What is the ideal cycling jacket (for UK commuting)

[[email protected]]

On Fri, 20 Oct 2006 07:03:14 GMT, Ryan Cousineau <[email protected]>
wrote:

>In article <[email protected]>,
> [email protected] wrote:
>
>> On 19 Oct 2006 17:41:54 -0700, [email protected] wrote:
>>
>> [snip]
>>
>> >If we switch to the splash page for the generic "Fall cycling" line, we
>> >see this:
>> >
>> >http://louisgarneau.com/eng/catalog.asp?catalogue=HH6
>> >
>> >Okay, he's looking back, and he's riding a fancy bike, but I hardly
>> >think you can accuse the rider of racer-posing, since he is in the
>> >decidedly unnatural-for-racing postion of having one foot on the ground
>> >and looking back. Also, no team colors on his jersey.
>>
>> [snip]
>>
>> Dear Ryan,
>>
>> Also, he's stopped in the traffic lane of what looks like a highway,
>> his rear wheel within inches of a yellow no-passing stripe.
>>
>> Caption: Gee, I hope that pickup doing 80 mph swerves around me!
>
>Heh. My proposal: Does this contrast stitching make my butt look fat?
>
>Actually, I quite like the contrast stitching. But I also own a blue
>bicycle with red bar tape on one side, and black bar tape on the other.
>
>> It's not quite as bad as posing in the middle of a 4-way intersection
>> beneath a traffic light, but it does support the theory that models
>> and fashion photographers are airheads.
>>
>> Love the crisp-edged shadows from the artificial lighting on a cloudy
>> day.
>
>That shadow came from all-natural lightning, I'm sure.

[snip]

Dear Ryan,

On the off-chance that you're serious, look more closely at the sharp
shadows cast by the bike below the rider's waist on a cloudy day.

Now look for any trace of a shadow cast by the rider.

Either he's a vampire and casts no shadow, or else an artificial light
is shining at about chest height, so it casts shadows at a downward
angle from the bike below the rider's waist, but is unable to cast his
shadow on the distant trees in the background:

. '
. '
light ( - - - rider no shadow horizon
' .
' bike
__________ shadow______ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
bright pavement dark pavement

Note also the bright pavement near the wheels, but how dark the
pavement is in the other lane where the sun would be showing the
rider's shadow--the artificial lighting off to the viewer's right is
powerful enough to cast shadows downward that close to the light, but
the artificial light fades out in a few feet, just like a car's
headlight at noon.

Cheers,

Carl Fogel

 

[ship]

> > (Plus it's extremely durable and completely
> > puncture-proof if for example you happen to walk through a gorse bush!
> > - unlike any membrane based shell such as Goretex...)
>
> It isn't puncture proof, but the waterproofing will not be
> compromosed by small holes. Not /quite/ the same thing.

I'm not quite sure the point you are making.
You can stick certainly pins through it and it wont affect the water
proofing.
This is not true of any "membrane" material

Ship

 

[ship]

> > How come I can see my red flashing bike LED in the very corner of my
> > eye - and yes it's very clearly red - if there are NO cones in my
> > peripheral vision area!
>
> At a guess ...
>
> An image is not constructed in your eyes. They just collect the light.
> The image construction and how you see it are done in the brain and that
> adds in bits that it "knows" but are missing. In this case it adds the
> red to the light.
>
> BICBW.

Dont be rediculous!

I dont know where you got that one from - hardcore science or urban
myth...

But I'm telling you I can SEE that it's red!! And not because I KNOW
it's red either.
I just tried the experiment again with a white and a red cateye LED
light and I shuffled
them around and I can still EASILY tell you which is which even in the
corner
of the eye.

Nothing beats a bit of 1st hand empirical experiment!


Ship

 

[ship]

> >>> I read an article several years ago stating that bright red was a
> >>> TERRIBLE colour for fire engines because the red cones in the eye
> >>> take longest to respond - albeit that red is the colour that most
> >>> jolts/shocks/alerts/stimulates us. The article went on to state
> >>> that a bright red fast moving obect across our vision was as good
> >>> as invisible.
>
> >> Sounds like a red herring. The cones are only in a small central
> >> part of the vision and are relatively slow responding.
>
> > How come I can see my red flashing bike LED in the very corner of my
> > eye - and yes it's very clearly red - if there are NO cones in my
> > peripheral vision area!
>
> You are imagining that you can do that. Your peripheral vision may be
> quick and receptive but it cannot distinguish colors. If you want to
> test that, look straight airhead at a target and have someone hold up
> white, yellow and red pieces of paper and try to identify them.
>
> No cheating either!

