” that my wife got me from Bicycle Authority a few years ago. They have big fleece knees (like a fleece jacket) on them and windstopper fronts. I’ve been comfortable in them in below 0 conditions. I’ve tried to find more info on them on the web, but was unable to. I’ll see what I can find and report back.
Hmm, thanks for the info. Kind of what I was looking for. If you can find out who made them, that’d be great.
I think Craft has something similar I’ve found too…
I’d like some too. I use my fleece Pearl Izumi tights for the cold stuff and they are awesome but I’d like another layer maybe for the very cold rides. I was wishing I had worn the fleece tights on our Centennial ride last week. I only had my light weight Illuminite on and it was pretty cool…