Advice on cold weather cycling with Raynaud's?

[grey-beard]

I remember trying to find out about these heated grips that were fitted to a Carrera at Halfords a while ago, here's an article about it.

Cold hands? Carrera Subway All Weather comes with heated grips - MBR

Chilly hands is a common problem when mountain biking in cold weather. You can either tough it out, wear bulky gloves or... wait for some heated grips?

www.mbr.co.uk

Worth looking into?

 

[grey-beard]

Plus these look neat.

Heated Handlebar Grips

USB powered heated handlebar grips for bicycles, e-bikes and e-scooters. Keeps hands warm in colder temperatures. Perfect for long journeys and commutes.

www.cycl.co.uk

 

[hyt]

My wife has poor circulation in her hands and feet. Got the lowers sorted with some Columbia "omni-heat" boots that have a heat reflecting lining. Top is going to be omni-heat gloves and pogies. Plastic pedals and carbon bars also reduce heat transfer out of the extremities.

 

[Nabeaquam]

I have the same problem. Electric sox and gloves don’t get warm enough. I use large Swix lobster claw mitts with chemical heaters in each of the three finger sleeves. Over them I use neoprene wind shields and put three more chemical heaters in them. When your done with your ride put the heaters in several layers of zip lock bags. They go out and can be reused several times, bring spares in case the used ones fade out on you. If it’s only -10 C I don’t use the neoprene wind covers. I’ve never had luck with chemical heaters in boots. I don’t think enough air gets in there to let them get hot enough. They make boots for winter fat bike riding but they are too pricy for me to buy to see if they would work for my extremely cold sensitive feet, which have been routinely frost bitten since early childhood. My mom would toss me outside in the winter in the early fifties because I would drive her nuts. Poor rubber boots over shoes. I never realized my feet froze until I came inside. I now use Columbia over the ankle snowmobile boots. They are extremely light and not single purpose like snow bike boots. Gators can be used for blowing snow, but I almost never use them. These are warm and very light. I’m old and can ride ten miles in -30C with this rig. To ride ten miles in -30 takes many layers for your core. You start out freezing but then you quickly get over heated. Just before this happens I ditch some of the layers. I buy cheap stuff at a thrift shop to toss off. I hide them and retrieve them later. We are farther south than the UK but have a contental climate here near Lake Superior. We usually get a patch or two of around -30 each winter. Winds make it necessary to use face and eye protection, but I can ride at least 5 miles in the worst conditions if the roads are plowed. I use studs for ice on a converted vintage mountain bike and a fat bike for a few inches of loose snow. Two winters ago I was riding my fat bike in the winter 20 miles most days.
-30 last winter here, the regions biggest winter party. 10,000 people over two days to watch ski jumping.

Freighters stuck in Whitefish Bay in Lake Superior In the spring just after the start of the navigation season.
Here is my studded tire vintage mountain bike. It wasn’t real
cold this day but it was windy. Check out the very warm, high quality, light boots. The mitts are stuffed with chemical heaters. The start of a 20 mile ride. The extra large outer hoodie was ditched about a mile later. Young people here ride all the time in these conditions without all the hand warmers but they do use the expensive snow bike boots with SPD capability. I use flats, ice can put me down faster than I can release. I’m not convinced that the snow bike boots are warm enough for me anyway.

The snow days photos were taken here last winter. We had way less snow than usual for the last two winters.

 

[grey-beard]

