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Old 10-23-10 | 02:20 PM
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tsl
Plays in traffic
 
Joined: May 2006
Posts: 6,971
Likes: 15
From: Rochester, NY

Bikes: 1996 Litespeed Classic, 2006 Trek Portland, 2013 Ribble Winter/Audax, 2016 Giant Talon 4

Originally Posted by rocky rode
http://www.medic8.com/healthguide/ar.../raynauds.html

You probably have Raynauds. Welcome to the club :-)
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.
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