See my other post.
May be I have weird eyes but with my flash LED it's easy as frickin pie
to distinguish the red from the white LED.
Though I do concede it gets a fraction harder when they are on
constantly.
But still perfectly clear to me.

I put it to y'all that Cones only in the middle is an urban myth.

What there is NOT is Rod in the middle - i.e. the "fovia"
which is why even me with my "unique" [pfff] eyes have to look slightly
to one
side of a star at night to see it...


Ship

 

[[email protected]]

Ryan Cousineau writes:

> Jobst, I don't know how they did it in your day, but they all look
> like they're pulling about the same ridiculous race faces that, I
> assure you, come quite naturally to me after about five minutes in
> the red zone.

> Most of them are wearing sunglasses, which may be what makes them look
> more posed than you'd expect, but could you please name which of these
> riders seems, well, unnaturally race-facey to you?

> Here's some pictures from a recent B-group cyclocross race:

> http://descantes.com/slideshow/20060923EVCROSS/MEN B/

So what happened to rwreck.bike.racing where all of this suffering and
red-line activity occurs? Getting lathered with how arduous the
racer's life is and how many fewer grams will win races isn't a tech
subject but gets spliced in wherever it can fit... like why we should
be riding recumbents and the like.

I have many old pictures of racers of the past, who are not grimacing,
wearing Ray Charles glasses nor wearing clothing with all the seams on
the outside. I watched the GdI in 1961 with Rik van Looy, Charley
Gaul, Imerio Massignan, et al, and Arnaldo Pambianco the overall
winner as they climbed the Stelvio before the days of mugging for the
press and doters who want to see their heroes wince. I don't believe
it's natural to make movie star faces jut-jawed gasping for air when
riding.

The secret life of Walter Mitty lives! James Thurber recognized the
syndrome long ago:

http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/6821/thurber.html

Jobst Brandt

 

[Pete Biggs]

ship wrote:

> But I'm telling you I can SEE that it's red!! And not because I KNOW
> it's red either.
> I just tried the experiment again with a white and a red cateye LED
> light and I shuffled
> them around and I can still EASILY tell you which is which even in the
> corner
> of the eye.

I can't detect colours right at the very edge of my vision, but can when the
object is moved round a little more. At the edge I can barely make out
shapes either; just a vague awareness that something is there.

Where does peripheral vision stop and main vision start?

~PB

 

[dvt]

[email protected] wrote:
> dvt wrote:
>> [email protected] wrote:
>>> Ryan Cousineau writes:
>>>> Perhaps a balaclava?

>>> Oh you comedian!

>> Why is that so funny?

> Theories:
>
> -Jobst half-knows about Greek food, and thought I was suggesting he
> wear a baklava. Mmm. Baklava.
> -Jobst is afraid of being mistaken for a terrorist, as they routinely
> travel the Alps on bicycles, wearing ski masks and waylaying tourists.
> The Pyrenean bicycle gangs are notoriously the worst thugs in Europe.
> When combined with the "This bike is a pipe bomb" sticker he has, a
> balaclava would just be asking for trouble.
> -Jobst is flirting with me. NTTAWWT, but I'm happily married.
> -Jobst thinks dressing like Phil Laak is perfectly normal, but wearing
> a balaclava would just be weird.
> -In German, balaclava is a hilarious slang term for "bikini top,"
> possibly the least appropriate garment for descending the Gavia that
> would be possible.
> -Jobst is easily amused.
> -"Balaclava" is engineering shorthand for a solution that will fix the
> problem, but at the cost of being in some way ridiculous. Example: any
> Rube Goldberg machine would qualify as a balaclava.
>
> It must be one of those,

Funny stuff, Ryan.