I have the same problem. Electric sox and gloves don’t get warm enough. I use large Swix lobster claw mitts with chemical heaters in each of the three finger sleeves. Over them I use neoprene wind shields and put three more chemical heaters in them. When your done with your ride put the heaters in several layers of zip lock bags. They go out and can be reused several times, bring spares in case the used ones fade out on you. If it’s only -10 C I don’t use the neoprene wind covers. I’ve never had luck with chemical heaters in boots. I don’t think enough air gets in there to let them get hot enough. They make boots for winter fat bike riding but they are too pricy for me to buy to see if they would work for my extremely cold sensitive feet, which have been routinely frost bitten since early childhood. My mom would toss me outside in the winter in the early fifties because I would drive her nuts. Poor rubber boots over shoes. I never realized my feet froze until I came inside. I now use Columbia over the ankle snowmobile boots. They are extremely light and not single purpose like snow bike boots. Gators can be used for blowing snow, but I almost never use them. These are warm and very light. I’m old and can ride ten miles in -30C with this rig. To ride ten miles in -30 takes many layers for your core. You start out freezing but then you quickly get over heated. Just before this happens I ditch some of the layers. I buy cheap stuff at a thrift shop to toss off. I hide them and retrieve them later. We are farther south than the UK but have a contental climate here near Lake Superior. We usually get a patch or two of around -30 each winter. Winds make it necessary to use face and eye protection, but I can ride at least 5 miles in the worst conditions if the roads are plowed. I use studs for ice on a converted vintage mountain bike and a fat bike for a few inches of loose snow. Two winters ago I was riding my fat bike in the winter 20 miles most days.View attachment 661484View attachment 661485
-30 last winter here, the regions biggest winter party. 10,000 people over two days to watch ski jumping.
View attachment 661487
Freighters stuck in Whitefish Bay in Lake Superior In the spring just after the start of the navigation season.
View attachment 661488Here is my studded tire vintage mountain bike. It wasn’t real
cold this day but it was windy. Check out the very warm, high quality, light boots. The mitts are stuffed with chemical heaters. The start of a 20 mile ride. The extra large outer hoodie was ditched about a mile later. Young people here ride all the time in these conditions without all the hand warmers but they do use the expensive snow bike boots with SPD capability. I use flats, ice can put me down faster than I can release. I’m not convinced that the snow bike boots are warm enough for me anyway.
View attachment 661489
The snow days photos were taken here last winter. We had way less snow than usual for the last two winters.
View attachment 661486

That looks like a "don't take the bike day" to me? Am I just a softie?

 

[Mickeyspinn]

That looks like a "don't take the bike day" to me? Am I just a softie?

Makes you think don't it! Bit of fun on a bike when we get snow....but nabeaquam is guaranteed that every year pretty much and for quite awhile

 

[Nabeaquam]

That looks like a "don't take the bike day" to me? Am I just a softie?

It takes living here to be able to do this. Lifetime southerners can’t do it, but I can’t function down there either. I can’t even go for a walk there, so it’s all what is normal for you. If you let the weatherman dictate what you can do then you would never do anything. I’m sure if you lived here you would be cycling the first winter, you get tired of staring out the window at snowbanks and having the highlight of the day seeing the snowplow go by.

 

[Nabeaquam]

Below is a photo of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula snow thermometer used, to impress tourists. In my opinion snow biking is stupid. Low gears with track bike spinning, crashing and not being able to get the bike going again because of waist deep snow and a tire width packed track. Hike a bike until the trail goes downhill. You can’t ride in fresh snow. You can’t ride after grooming until it sets up and gets hard overnight. Can’t ride when it’s warm and mushy. If it goes above freezing and then gets cold I can ride my single speed 1959 Schwinn tank bike or my mountain bike on the snow bike trail. Hikers ruin the track by putting so many divots in the track that your fillings get loose. I don’t get why it’s so popular. I can buy a restored 1970 triumph motorcycle for the same price as a top of the line fat bike. My new Honda 400cc ATV cost me less than a mid range mountain bike. XC skis make more sense, you can use them no matter the conditions, you don’t have to wait for perfect trail conditions. A top of the line XC touring outfit with the new skin bottoms always work without wax and are so much cheaper than a bicycle. I don’t get winter trail riding with a fat bike. I do a night trail ride once a year on my birthday in December, just to remind myself how much non fun it is. There is a 30 mile snow bike race here every winter, the “Polar Roll”. If there was a storm overnight before the race then it’s the polar push. Down trees, deep snow but they have the race anyway, dah. Very popular, it’s part of the local triple crown, the Crusher, a many hundred mile several day gravel race through real wilderness with no support and the Marji Gesik, the hardest single day bicycle race in the USA. A UK racer did it a few years ago. I once did the short version of the Marji, 63 miles, 7000 feet of climb with no support. No free trail, just technical work. No coasting downhill to help blast up the endless short steep hills, it’s too rough. It took me 17 hours, I was heavily bruised, swollen, bleeding and I lost a toenail as I pushed for 20 miles. I did a lot of stride biking on some of the trail. I collected some riders who quit at night but had no clue how or where to quit. I told them the only option was to ride and follow the gps trail download. They felt better having a calm geriatric rider as an impromptu leader. Unprepared folks, I had to make repairs and let them ride in front and behind because they didn’t bring enough extra lights and batteries. It’s in September so there is a pretty long night then. It was raining very hard with thunder storms and fog, couldn’t see the drops at night. A lot of noisy night crashes into loud splashing puddles followed by profanity some where back or ahead in the woods. Comic relief for an otherwise painful experience. A before I kick the bucket list type deal, never again.