Originally Posted by
bbeasley
Question about wool. Many winters down here I get by with just a wind breaker or at most one step up, the warm scale, from a wind breaker. When I write "get by" I don't mean on a bike. Won't wool be to warm?
As you can tell, I'm new to cycling and have been wearing cotton.
Cotton kills. But not in your neck of the woods.
I hiked 8+ miles at a time this summer, in 90 degree heat, in a merino wool base layer top. Think of it as a very, very thin, but long-sleeved tee shirt. I was a lot more comfortable than I would have been in cotton or any sort of poly. Wool pulls the sweat away from your skin, and if you do get warm, it doesn't feel clammy. But merino in particular does something magical, and your body does a much better job of regulating its temperature when you have wool against your skin.
Originally Posted by
10below
I understand wool would be good to keep warm. But it can't really keep you dry without an outer shell can it?
No, at least not if it rains for more than 30 seconds. But wool is warm when it's wet; even when it's saturated ( up to 30 % its weight ) it doesn't give up its insulating properties. Cotton robs you of body heat as it dries slowly. Also, wool doesn't
feel wet, so unless it's also cold, you could get wet and not know it. I "body dry" my wool clothes, eg when I pull a bunch of base layers out of the wash, I'll often put one on and wear it around the house until it dries ... then keep it on the rest of the day. If you're in a warm place, it might be all you need. If not, a merino base layer and a hard shell are all I need 99 % of the time.