Maine bicycling rocks from leaf-peeping season through November’s browns and grays — a perfect pedaling time before late fall introduces winter-like cold.
A hill drops from my home to downtown Belgrade Lakes village and Route 27, which brings up Allen’s theory of cold-weather bicycling attire.
In autumn, on that immediate descent, if cold doesn’t seep into my bones I’m dressed too warmly for the day. From the junction with Route 27, a 2-mile pedal south crosses a false flat but mostly climbs from the village, quite steep in one place. The exertion heats me after the initial chill.
Last March, this column delved into cold-weather bicycle dress, but thanks to reader response, I have refined those suggestions. My advice now keys on somewhat frugal budgets.
Comfortable biking begins with layers of clothing for shedding or adding, and a recent outing offered a perfect example:
At sunrise, three clothing layers on the torso and tights on the legs proved crucial to comfort, but by 10:30, it was summer again, forcing me to stuff two shirt layers into my bicycle shirt pockets that already held a light chartreuse raincoat.
Three crammed pockets made me look like a pregnant sausage.
The tights should have come off, too, but gauze-like bicycle underwear under the tights instead of biking shorts eliminated that option, a stupid mistake with such extremes between morning and midday.
For simple cold, a long-sleeve (preferably silk) turtleneck and then a synthetic bicycle shirt under a light bicycle raincoat suffices. The raincoat offers surprising warmth for its thickness — a space-age marvel.
For more intense cold, my attire for the torso begins with the same combo and then a bright-yellow down vest for more warmth and visibility.
In more extreme cold, I substitute an L.L. Bean Gore-Tex raincoat for the biking model. This choice (the $159 Stowaway Rainwear model, heavier than a typical bicycle raincoat) and down vest over it provide warmth galore.
I almost never put more clothing on my torso than those last four layers, but in arctic-like winds, a winter parka combats frigid temperatures. I seldom resort to that option, though.
For legs, bicycle shorts and then synthetic tights can keep the bottom half warm. In extreme cold, tights meant for frigid weather can keep folks plenty warm, and my favorite choice comes from Col d’Lizard.
For the head, a bicycling cap, synthetic fleece cap or balaclava makes a huge difference. A balaclava covers the head, ears, part of the face and neck and makes a huge difference, because bicycles sail along 12 to 35 miles per hour and more. This built-in wind chill can brutalize exposed skin in winter and in fact, is a serious danger.
A bicycle helmet over any of those head coverings brings up a salient point. This past summer, a bicycle magazine from the United Kingdom reported that nine out of 10 bicycling fatalities in the UK involved bikers not wearing helmets. Interestingly, not all died of head injuries, suggesting careless behavior and no helmet go hand in hand.
Wise winter bikers put booties over bicycle shoes — a specialty item for frigid weather. I’m too cheap for this expense and often pull heavy woolen socks over biking shoes, but I’m a top-clip and strap guy. Clipless pedals force folks to use specialty booties with openings on the bottom.
Speaking of wool, I notice bicycle magazines from the United Kingdom push wool — a quaint offering, like bamboo fly rods. Ultrasoft, itchless merino wool is a specialty product originally from Spain, but now livestock owners grow merino wool in Australia, New Zealand and elsewhere. It doesn’t have the built-in stink factor of synthetic materials.
As the inevitable fall cold increases, folks can find less winter-like areas for more comfortable biking by driving south or descending in elevation.
My hometown has much more snow than lower elevations 20 miles south of here. Sixty miles south can really look balmy.
Last year, I pedaled into mid-December until a knee injury from weight-lifting sidelined me for much of the winter. This winter, though, I plan to pedal each month, dressed in layers of clothing.
Through winter and early spring, wind and cold sort of make me happy because it is great weather to get into condition before that first warm southwest wind pushes into Maine in mid- to late-April and the good life starts in earnest again.
Ken Allen of Belgrade Lakes is a writer, editor and photographer. He can be contacted at: KAllyn800@yahoo.com
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