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First day on skinny tires.......I didnt die!

936 views 8 replies 7 participants last post by  noonievut 
#1 ·
Couldnt stand another day in the house. Ive had my new cross bike sitting in the house for a couple weeks. The weather up my way just been horrid. Many days I couldnt work due to the police closing all roads.

Enough was enough. Some what sunny and -15, I taped over the mesh on my shoes and headed out.....on slicks.

No drama to speak of as most of the roads were clear but for small sections of drifted snow. The 100m climb on a snow packed road was a lesson in spinning/traction control. Pretty steep climb that I had to walk about 15feet.

Felt sooo good to get out but, even with my Tmax thermal socks I only made it to an hour and 20min before my pinky toes gave up. Cant wait tonget some big rides in. This cheap little bike felt nice on the toad.
 
#2 ·
#5 ·
Thin wool socks may work better than a thick pair in non-upsized shoes, to avoid squeezing your feet.... which is the worst case scenario for winter footwear... although I consider the woolie-boolies to be thin, FWIW.

I could never get toe warmers to work in winter bike shoes, as they quickly use up all the oxygen in my shoe and the reaction stops. At the end of a 4-hour ride last month my 8-hour warmers were cold to the touch. I guess a shoe with better airflow could sustain the heat-releasing reaction, but would also kind of defeat the purpose.

I'm going to try putting the warmers on the outside of the shoe, held in place by the overboot next time, which will hopefully serve the dual role of allowing the thing more air and NOT taking up toe-room in my shoes, at the expense of course of having it not directly against my foot. I suppose with this set-up I could also use hand warmer packs, which are way too thick to stick in a shoe but have more reactant in them, and thus seem to get way hotter.

Failing all that, nothing warms the feet up like getting off and pushing through a drifted-over section of trail.
 
#6 ·
I could never get toe warmers to work in winter bike shoes, as they quickly use up all the oxygen in my shoe and the reaction stops. At the end of a 4-hour ride last month my 8-hour warmers were cold to the touch. I guess a shoe with better airflow could sustain the heat-releasing reaction, but would also kind of defeat the purpose.
Until this minute I thought every toe warmer I've ever tried was defective. Mine are always cold at the end of a few short few hr ride and I have quit using them as I thought they just didn't work.
 
#7 ·
I bought some new xc shoes from CRC. Their prices are so insane I couldnt pass up almost 200 off a pair of shoes. My old shoes are a size and a bit to big for me. I'm going to rig them up for some cold weather riding and see how it works out. Can't justify spending money on cold weather shoes this year. If these winters keep up I might grab some next year.
 
#9 ·
I know it's hard to invest in good winter gear, but if you buy the right kit, and can tolerate cold temperatures (seems like you did ok!) it is worth the money. I mix between outside on the cross bike (wet, salt, snow...whatever) and trainer indoors on my road bike. I just bought a mountain bike and had the chance to take her for a spin at an indoor bike park (lots of fun). Long term forecast here looks good so I'm hoping to trim the trainer time down to no more than one day a week!
 
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