Weather Shielding

It was finally a good enough day to ride to work today, so I rode. Threw on my gear and rode in. I had to dismount at one point on the trail due to ice (in the morning I could have rode over it, very carefully but I prefer not to; in the evening I could barely walk over it). Other than that, the less than 30 degree morning felt warm, and the 35 degree afternoon felt really warm!

One of my Christmas gifts this year was a weather shell: http://www.pearlizumi.com/product.php?mode=view&pc_id=45&product_id=1150521

Let me just say, these are worth every dime. Most stuff in cycling is way more expensive than it is helpful, but this keeps you warm. I wore a cotton/poly sweater (I'm cheap), a tshirt, and the shell and was cooking (my whole torso and arms) on the ride to work at about 25 degrees and I wore just the sweater and the shell back at about 35 degrees and was cooking again!
You just don't feel the wind on your torso or neck at all. It's really quite cool.
My hands froze of course. Those thin $10 special gloves just don't cut it, I really need some cycling gloves.

I also wore my shoes of course. Now, these are definitely summer shoes. The toes breathe very well. So I put some sandwich baggies over the toes of my socks and that made it about as good as my old sneakers (which have no special breathing feature). Still cold toes when I got home.

Once again though, get a shell if you don't have one; it's worth every penny.