December means (for a lot of us) one thing: friggin cold hands and feet. On this episode of the podcast, let’s see if we can find some ways for keeping hands and feet warm on bike tour, and maybe even your chilly commutes! Also, followup on past shows and connections with you!
Hey it’s the direct download link: The Pedalshift Project 064: Keeping hands and feet warm on bike tour (mp3)
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Gear Talk: Keeping hands and feet warm
– Layers, keep things dry
– No cotton, only synthetics or wool (I prefer wool)
– Wind chill is a real thing: need a way to break that
Keeping hands warm
Three tools:;
– thin base layer glove that breathes
– Medium weight warm glove
– wind and waterproof outer shell – mittens or lobster style are upgrades (get one size larger)
Dry and not too cold?
Base layer or shell only
Wet and not too cold?
shell only
Dry and chilly
Base layer and medium weight
Wet and chilly or colder
All three layers
Keeping feet warm
Had good luck with Showers Pass waterproof socks.
Same rules apply… go with layers and breathability next to the skin.
Little sandwich baggies around your toes work wonders!
Followup
Winter touring – Meridian, MS to Atlanta, GA
FOTS Paul Mulvey: Amtrak Crescent to Meridian, MS, then ride back through Tuscaloosa (Auburn U, another school with orange), Birmingham, and then onto the south’s gem – the Chief Ladiga/Silver Comet trail, and take that all the way home. About 370 miles over 6 days which gives me a good tour. I can also hop onto the train and don’t have to worry about shipping the bike to the destination.
Testing alcohol stoves
PS Society member Brian Hren tests an eBay stove, the Trangia MJ uses and a design of his own:
eBay stove boiled 16 ounces of waterin 5 minutes, Trangia in 8 and my homemade “penny” stove in 10. In terms of fuel efficiency I found the Trangia most efficient, followed by my penny stove and lastly the eBay stove. The Trangia and eBay stoves with their pot stands weigh roughly the same. The penny stove with its homemade pot stand weighs less than half the other two. I am thinking I could get the best of both if I used the Trangia burner with the homemade pot stand.
YMMV of course.
Fuel efficiency seems like a good reason to go with the Trangia for me!
Connections
Interesting read because it straight up says it’s a cheap tent, but can be upgraded with some simple fixes (seam sealing, adding grommets, velcro, etc.)
I’m a bit of a claustrophobe and prefer freestanding tents, but this seems like a good entry level bivy for beginner bike packers. Downside is they make it up in shipping: both options are around $15. Still, for a little over $40 total, this is cheaper than most low end bivys.
Cycling Kiwi Style
FOTS Mark Van Raam did some cycling in New Zealand and had a good experience!
More five star iTunes reviews too – thank you!
Programming note!
I’m off to Portland tomorrow for a quick holiday visit, so hope to have some stuff from the land of sunshine and bunnies. Newsletter is NEXT WEEK, along with a bonus pod so be sure to sign up for the newsletter if you haven’t already. Next episode of this show is the year-end Pedalshift Holiday Spectacular. Producer Shifty the Elf is already hard at work pulling it together…
Pedalshift Society
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pedalshift.net/society. And society members please go to
pedalshift.net/stickers and let me know where to send some Pedalshift stickers to you! On to the Society!
Thank you for supporting the show!
Music
The Pedalshift Project theme is America courtesy of Jason Kent off his self-titled solo album which celebrated its TEN YEAR ANNIVERSARY last month. Congrats Jason! Check out his band Sunfields‘ album, Habitat, wherever cool music resides. I heard Jason’s new album in January and it is AWESOME. More info when that drops!
