digibud

Recently I did a 131 mile ride that started in the mountains at 8:30AM. It was about 38F and I just used my normal shorts knowing it would rapidly warm up when the sun came out from behind the mountains. Normally at that temp I would put on a pair of thin polypro long johns over my bike shorts. If I am going to go inside some place I may wear them inside the shorts for appearance sake. Thin Patagonia Capilene (polypro by a fancy name) doesn't have much of a seam that bothers me so inside isn't a big deal. I also have a pair of full length bike pants that have windbreak in front and are a stretchy fabric in the back side so they breathe well. When it's too cold for a simple pair of Patagonia thin underwear I switch to the bike pants. Then as it gets colder I put the long underwear under the bike pants. At -20 to -30F I may have two pair of long underwear under the bike pants but I only need that if it's going to be a slow easy ride. If its a good hard ride a single pair of thin long underwear under the bike pants are warm enough for any temp I would ride in as long as I'm exercising hard. At those temps I carry a pair of thick fleece pants to throw on in the event of a breakdown or other trouble because if I stop I need more layers almost immediately.