Since Jobst won't answer, I think he's unwilling to admit that it's a
fashion issue. He's unwilling to admit that because, in the same post
(and many others), he slams other folks for being adamant about fashion.

Now *that* would be funny.

--
Dave "feelin' comic today" who?
dvt at psu dot edu

 

[dvt]

[email protected] wrote:
> I did a modest experiment today which has little bearing on alpine
> rides, but much to say about the original poster's "rides in rainy
> London" request.

[snip Ryan's anecdote]

Here's my anecdote from this morning. 47°F, rainy. I wore a light long
sleeve shirt and a translucent PVC rain jacket with mesh along the sides
of the torso. I also wore jeans, leather gloves, and a light hat under
my helmet. My ride took the normal 20-25 minutes; it's only 4 miles, but
most of it is stop-n-go or uphill, so it takes a long time.

I was too warm. I should have ditched the hat and wore shorts instead of
jeans. Then I could tolerate slightly warmer temps. I usually choose to
get wet from the rain if it's warmer than about 50-55°F.

My rain jacket is a very common style, and it's cheap. I think this is
the one I have:

http://www.campmor.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?productId=10150&memberId=12500226

The mesh on the sides does an adequate job of ventilating the torso for
a short ride. The arms, on the other hand, get sweaty almost immediately
if you put this thing on over a short sleeve shirt. I never wear the
jacket without a long sleeve shirt, which is part of the reason I don't
like to wear it in warmer weather.

I've thought about getting another jacket like this and cutting the
sleeves shorter. On warmer days, I think that would allow me to keep my
shirt dry and stay a bit cooler. Has anyone else tried this?

--
Dave
dvt at psu dot edu

 

[Michael Press]

In article
<[email protected]>
,
"ship" <[email protected]> wrote:

> Tony Raven wrote:
> > > When a driver's headlights shine upon you, there is enough illumination
> > > to see color. But as you note, red is still harder to see than yellow.
> > > I'd have to dig out my old perception textbooks to see about relative
> > > response time to different wavelengths, but I wouldn't be surprised if
> > > some wavelengths are seen "faster" than others.
> >
> > Faster is not the issue - visibility is. The curves you need are the
> > photopic and scotopic visual sensitivities and they can be found at
> > http://hyperphysics.phy-astr.gsu.edu/hbase/vision/bright.html
>
> Does your link does describe MOVING colours or STATIC ones?
>
> I read an article several years ago stating that bright red was a
> TERRIBLE colour for fire engines because the red cones in the
> eye take longest to respond - albeit that red is the colour that most
> jolts/shocks/alerts/stimulates us. The article went on to state
> that a bright red fast moving obect across our vision was as
> good as invisible.
>
> [As a trained zoologist I have to wonder bright BRIGHT
> red being the colour of (oxygenated) blood is just an evolultionary
> coincidence... !]

Some fire companies around here adopted the highly
visible fluorescene paint scheme. Others maintain the
traditional fire engine red, depending on xenon flash
lamps, warbling siren, air horn, and a skilled driver
to avoid collisions with comatose motorists. Works most
of the time.

--
Michael Press

 

[Michael Press]

In article
<[email protected]>,
[email protected] wrote:

> On 20 Oct 2006 04:12:24 GMT, [email protected] wrote:
>
> [Ryan Cousineau wrote]
>
> >> If we switch to the splash page for the generic "Fall cycling" line,
> >> we see this:
> >
> > http://louisgarneau.com/eng/catalog.asp?catalogue=HH6
> >
> >> OK, he's looking back, and he's riding a fancy bike, but I hardly
> >> think you can accuse the rider of racer-posing, since he is in the
> >> decidedly unnatural-for-racing position of having one foot on the
> >> ground and looking back. Also, no team colors on his jersey.
> >
> >I see no bicycles on that web page.
> >
> >Jobst Brandt
>
> Dear Jobst,
>
> Ya gotta follow Ryan's directions for this link:
>
> http://louisgarneau.com/eng/catalog.asp?catalogue=HH6
>
> "Switch to the splash page for the generic "Fall cycling" line."
>
> That means click on "fall cycling" on the left-hand menu.

