(poll) temperature required to get your legs out?

Min temp for shorts? ( deg C )


  • Total voters
    90
Page may contain affiliate links. Please see terms for details.

deptfordmarmoset

Full time tea drinker
Location
Armonmy Way
It's got to be nice and warm for me before the shorts come out as i'm nesh.

Ooh, a new word for me! I don't remember ever hearing or reading it before but it definitely suits me.
 

oldroadman

Veteran
Location
Ubique
If you have any respect for your knees, then at least 18c before the shorts. Otherwise a progression from full to 3/4 legs once over 12c ish. Oldroadman was taught this is 19 and frozen to death by a top coach, and years after finishing competition the old kness still function nicely. Quite a few of the "hard men" from my younger days, who got their knees out all the time, now have all kinds of problems. One can hardly walk, others are looking at surgery, all kinds of niggles.
So look after yourselves, because as the years go by, the invoice comes in for all the time you spent not being properly prepared in cold weather!
 

lulubel

Über Member
Location
Malaga, Spain
My temperature wasn't there. I don't go into shorts in spring until it's at least 20C, although I'll be in a short sleeve top long before that. I'd rather keep my legs covered than my arms. I generally stay in shorts longer in the autumn, though.
 

ColinJ

Puzzle game procrastinator!
My temperature wasn't there. I don't go into shorts in spring until it's at least 20C, although I'll be in a short sleeve top long before that. I'd rather keep my legs covered than my arms. I generally stay in shorts longer in the autumn, though.
I used to go on Cost Blanca training camps in March when it was typically 15-25 °C and we'd all be riding in shorts and short-sleeved jerseys. You'd see the local Spanish riders out on their bikes wearing full-finger gloves, arm and leg warmers, scarves round their necks and faces, and woolly hats on their heads! We'd ride through hilltop villages and see old men sitting chatting on roadside benches and they'd have big jumpers and heavy jackets on, plus flat caps. The Spanish appeared to feel that it was still the middle of winter!

Mind you, one day when it got to about 30 °C, we Brits were wilting in the heat but the Spanish were in summer kit and sauntering up the climbs as if conditions were merely pleasantly warm!
 

lulubel

Über Member
Location
Malaga, Spain
Mind you, one day when it got to about 30 °C, we Brits were wilting in the heat but the Spanish were in summer kit and sauntering up the climbs as if conditions were merely pleasantly warm!

I think there is a logic to staying in your winter kit as long as you can here. You still have some layers to lose when it gets really hot!

Having said that, my OH is fully acclimatised now. She's still going out in her winter jacket, 2 pairs of gloves and socks, buff wrapped round her face, and complaining she's cold .... I went into short sleeves last weekend, and might be in shorts on Sunday if it's clear and sunny (we've had a bit of cloud the last couple of days). By the time it gets to 30C, I'll just be wearing undershorts as my top layer and a running vest. I'm OK in that temperature as long as I take on loads of fluids, but I start to wilt if it goes over that. No-one - not even the Spanish - goes out on a July or August afternoon. If you get caught out, you just have to hole up in a nice, shady bar somewhere and wait it out :biggrin:
 

steveindenmark

Legendary Member
You big soft girlies.

My girlfriend rode the 10 mile to work and back all through the winter. It got down to -20.

Did I ??? Don`t be ridiculous. I am English and she is Danish. They don`t feel the cold.

Steve
 

Chrisz

Über Member
Location
Sittingbourne
I've been out this week in long fingered-gloves, long sleeved top, fleecy jumper ontop, oh, and shorts!

Here too! Only worn my winter jacket for a couple of times this winter. Got the shorts out a couple of weeks ago and they'll do me now until sometime in October/November.
 

oldroadman

Veteran
Location
Ubique
If you have any respect for your knees, then at least 18c before the shorts. Otherwise a progression from full to 3/4 legs once over 12c ish. Oldroadman was taught this is 19 and frozen to death by a top coach, and years after finishing competition the old kness still function nicely. Quite a few of the "hard men" from my younger days, who got their knees out all the time, now have all kinds of problems. One can hardly walk, others are looking at surgery, all kinds of niggles.
So look after yourselves, because as the years go by, the invoice comes in for all the time you spent not being properly prepared in cold weather!

Forgot to mention, that's really for racing, training always at least 3/4 longs, keep knees covered, unless it gets over about 25c, then help the tan along!
 

itchyrider

Aka Chris
Location
london N16
3/4 Shorts all the time when its cold as to Protect the knees it helps with later in life!!!
The advice was given to me so im passing wisdom on.
 
Top Bottom