You are correct, it was about half hour for me.. I am finding out if I lay everything out the night before, I can do it a little quicker..BTW, around Feb we have been past the worst part. We should be on the uphill toward warmer weather, at least I hope so... ;)

That is exactly what I be doing. Putting on the right amount of layers, and making sure everything is snug and comfortable. Even down to taking the last trip to the bathroom. Dam, I hate it when I got everything are suited up, and I got to go to the bathroom. I got to dig through a zillion layers to get to the thing!! :lol:

Ha, we on the opposite end of the scale. I am 6ft 3in at 135 lbs. Send some of those lbs over here!! ;)

ceh: **** I will send you some. Not sure if there is a box big enough..................

:lol: :lol: :lol: It sure does.

See Rule #9: http://www.velominati.com/blog/the-rules/#9

Where were you from in Michigan? I'm a native of Detroit.

Anything that keeps me warm during the first 15 minutes makes me too hot during the rest of the ride. I just under-dress and ride hard to build up enough warmth. I can keep just about right by adjusting speed and effort. This morning it was around 9 degrees with a solid head wind. The buildings in downtown Boston create even more of a chill, but then I have to climb a mild grade traveling up Comm Ave. That's where I tend to get too warm. Pit zips help that quite a bit, but it's hard to get the layers just right. Everyone has to adjust to there unique circumstances, so there is no magic solution. It's an art to figure out a solution.

The combined weight and constraint of all the extra clothing also makes dressing, sorting out all those sleeves, riding, unbinding fabric around knees, switching gloves, putting on face mask, redoing face mask because its choking me, need the bathroom, and undressing a tiring chore in the winter. I agree, by the time February rolls around I'm sick of the cold (and then, of course, the weather gets colder) and I dream of cycling in tshirts, shorts and sandals.

Today it was only -1°C. Practically balmy compared to yesterday's arctic freeze!

That's for sure. As soon as I am dressed completely I want to be out the door so I don't overheat before I get outside; that's when the cold really hits you. On particularly cold days, I may take my winter coat into the chilly vestibule of our building and finish dressing there to quickly exit.

Speaking of going to the bathroom when all bundled up, I recently posted about this problem:

Barr-Mitts and proper winter cycling shoes make low teen commutes a non-issue for me. Best winter cycling investments I've made besides the Hakka W106's that I haven't had to put on yet this year...

jolly: what shoes and mitts do you use?

Next weekend I'm going to be riding in the teens.

Also I'm a car free rider and have no choice.

Chef, and you east coast commuters - hats off to you all. You guys are in inspiration to us all.
But we have it pretty tough out here in So Cal too - dipped below 50 F this morning and I had to put on a base layer - brrrrr!!

chemical toe warmers on top of sock liners, then a wool sock
glove liner under loose fitting windproof winter glove
scarf? lose it
get the proper zip up neck base layer and proper cycling specific windbreaker or rain jacket with reflective tape

Yeah, agreed. Hands, feet and ears. The rest of my body follows, provided I take care of these 3 extremities.

Barr-Mitts

Seems like the shoes ( Pearl Izumi Barrier GTX ) are discontinued, I like mine and got an awesome deal from the LBS when I got them... There are some other good winter shoes out there though.

jolly: are they pretty easy to put on and take off?

I've never tried chemical warmers. For my hands I just wear a good pair of winter gloves which has grip so they don't slide off the handle bars. But my hands seem to stay pretty warm on their own as they get pretty sweaty after a ride. For my feet I wear a pair of warm socks under my mountain bike shoes and then shoe covers like these: http://www.mec.ca/AST/ShopMEC/Cyclin...ers-unisex.jsp
These do a good job keeping the wind, rain, snow and slush off my feet. And dry feet mean warm feet.

The bar mitts are great! Has to be under freezing or my hand sweat too much. I have only ridden down to the low 20s, but my hands were fine with fairly lightweight gloves and bar mits. Legs were good with some insulated pants found on clearance at Target (they didn't sell well in Texas, go figure). My feet and face were the weak spots, but I confident I could handle the teens with my gear. It would get old after a few days, but luckily those temps are rare here.

I don't know if you're referring to the Barr-Mitts or the shoes but yes on both counts, each about the same :)

Also, on those days where it's 20 in the morning and 50 on the way home, at least with the Shimano Road version of the Barr-Mitts you can unzip them and allow a lot of ventilation so the temp envelope on them is huge. I take serious consideration on temp ranges on commuting gear because I work on the ocean and live inland in New England and the temp extremes can be exactly that.

I simply can't condone using chemical warmers, one of the big reasons why I commute by bike to to reduce my waste and using something like that would give me some bad Karma :)

Thick full-fingers and road levers don't work either. Barr-Mitts again, half finger gloves for just about any temperature, yes...

No, I don't have any affiliation with them but I do like spreading the word when something is that good, hands and feet are the trickiest part with winter riding.

+1 Not so much for doing your commute in 16F, though...lots of folks have done that and more. Especially our Canadian, Scandanavian and Icelandic brethren. My congrats are doing it w/COTTON LAYERS!!! B-R-R-R-R :p

Replace the cotton w/100% wool sweaters from a thriftstore...or cashmere from the ladies section. No shame, I've got one and use it on every long winter ride. They're usually able to be found between 3-5.00. Not the cashmere that was 20.00. But, 100% wool sweaters are really cheap. I try to look for closeknit to help w/windblocking.

All kidding aside it's really an accomplishment when one challanges one's self to step out and ride hardcore winter commuting. Way to go. :thumb:

nash: One issue I have is that I am a REALLLLLLLL big guy. 6 foot 4 inch 335 pounds. Finding stuff to wear is a real b*tch so I use what I have.

Oh, sorry bro. Man, if I find a XXXL 100% wool sweater I promise to PM you and get it to you. I'm at the local thriftstores all the time and they all have a 'big man's' section. I'll be lookin' now. Aint no thang...pay it forward. :)

thanks bro. I appreciate it.