I can currently stay pretty comfortable down to 0°F with bar pogies and a thick + thin glove on each hand. However, it’s been about -15°F in the mornings where I live and my fingers feel like they’re about to fall off by the time I get to work. I already don’t have great circulation to my hands and, predictably, it gets even worse when my body is ready to sacrifice my appendages to keep my core temperature up (even though I’m sweating by the time I get there sometimes).
Looking for recommendations for gloves/mittens based on personal experience if possible, all the review sites I’ve found either:
- Say something generic like “full winter range”. Not too helpful when that’s pretty regionally specific and cycling review sites are often in the UK and are more concerned about water than extreme cold (as far as I’m aware) or
- Are aggregating Amazon reviews and not doing any useful research on their own, just trying to collect affiliate link money
Any advice appreciated, thanks!
I’m Finnish and for me the answer is leather and wool, usually.
Going -25c and colder I’d change from my basic leather gloves to larger ones which aren’t as good though, but they reach further up the arm and have more filling in them so they’re warmer than the basic leather glove and make sure O don’t get wind up the arm or hand, but they let in wind more through the glove though, as they’re not leather, but the filling makes up for it when the trip is less than an hour.
If you smoke cigarettes or use nicotine, cutting that out will help tremendously with your peripheral circulation, which is what freezes your hands.
My problem has usually been the face. Covering up mostly is easy enough and if it’s sunny I can wear shades. But it’s not usually sunny in the winter in Finland and I need to see so I had to leave eyes open usually. Which sucks ass when you’re driving 35km/h into ice crystals in the air.
But today I finally got myself a pair of driving goggles.