Winter Wear
Seems like there's a lot of really neat stuff out there that fills all sorts of needs. Perhaps I'm too tight, but I have a hard time parting with the $$ for most of it.
I wear swim trunks (they dry pretty quick) t-shirt, mesh vest with reflective stripes (for dark visibility) over a bright yellow windbreaker (for visibility), basketball shoes with lots of reflective areas (visibility in the dark), sweat band & helmet all year. Above 85 degrees, I don't use the jacket. Below 50, I add thin gloves Below 40, I add workout pants, an ear band instead of sweatband under the helmet and add ski gloves. Around 30 I add a sweatshirt. around 20 I add mittens over the ski gloves and a home made face mask. About 10 or so I add home made toe caps and sweat pants under the workout pants. Around zero, I add another homemade layer of plastic foam over the mittens. It rarely gets colder than -5 here, but in 1994 (I think) it was -25 and I survived. The absolute worst is when it is right at freezing, riding into a stiff headwind around 30 or 40 mph and it is drizzling. Think March.
It has been working well for me for about 10 years of winter commuting 12 miles each way in Dayton, OH. I must admit I do look at catalogs and online stuff sometimes, but to pay $200 for a pair of shoes, I just think: Naaaaahh. Don't really need it. What I have works fine. After 50 plus years of riding a bike, Yeah, that's neat stuff they sell, and if someone gave it to me, I'd wear it till it wore out, but I'm not competing in races with my livelihood on the line, so I'll just use what I've got. It does the job.