Is there a link directly to the jacket Ryan proposes?
When I load a page like LG's, I back out immediately.
The products may be adequate or good, but I avoid
paying for image. Patagonia wear is good stuff with far
less appeal to elitism.

--
Michael Press

 

[John Forrest Tomlinson]

On Fri, 20 Oct 2006 23:37:14 GMT, Michael Press <[email protected]> wrote:

>Is there a link directly to the jacket Ryan proposes?
>When I load a page like LG's, I back out immediately.
>The products may be adequate or good, but I avoid
>paying for image. Patagonia wear is good stuff with far
>less appeal to elitism.

You've got to be kidding me. Garneau stuff comes out of bike racing
-- local, regional and top-level racing. People at all levels of that
sport wear the stuff. If you think racing is elitist, then I guess
it's elitest, but you'll see local clubs and juniors in the stuff.
And the same in ski racing.

I'm not familiar with the origins of Patogonia product but I see a lot
more of it walking down the street in my big city.

--
JT
****************************
Remove "remove" to reply
Visit http://www.jt10000.com
****************************

 

[Ryan Cousineau]

In article <[email protected]>,
John Forrest Tomlinson <[email protected]> wrote:

> On Fri, 20 Oct 2006 23:37:14 GMT, Michael Press <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> >Is there a link directly to the jacket Ryan proposes?
> >When I load a page like LG's, I back out immediately.
> >The products may be adequate or good, but I avoid
> >paying for image. Patagonia wear is good stuff with far
> >less appeal to elitism.

I finally found the direct link thing:

http://louisgarneau.com/eng/ctm_catalog.asp?catalogue=C7&section=JV&subse
ction=013&style_no=7E30054

That takes you right to the WindTex jacket. It turns out there's a
little bit of text in the corner of each product page that says "Link to
this page."

Required by my bike club code of conduct to represent sponsors in a
positive light to the public, I shall only say that the jacket user
experience is vastly better than that for the website.

> You've got to be kidding me. Garneau stuff comes out of bike racing
> -- local, regional and top-level racing. People at all levels of that
> sport wear the stuff. If you think racing is elitist, then I guess
> it's elitest, but you'll see local clubs and juniors in the stuff.
> And the same in ski racing.

Garneau also is the title sponsor behind the longest bike race in
Canada, which is also (as a parallel event) one of the biggest group
rides in Canada.

> I'm not familiar with the origins of Patogonia product but I see a lot
> more of it walking down the street in my big city.

Cycling gear is (mercifully) not in vogue as street wear right now (a
few of us remember the brief, ugly rise of bicycle shorts as leisure
wear). However, in Vancouver at least, fleece, MEC-wear, and Taiga
products are in widespread use.

We're not an especially chic city,

--
Ryan Cousineau [email protected] http://www.wiredcola.com/
"I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos

 

[Ryan Cousineau]

In article <[email protected]>,
[email protected] wrote:

> Ryan Cousineau writes:
>
> > Jobst, I don't know how they did it in your day, but they all look
> > like they're pulling about the same ridiculous race faces that, I
> > assure you, come quite naturally to me after about five minutes in
> > the red zone.
>
> > Most of them are wearing sunglasses, which may be what makes them look
> > more posed than you'd expect, but could you please name which of these
> > riders seems, well, unnaturally race-facey to you?
>
> > Here's some pictures from a recent B-group cyclocross race:
>
> > http://descantes.com/slideshow/20060923EVCROSS/MEN B/
>
> So what happened to rwreck.bike.racing where all of this suffering and
> red-line activity occurs? Getting lathered with how arduous the
> racer's life is and how many fewer grams will win races isn't a tech
> subject but gets spliced in wherever it can fit... like why we should
> be riding recumbents and the like.

Oh, it's still there. Actually, the recumbent stuff is mostly gone,
replaced by drug stuff. Also, I recommend you plug "Millar Line" into
Google Groups. Hilarity!

If your real question is why I'm pressing this point in rbt (and ukrc,
and rbm), it's because after I linked to the Garneau site as a reference
to my endorsement of a cycling jacket (see ostensible thread subject),
you picked on the website photos. As to why I'm still here, I admit that
if I had a more rational approach to either this discussion or my
personal priorities, I wouldn't be here.

Alas for both of us, I am what I am.

