Originally Posted by
rocky rode
I have Reynaud's too. You don't want to know the official diagnostic test protocol was 20 years ago, BTW.
I was many years on calcium-channel blockers. It helped a little, but not much. I quit them several years ago. Amazingly, since I started cycling, I've seen a tremendous decrease in symptoms. It's almost to the point where I think I'm about average. I still have problems sitting in cool rooms, but out on the bike, I no longer have any issues--at least down to the single-digits (F), or minus double-digits (C).
One thing I always look for in cycling outerwear is wind-blocking. I have wind-front gloves, wind-front tights and my jacket is wind-blocking. Below freezing I double-glove, wearing long-fingered summer-weight cycling gloves inside a larger than usual pair of wind-front cycling gloves. I also use winter cycling boots below freezing.
Another thing I had to learn was to relax my death grip on the bars. That causes vasoconstriction. It's much easier to keep my hands warm with a nice, loose, relaxed grip.
It took me a couple of winters to get over my knee-jerk reaction to cold by bundling up. Doing that always caused me to sweat through my layers. That's when the real cold sets in.