01-12-2015, 05:37 AM
(01-11-2015, 09:03 AM)Cormanus_imp Wrote: Thanks for that report, MG.
For riding in the cooler south of Australia, I have some merino wool thermals—long johns and a top. They are incredibly light weight and do a remarkable job of keeping the cold out. On the top, I wear the thermal, then a Tshirt, a lightweight fleece and finally my jacket. With a balaclava and sometimes a fleece neck warmer, my upper body is seldom uncomfortably cold.
Except for my hands. I've got heavy duty gloves, but they still get numbingly cold. I think that if I did a lot of riding down there at cooler times of the year I'd think about heated grips and maybe some hand shields. They're as ugly as all get out, but keeping the wind off your hands is probably the best starting point to keeping them warm.
As a postscript, I met a bloke one day who was riding a new-fangled Honda 500. He lived on the top of the Great Dividing range where it get's cold. He told me he wore ski gloves from the same place I bought my thermals and that his hands were seldom cold. He also had hand shields. I've thought about the ski gloves, but I can't bring myself to give up the protection offered by proper riding gloves.
I think I'll look into getting some of those thermals. I thought about stopping by REI and checking out their winter gear but they are just so darn expensive. When I saw that Cycle Gear had their Freeze-Out gear on sale, I decided to go that route. The need for hand shields certainly crossed my mind on this trip. But, like you, I find them not too pleasant to look at. Oh, how vain I've become.