Originally Posted by
chaadster
If you're accustomed to wearing a silk balaclava, hold out for another silk even, even if you have to go out of your way to a motorcycle shop to get one.
Like you, I've worn a silk 'clava for years, and they're the best. I actually run with a ten year old Patagonia silk (90%)/spandex one now, and it might be the best one I've ever had. I messed around a couple of times and bought synthetic material clavas, and usually found them way too warm, grippy, and uncomfy.
You should have no trouble tracking a silk one down from Cabela's, Campmor, or any local motorcycle shop.
I'm very much anti silk for cycling applications-- in my experience, they do not insulate when sweat or condensation soaked. I've never tried them for a 'clava.
IME, silk is best brought along backcountry camping as an extra insulating layer to wear in the tent/sleeping bag.
__________________
The bicycle, the bicycle surely, should always be the vehicle of novelists and poets. Christopher Morley