Winter Cycling - New for this year gear - shells

Hey all,

I live in Upstate, NY. I ride 6x a week from spring through fall. This year I don't want winter to stop me. I have some good pieces of winter specific cycling clothing. However, I am lacking a good shell and gloves. I'm looking for those who know about the current product line and could suggest a nice shell with the right options for deep winter riding. It rains/snows a lot here and the temps during winter can dip down to -20 though that would not be as common. Most of the cold days are around 0 Fahrenheit.

Thanks in advance. I've read a lot of the posts and the main sticky. I'm looking for current product info. Going to Gore's site wasn't too helpful so I was hoping someone here had more info on how I can narrow my search.

Thanks,

-Podolak

you want two shells. a good, non waterproof windbreaker shell for breathability on dry and snowy cold days, and a waterproof/breathable shell for wet, close to freezing precip days.

Definetly get a full Gore Windstopper hat. Don't mess around with the lame 'helmet liners' offered up in Nashbar or Performance. I like the Mountain Hardwear Gore N2S beanies.


some people reccomend Event as the WB shell laminate of choice and I agree. but MANY cheaper, still effective WB shells are out there. get good venting ones with pitzips.

I'd suggest a trip to Montreal and the Mountain Equipment Co-OP for some good winter cycling gear.

when it got to 20 below I would just ride in OR modular shell mitts with liner gloves or whatnot underneath. temps around freezing I like large, waxed leather work gloves with wool liners underneath. or insulated deerskin gloves.

As bekologist mentions, I use 2 shells. A showerspass elite waterproof jacket made from Event for wet days, and a Ibex softshell jacket made from climawool for dry days.

www.showerspass.com
www.ibexwear.com

I use my eVap jacket when it is snowing or very light drizzle, and my regular J&G rain jacket over a layer of thin fleece for the 35F rainy days. Worked fine for me and out winters are almost identical. But I have a nice big layer of blubber to help keep my core warm.

J&G? N2S? I need an acronym dictionary I guess...

Skip

J&G is a company - J&G = http://www.bicycleclothing.com/
N2S is just a "name" for that brand of beanie, such as Levi "501" Jeans

I use layers with a sweatshirt if its not raining and J&G over SmartWool if it is.

I bought my gloves at a construction supply store. They're thinsulate and waterproof with bright green reflective stiff all over the backs.

N2S is a fabric technology = Gore Technologies' 'next 2 skin' barrier fabric. brought to you by the people that make Gore-Tex.

a N2S windstopper beanie is most excellent helmet liner. helmet liners sold by nashbar/ performance are lame-o.

I'd suggest a trip to Montreal and the Mountain Equipment Co-OP for some good winter cycling gear.


I was at MEC yesterday but could not tell what was any good (or at least worth the $$$). I'm in a lcation with similar weather to Montreal and I am looking for some good cold weather gear.

For around this time of year I was considering this jacket to wear over my regular t-shirt getup:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/23fdo5

Any good, or is something else in order?

I was at MEC yesterday but could not tell what was any good (or at least worth the $$$). I'm in a lcation with similar weather to Montreal and I am looking for some good cold weather gear.

For around this time of year I was considering this jacket to wear over my regular t-shirt getup:
http://preview.tinyurl.com/23fdo5

Any good, or is something else in order?

I thought Vulcans were less susceptible to extreme conditions?

Lol. Less susceptible perhaps, but still open to cold weather gear advice.

Apparently what we really need is 24th century uniforms. They wore those things in all kinds of conditions.

MEC Super Microfit cycling jacket is a venerable bicycling windbreaker for cold and dry days. most excellent, breathable, hugeadze pit zips, drop tail. probably one of the better designs out there, affordable, sets a standard in cycling wear.

Lots of layers, and ditto on the 2 jackets idea.

For cold and dry I have an old Nike clima-fit softshell type; very similar to a windproof fleece.

For the rain and snow, I just ordered a 66 North Blafell shell off backcountry.com. It was $77 instead of like $280 or some ridiculous figure like that. It's made of eVent fabric which supposedly breathes better than Goretex. I don't really care, as long as its better than the crap EMS rain jacket I used last winter. Every time it rained, I ended up wetter inside the jacket than out, due to sweat.

On the bottoms, I wear my bike shorts with leg warmers. Add "loose tights" track pants over top when it gets colder, and on the colders days, add a middle layer of cheapo Champion long underwear from Target.