Saturday, January 02, 2010. Had to work today. Ugh! So I’m off in 15f temps with a light snow and 12mph wind out of the west at 4am. I’m starting my third winter of riding in this kind of stuff so I pretty much got the cold thing down. The Snow Sneakers were starting to reach their threshold. Meaning at the end of the 45min. commute the toes were feeling just a little cold. Probably another 5 degrees lower and I would’ve started to feel uncomfortable. This was the same problem I had last year with the toes getting cold. Hopefully the new LL Bean Wildcat boots will do the trick. If not then I’ll move on to something else.
Everything else was working good. Except for the goggles. They started fogging up a little bit. When they did I would un-cover my mouth and nose till they cleared up. That will be a problem when the temps continue to drop. I’m still using the Visorgogs that I started with back in 07 and they still don’t measure up in these frigid temps. That will be this years gear-test once I get the “cold toes” problem figured out. Is finding the best cost efficient fog-free goggle that will accommodate eyeglasses. And no I’m not interested in paying over a $100 for prescription goggles that I’ll use for less than a month. I remember last year when I rode in -14 and the ice crystals fogged up so much that I couldn’t see. So I had to drop the goggles and ride with just the eyeglasses protecting my eyes. And my eyeballs didn’t freeze. So I’m sure I’ll come up with something better. But the afternoon ride was OK. Same temperature at 20f or so. But the daylight helps. I was comfortable and my hands and face and feet were warm. The Showers Pass jacket and the Sporthill pants came thru like champs blocking out the cold. When the temps get below 12f I’ll put the insulated snow pants on. The Nokians are doing their job.