The right clothing helps for cool weather riding.



Photo was taken near noon, I had switched to short finger gloves instead of long finger gloves. Still wearing a long sleeve jacket over a long sleeve jersey. Sometimes when it is chillier, I also wear a neck gaiter. For a month I never took the rain cover off my helmet, kept it on to keep the wind off my noggin on this trip. Sometimes wore a fleece earband on that trip, other times a thin fleece skullcap. Those are convertible long pants or shorts that I am wearing in the photo, zip off the legs to convert to shorts. If your toes get chilly because you have well vented bike shoes, you can put a plastic bag over your socks on the front half of your foot to keep the wind from blowing on your skin.

Only part of it is acclimating for the cold, the other half of getting ready is preparing for the cold with the right clothing and equipment. There were a few days on this trip with the above photo where I wore my down vest on my bike for the first few miles until I was warmed up. And there were a few days where I wore my rain pants for part of the day, not for rain but for the cold wind, the rain pants were breathable so I did not get wet when wearing them in cold weather.

When I buy helmets, I make sure that the suspension part of it will expand so that I can wear a fleece ear band or fleece skullcap without any difficulty. And the helmet suspension is tight enough without that extra insulating layer.

There are gloves out there that have an extra cover that goes over the fingers, to help cut the wind from being a hassle on your fingers. I have a few pair of them. The mitten cover will fit into a small pocket on the back for when the cover is not needed. That said, they are not that common.