Personal winter riding record!

This past week saw the coldest day of the year so far... 20F degrees with high winds. Highway riding likely brought this down to the low teens, maybe even 10F degrees.

But I was warm and toasty with my new winter gear. For the first time, I tried my new Widder heated gloves. Combined with my wind-stopper glove liners, and heated hand grip wraps, my hands have never been warmer. The greatest part about the gloves is that they heat the outside of my hands, effectively cancelling out the windchill effect, and leaving my hands feeling like they would on a warm summer day. I once considered my hands the weakest link in my ability to ride through the winters, but now I'm pleased to announce my feet have gained the title.

Combined with my heated Widder vest, my upper body is quite warm, and able to generate enough heat to circulate around to the rest of my body. Previously, I tried on a number of occassions to ride out of the city, on I95 up to CT or down to NJ, but could never get farther than about 10 miles before my pinky and ring fingers would be frozen stiff (they were so cold, I had to pull over to the road to shake the circulation back into them, and then ride with my wrists bent over completely to sheild my fingers from the wind).

My new dilemma, however, is my feet. I currently wear white summer race boots with perforations. Although I wear wool socks and a wind liner over them, enough air gets in to make my feet feel cold. I've found a temporary solution in pointing my toes closer to the body of the bike, near the exhaust, but it's only a temporary solution. I've been meaning to get a second pair of boots, so I think I'll grab a nice set of white race boots soon...