> I have many old pictures of racers of the past, who are not grimacing,
> wearing Ray Charles glasses nor wearing clothing with all the seams on
> the outside. I watched the GdI in 1961 with Rik van Looy, Charley
> Gaul, Imerio Massignan, et al, and Arnaldo Pambianco the overall
> winner as they climbed the Stelvio before the days of mugging for the
> press and doters who want to see their heroes wince. I don't believe
> it's natural to make movie star faces jut-jawed gasping for air when
> riding.

Seriously Jobst. You clipped the part where I linked to a gallery of
Novice women cyclocrossers, pointing out that they also had visages
similar to those of our Garneau supermodels. Are you seriously
suggesting that these women, ranging from teens to mothers-of-teens and
far outside the core of bike racerhood in several dimensions, have been
afflicted by some odd fashion victimhood that makes their face go funny?
Was oxygen debt impossible in the beknighted, amphetamine-fuelled
pre-EPO days of Rik and Charly?

Besides, it occurs to me that the most famous recent bike racer on the
planet, a certain Lance Armstrong, famously races with a _deliberately_
relaxed face! Indeed, Armstrong has notoriously only shown strain on his
face a few times in his career: when he was in very bad physical
distress (bonking, losing time, dehydrating, or some combination
thereof), or on one occasion when he was _bluffing_.

The rest of the time he tries to look as sanguine on his bike as
possible, and sets the example for all of us. Seriously, I've tried: I
always end up with a Dead Elvis Grin (google phrase for context as
necessary).

I assume that by 1977, Eddy Merckx had started the dread trend towards
grimacing during rides, as seen here:

http://focus.msn.de/sport/radsport/es-war-einmal-_aid_14975.html?interfac
e=galerie

Again, Eddy Merckx, and anyone can see that his face is gratuitously
contorted:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/low/other_sports/cycling/4630735.stm

And, wait a minute! Charly Gaul! You have betrayed your hero Jobst!

http://www.dailypeloton.com/displayarticle.asp?pk=8707

Why Charly, why? Only a lack of sunglasses save you from complete
poseur-dom.

> The secret life of Walter Mitty lives! James Thurber recognized the
> syndrome long ago:
>
> http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/6821/thurber.html

Except that Walter Mitty fantasized he was living those existences. The
people in the Garneau photos and the other photos I posted really are
bike racers, and really are racing bikes. I'm pretty sure they're not
thinking of shopping trips with their wives as they ride through the
photographer's frame.

That said, oxygen debt is a funny thing,

--
Ryan Cousineau [email protected] http://www.wiredcola.com/
"I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos

 

[Ryan Cousineau]

In article <[email protected]>,
[email protected] wrote:

> On Fri, 20 Oct 2006 07:03:14 GMT, Ryan Cousineau <[email protected]>
> wrote:
>
> >In article <[email protected]>,
> > [email protected] wrote:
> >
> >> On 19 Oct 2006 17:41:54 -0700, [email protected] wrote:
> >>
> >> [snip]
> >>
> >> >If we switch to the splash page for the generic "Fall cycling" line, we
> >> >see this:
> >> >
> >> >http://louisgarneau.com/eng/catalog.asp?catalogue=HH6
> >> >
> >> >Okay, he's looking back, and he's riding a fancy bike, but I hardly
> >> >think you can accuse the rider of racer-posing, since he is in the
> >> >decidedly unnatural-for-racing postion of having one foot on the ground
> >> >and looking back. Also, no team colors on his jersey.
> >>
> >> [snip]
> >>
> >> Dear Ryan,
> >>
> >> Also, he's stopped in the traffic lane of what looks like a highway,
> >> his rear wheel within inches of a yellow no-passing stripe.
> >>
> >> Caption: Gee, I hope that pickup doing 80 mph swerves around me!
> >
> >Heh. My proposal: Does this contrast stitching make my butt look fat?
> >
> >Actually, I quite like the contrast stitching. But I also own a blue
> >bicycle with red bar tape on one side, and black bar tape on the other.
> >
> >> It's not quite as bad as posing in the middle of a 4-way intersection
> >> beneath a traffic light, but it does support the theory that models
> >> and fashion photographers are airheads.
> >>
> >> Love the crisp-edged shadows from the artificial lighting on a cloudy
> >> day.
> >
> >That shadow came from all-natural lightning, I'm sure.
>
> [snip]
>
> Dear Ryan,
>
> On the off-chance that you're serious, look more closely at the sharp
> shadows cast by the bike below the rider's waist on a cloudy day.
>
> Now look for any trace of a shadow cast by the rider.
>
> Either he's a vampire and casts no shadow, or else an artificial light
> is shining at about chest height, so it casts shadows at a downward
> angle from the bike below the rider's waist, but is unable to cast his
> shadow on the distant trees in the background:

