Gotta say… I’m glad the cold weather has shown up. Last year what little riding I did during the dead of winter was miserable because I just didn’t have good clothing to wear so I was either super uncomfortable or super cold on every ride.

Well this year, things have changed. I’ve got some great equipment that keeps me warm and is designed for riding. I also took the camera with me on a ride the other day and took some pics.

First off, the Louis Garneau Windry F2 jacket is very cool. I wasn’t so sure about it at first. I’ve never used a cycling specific jacket before and it felt overly snug, especially in the armpit area. However, I have worn plenty of other Louis Garneau stuff and got the same sized Windry F2, so I figured I would give it a go before making a phone call.

Well durned if it isn’t perfect for riding. I kept feeling the tightness under the arms when I had them hanging at my side. So put me on a bike with my arms outstreched and all of a sudden the jacket felt perfect. It was such an amazing difference from riding with some bulky sweatshirt or something. I stayed warm with an extremely high level of comfort and streamlineness (yeah I know that’s not a word).

Big thing I’m not to fond of at this point is the tiny zippers on the pockets. Sure, I know they are trying to keep everything streamlined, but I had a heck of a time getting into the pockets without stopping the bike, putting a foot down and attention to what I was doing. My line of thinking is… I’m wearing the jacket, so that means it’s cold, which means I’ve probably got a decently bulky set of gloves on, which means there is no way I can get ahold of these tiny zippers while riding.

Other then that though… super happy with the jacket so far. I especially love the lime green color. You’ll definitely see me coming (which makes this great for commuting to) and I always like stuff that’s a little off. But of course I had to take a spill in some mud.

I was trying that cool thing where you take a tight turn by kickin up on your front wheel and pivoting the rear wheel down and landing perfectly facing the right way. Well two mistakes I made were doing on a turn that wasn’t all that tight in the first place, and then not fully commiting to attempt. So instead I just tried to turn and put a lot of weight on my front wheel which, of course, caused the bike to disappear out from underneath me and I landed in some mud.

Other then the jacket, other cold wear I’m using is the Seal Skinz Chillblocker gloves. The good: VERY warm gloves. The bad: NOT very comfortable.

So if I have to choose between the two, yeah I’ll opt for warm hands, however my hands were pretty sore after riding. I felt like they came down to far in between my fingers which caused them to hurt after awhile of gripping the bars. Who knows, maybe they just need broken in. I’ve only gotten a couple rides in with them so far.

It still not cold enough to get me to bring out the full length Louis Garneau Finlind tights, so I’ve been sticking with the Hoss MTB shorts. I’m also still riding with the Lake MX155 shoes which do a good job keeping the feet warm.

They actually got tested pretty good the other day. About fifteen minutes into the ride it started pouring down rain. I stayed out on the trails another hour and by the time I got back to the car the shoes were soaking wet… but my socks (accept for the tops of course) were bone dry. Good times.

Looking forward to some more cold weather. I still got some stuff I gotta try out when it starts getting bitter.