I occasionally ride my bikes in winter when it is down to 20 degrees (F), so I pretty much know what works well for most temperature ranges I might encounter on a tour.

Most people do not use a rain cover on their helmet in cold weather, but I do. I want to keep the cold wind off of my thin spot on the top of my head where lack of hair means minimal insulation. And in a previous post I mentioned ear band over my ears.

Long finger gloves. I have several different pairs for varying temperatures. On a tour I usually bring a pair that also has a little wind cover that makes them look like mittens, that wind cover resides in a small pocket on the back of the hand when not in use.

Long pants to wear on the bike. I use two options, on a tour usually have a pair of bike pants with zip off legs to convert to shorts. But I only use those touring. For use around home or if it was a van supported tour, some athletic pants that I can put on over my shorts. On really cold days on a tour I have worn my rain pants (waterproof and theoretically breathable) to keep the wind off of my legs, even on dry days.

And on a van supported tour, I like to have a means to store my excess layers as it warms up. Either one pannier or large saddle bag. If you have a frame bag for your frame, that would work too. And I almost always have a handlebar bag. That van supported tour that provided my sub-freezing photo in a previous post, I used my folding bike for that. They suggested we have a way to carry lots of water, as it was in West Texas, including Big Bend. Photo of my bike below, I could carry a couple extra quarts of water in the saddle bag and extra clothing layers.



Almost everyone else on that tour were quite unprepared, did not carry any luggage on their bike other than maybe a small saddle bag with a spare tube. If it did not fit in their jersey pocket, they did not want to carry it. Most of the others were roadies, no self-supported touring background.

But on that van supported tour, we also had some extremely hot days too.