[gratuitous diagram clipped]

Carl, I hardly ever pick on you, because I understand that your schtick
is "caritas" and to focus on civility rather than uncharitable
misinterpretation (the official usenet mode of discourse).

But the word I used to describe the light source had 9 letters.

Let's roll back the rbt telestrator:

"That shadow came from all-natural light_N_ing, I'm sure."

Wry humor or an appeal to serendipitous weather effects as a normal part
of commercial photography? Without smilies, we may never know.

I believe we can achieve amicable concord by agreeing that light source
was a flash ,

--
Ryan Cousineau [email protected] http://www.wiredcola.com/
"I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos

 

[Ryan Cousineau]

In article <[email protected]>,
"G.T." <[email protected]> wrote:

> [email protected] wrote:
> >
> > The hood is needed to cover the neck and cheeks or you can get off the
> > bicycle and quit as many riders did when Andy Hampsten got a change of
> > clothes and a hooded parka on the Gavia summit for his GdI win. I
> > take it you have not descended in snow or you would know that the hood
> > is essential to stay on the bicycle.
> >
> > I watched the GdI come over the Stelvio in the 1970's and on that day
> > there was no broom wagon nor any check on how riders other than the
> > leaders finished, in a car or otherwise. Charley Gaul had a hooded
> > jacket but others didn't and finished in Bormio not on the bicycle.
> >
> > My friend and I descended to the east with appropriate parkas and
> > gloves. On my first such endeavor on Mt. Evans CO, I could not
> > descend from for lack of a hood, there being a biting wind with light
> > snow on my neck. We were able to get a ride in a car. That's were I
> > learned my lesson.
> >
>
> Hmmm, you must be a weather wimp. I've done long descents in the snow
> many times never having owned a jacket with a hood.
>
> Greg

You probably wore a hilarious balaclava.

Or possibly a baklava,

--
Ryan Cousineau [email protected] http://www.wiredcola.com/
"I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos

 

[G.T.]

"Ryan Cousineau" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> >
> Here's some pictures from a recent B-group cyclocross race:
>
> http://descantes.com/slideshow/20060923EVCROSS/MEN B/
>
> I apologize for the rotten interface.

No kidding. It killed my system. Great photos, shitty viewer.

> I would give you the hint that
> clicking on the "next" button repeatedly pretty much as fast as you can
> will fast-forward the slideshow about as fast as you can click.
>
> I encourage you to pause a moment on slides 46 and 47 in that show:
> you'll see a bunch of pretty classic race-face poses: open mouths
> (because you get more air that way), eyes focused on an object of
> interest which is not the camera (because it's a race, and you're
> interested in not crashing), and bodies in fluid but frenzied motion
> (because it's a race).
>

Yep, no Hollywooding there, looks like typical racers.

Greg

 

[G.T.]

"Ryan Cousineau" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> In article <[email protected]>,
> "G.T." <[email protected]> wrote:
>
> > [email protected] wrote:
> > >
> > > The hood is needed to cover the neck and cheeks or you can get off the
> > > bicycle and quit as many riders did when Andy Hampsten got a change of
> > > clothes and a hooded parka on the Gavia summit for his GdI win. I
> > > take it you have not descended in snow or you would know that the hood
> > > is essential to stay on the bicycle.
> > >
> > > I watched the GdI come over the Stelvio in the 1970's and on that day
> > > there was no broom wagon nor any check on how riders other than the
> > > leaders finished, in a car or otherwise. Charley Gaul had a hooded
> > > jacket but others didn't and finished in Bormio not on the bicycle.
> > >
> > > My friend and I descended to the east with appropriate parkas and
> > > gloves. On my first such endeavor on Mt. Evans CO, I could not
> > > descend from for lack of a hood, there being a biting wind with light
> > > snow on my neck. We were able to get a ride in a car. That's were I
> > > learned my lesson.
> > >
> >
> > Hmmm, you must be a weather wimp. I've done long descents in the snow
> > many times never having owned a jacket with a hood.
> >
> > Greg
>
> You probably wore a hilarious balaclava.
>
> Or possibly a baklava,
>

Yep, I've been known to wear baklava on my face.

