Cold fingers

[neslon]

There are some soft tarts here. Its not cold enough yet to worry about warm gloves etc yet - today was the first frosty one, but Altura Nightvision windproofs were plenty. When it gets seriously cold, silk liners (about £12 from Tiso or similar) make an astonishing difference, without bulk.
Now get a grip...

 

[Flying_Monkey]

It doesn't get below -20 in the Toon, soft lad!

 

[longers]

Last year or the year before I read a good bit of advice on here. If your gloves are already warm when you put them on it makes a big difference to keeping your fingers nice and toasty on the ride. So if your heating is on - pop them on the radiator the night before.

 

[jimboalee]

I bought my Dad a pair of gloves like these, although his ones use a D battery. You do have a separate battery pack for each glove (otherwise you'd have gloves attached by a wire, sort of like the way my gloves were attached by string through the back of my coat as a child. )

You can see on the image of the ad that there's a little pocket (velcros over by the wrist section) which is where the batteries go. The wires are very short and will be in that little pocket too along with a plastic strip for the batteries to attach to. That price looks expensive though. I think eBay have cheaper ones.

I've just bought myself a battery heated body-warmer as this morning was just torture! That was £16.95 including postage.

Didn't enjoy cycling in thick fog one little bit .

How many feet of snow have you had in Essex?

 

[summerdays]

It might be worth getting some gloves made by people in Scandanavia or Canada or somewhere where extreme weather is more normal. I have Louis Garneau Typhoon gloves for the winter, which are split mitts with several layers. It has not been cold enough for me to use them yet (and it's been below zero)!

Did you get those in the UK? Always on the desparate hunt for better gloves (and yes I feel the cold as I have Reynaulds - so I lost the circulation in my fingers yesterday - and used one of those hand warmers to get it back).

 

[HobbesChoice]

How many feet of snow have you had in Essex?

No snow yet, but I have personally had 2 feet of ice!

I'm so obviously a massive wimp when it comes to the cold. I think some people are just more tolerant to it, but I'm definitely not one of those people.

On the plus side, my ride home last night was wonderful. Once I'm warm on the bike it makes the cold air feel really welcome. It was like being air conditioned on my journey. Fantastic.

 

[Flying_Monkey]

Did you get those in the UK? Always on the desparate hunt for better gloves (and yes I feel the cold as I have Reynaulds - so I lost the circulation in my fingers yesterday - and used one of those hand warmers to get it back).

I'm really not sure. I got them here because they were actually 'made in Canada'...

 

[knonist]

Which one is better : silk liner or merino liner?
Give they cost about the same

 

[orbiter]

... Always on the desparate hunt for better gloves (and yes I feel the cold as I have Reynaulds .......).

Me too. I can lose circulation in a couple of fingers anywhere below 20C if I'm not moving much, like sitting at a desk, so winter cycling can be painful. The best gloves I can find don't help much. The best palliative I've found is an extra layer on my trunk, so it gets hotter than I'd like This seems to force the heat out to my fingers. It also helps to make sure I'm really warm before I go out. Toes are something else.

 

[summerdays]

Which one is better : silk liner or merino liner?
Give they cost about the same

I have silk liner ones - they are good from their slimness to fit into other gloves but they seem to have a tendency to get snagged on rings etc. I meant to go looking merino ones today to try them out myself.

 

[neslon]

I have silk liner ones - they are good from their slimness to fit into other gloves but they seem to have a tendency to get snagged on rings

the main problem is the way they tend to get lost. I think merino gets too wet while silk wicks better.

 

[knonist]

I got some silk inners from ebay recently, and they were OK until today.
My fingers registered 12.3 °C when I got to my office this morning.
I couldnt feel a thing!
I'm wearing a silk inner with a pair of altura waterproof/windproof thinsulate gloves.
My hands are fine, just the fingertips.

BTW, what is the skin temperature of catching a frost bite? have to be sub zero, rite?

 

[jimboalee]

http://www.wessingtoncryogenics.co.uk/Safety.htm

You need the 100% Waterproof variety half way down the page.

 

[knonist]

http://www.wessingtoncryogenics.co.uk/Safety.htm

You need the 100% Waterproof variety half way down the page.

my hands are fine, just the fingers....

 

[biking_fox]

I'd use silk liners. Currently I find my SealSkinz quite warm enough once I've cycled a bit.

A couple of tips:
Start out warm - put your glove son the radiator etc when not in use
Cover your wrists - keep your whole arm warm, espeically the wrists where the blood flow is close to the surface. This should help keep your fingers warmer
cycle slower - and in a lower gear - high leg revs build up core warmth, and cutting out even a few mph of windchill makes a lot of difference at low temps.