Plow13

well, today i looked outside and seen clear streets and decided to hope on the bike and get a few miles but miles in....i look at the temp. outside and it's 18 degrees So i layered up pretty good and went out for only 8.5 miles but they were a tough 8.5...breathing was pretty difficult and my toes were sooo cold! I need to get some good shoe covers. Anyway, here is the link to my ride stats....
https://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/4705426
8.5 miles
13.6 mph avg
1116 ft climbed
avg HR 142

also a few pics...

kill.cactus

Yikes - cold ride!

twobikes

From one of your photos I can see that your gloves are not very heavy. Get a mitten to go over them and it will make a big difference.

When you said you saw that it was 18 deg. F. was there any wind to make a wind chill? I find I need to dress for the wind chill temperature rather than the temperature on the thermometer.

I have seen similar temperatures and regularly ride almost 15 miles in them, but with less rise in elevation than you experienced. My feet tend to get cold first. I have some polar fleece gloves with a retractable mitten covering from the hunters' section at the local Wal-Mart. To increase their effectiveness I added some strips of newspaper inside the mitten section that goes around the front and back of my fingers. I used them very comfortably down to a wind chill of 12 deg. F. over more than an hour.

patentcad

Wussy. It was cold here today.

RichinPeoria

Keep up the good work. You will feel better everytime you go out in the cold and go for a ride. When its sunny its allot easier to ignore the cold as well. You might want to get some of these as a base layer along with a head sock and good gloves.

https://www.tedsmilitarysurplus.com/c.../uwpblack.html

You might want to bring along one of those lighter fluid fueled hand warmers just in case. You would be suprised how fast you can warm up just by holding one of those in your hands.

I ride when its 28 or above. If its sunny I will go lower.

Plow13

as for the gloves..they just are some fleece gloves i like to use, but i use underarmor gloves underneath those..so my hands have been fine on every ride so far, it's just been my toes. I think a decent pair of shoe covers will work....but i must say i enjoy riding in the cold. As for the wind it, it was an avg. of 11mph...so in all reality it felt like 7 to 8 degrees outside....i've conquered my inner wussy pcad =)

patentcad

Now embrace your inner wussy weeniesan, and once your are as confused as Pcad, you will be ready for Pcad Cycling Zen no matter what the weather.

BetweenRides

I rode on New Year's day and it was 15 degrees by the finish, wind chill down to low single digits. I used some heavy neoprene booties and inserted some chemical warmer pads in my shoes under the ball of my feet. That seemed to do the trick, as I was out for over 1-1/2 hours and my toes stayed toasty the whole ride - a first for me.

CastIron

Really?