Greg

 

[Rob Perkins]

i commuted for years in Germany in similar weather. if you ride hard
you will sweat. i now commute in North Carolina.

Use layers.

35-40 F & damp
Outer: Gore Windstopper- i prefer the tight fitting model from Gore
Base: Polypro net under heavy polypro

40-50 F & damp
Outer: Gore Windstopper
Base: Polypro net- see the one from Loeffler

50-65 F
Outer: Vest with mesh back
Base: LS jersey w/Polypro net underneath.

And don't just use the jacket- the thing is to stay warm everywhere so
your blood doesn't get cool in your extremities as much.

- Get a helmet cover. Carradice has a nice dayglo one. Lessens wind on
the head.
- Get a helmet visor for rain
- Get a lightweight polypro balaclava- most awesome to have warm ears.
- Get flip top mitten gloves. Fingerless gloves with a mitten section
that can flip down over the fingers
- Get windproof front-breathable back cyclng pants such as the MEC ones
(www.mec.ca)for sub-55F
- Arm and leg warmers are small and really add comfort.
- Nylon shoe overcovers- not neoprene.

Get a fan for the office to dry off any sweat. Get baby wipes for
armpits. Your body has been covered so there shouldn't be road grime.

Rob



ship wrote:
> Hi
>
> What is the best cycling jacket for commuting (at reasonable speed in
> UK)
>
> I am looking for something that is:
>
> b) HIGHLY BREATHABLE
> a) Bright in colour /reflective at night
> c) ultra-Compact
> d) nearly(+) waterproof
> e) COOL
>
> Plus ideally:
> f) aerodyamic/elastic??
> g) fairly durable?
>
> Budget: upto GBP 300.
>
> So far I can't find ANYTHING on the market that is remotely
> satisfactory.
>

 

[Rob Perkins]

[email protected] wrote:
>e were able to get a ride in a car. That's were I
> learned my lesson.
>
>> Perhaps a balaclava?
>
> Oh you comedian!

Balaclavas are the best. A hood? Really? How about a waterproof
helmet cover over a lightweight polypro balaclava? i descended from
Fluela in the rain and have ridden a lot in cold weather with this. No
cold air down the front. When not used i stowed the items in my
saddlebag where extra stuff belongs. And i am not dependent on having
a nonbreathable rain jacet on.

Betcha never tried it. Or maybe you are too cool?

Rob

 

[Tom Keats]

In article <[email protected]>,
[email protected] writes:

> I have many old pictures of racers of the past, who are not grimacing,
> wearing Ray Charles glasses nor wearing clothing with all the seams on
> the outside. I watched the GdI in 1961 with Rik van Looy, Charley
> Gaul, Imerio Massignan, et al, and Arnaldo Pambianco the overall
> winner as they climbed the Stelvio before the days of mugging for the
> press and doters who want to see their heroes wince. I don't believe
> it's natural to make movie star faces jut-jawed gasping for air when
> riding.

Speaking of early '60s racing, weird Fate has been thrusting
references to the book: "Put Me Back On My Bike (In Search of
Tom Simpson), by William Fotheringham" at me. I guess Fate
wants me to read it. I don't know why; I'm not even all that
interested in competitive cycling (or amphetamines for that matter.)
I imagine his face bore all kinds of visages on the day
of his death.

Maybe Fate just wants me to mention it so Ryan might
read it and glean something from it.

Anyway, I remember when tennis players didn't all have to
make loud grunting noises until a certain one started
doing it. Now, a tennis match sounds like a passing herd
of wildebeest.


cheers,
Tom

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