01-18-2007, 07:49 PM
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#11 (permalink)
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| | Re: Cure for cold toes when it's freezing
I've never used hand or toe warmers and ride every day in a Milwaukee
winter; shorter than my commute when the roads are snowy or icy, but
not on account of cold. My problem with the hand and toe warmers is
that they keep you from "hardening off" against the winter weather.
Without them, you adapt to cold a lot more readily and by late winter
are ready for anything.
Below 15F, I switch from gloves to "choppers and liners" - a thick
woolen mitten covered by a thick leather mitten on my hands. For my
feet, below 20F, add a heavy pair of woolen socks over my regular
rather thick cotton socks, and make sure to wear my lined tennis shoes.
Below zero F, I wear lined boots - clumsy but warmer. If it gets way,
way below zero, I have my Sorel boots available, but haven't needed
them in years for bike riding. Yesterday was 5F, after a long mild
spell and I need to re-acclimate. At every stop, I was furiously
rubbing both hands against each other inside the mittens to generate a
little heat, and continuously curling and uncurling the fingers of
alternate hands, and moving my hand far enough out of the glove that my
thumb got in on it too. Similarly, I was continuously curling and
uncurling my toes. There are places along the way to stop, and if
frostbite is coming on, I would rather do that than use hand or foot
warmers. My mittens are 25+ years old, and I believe better products
are now available, which I intend to look into this weekend, as we seem
to be at the beginning of a rather extended cold spell.
Mike Jacoubowsky wrote:
> This morning I added something new to my cold-weather arsenal. Hopefully all
> of us who are silly enough to ride when it's below (or even close to)
> freezing use cold-weather booties over our shoes. But while booties make the
> ride survivable, you'll still have that wonderful feeling in the shower as
> you thaw out, where your toes half-itch and half-hurt, and look a color of
> purple that you didn't find in your box of crayolas growing up. So what's my
> no-longer-secret for keeping my toes comfy? Simple. Put a pair of Kucharik
> toe warmers (that's what I use, but there are many other brands that work
> similarly) over the front of your shoes, and then the booties over those. I
> didn't know it would actually work, it just seemed like something to try.
>
> It worked GREAT! No numbness, no itching, no pain. Not even that ugly purple
> color in the shower.
>
> --Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
> www.ChainReactionBicycles.com
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