cycling clothes for 1 week tour in holland

in the wire

For pure cycling gear have:

-Altura nevis windproof / water resistant jacket
-Altura stream light jersey
-Endura zyme baggy shorts
-padded lycra shorts
-full length waterproof trousers
-pair of recessed cleat casual shimano shoes (which I want to use for evenings as well)

I can wash as I go, and want most lightweight versatile stuff possible, and will only be riding daytime in early august. Just bringing a rack pack.

Will a single jacket and jersey be enough if it gets cold / wet? I keep thinking I need some sort of intermediate jersey / jacket, or is it worth buying arm warmers instead? Is there anything else worth taking clothes-wise, or maybe replacing?

Eurostar

It's a bit of a risk given the wierd weather. Someone built a snowman here in Brixton yesterday. I would take a really good merino base layer (useful for evenings too) and arm warmers and a gilet. And legwarmers. Gilets are really handy because they go in your pocket. I have an Assos one which I love.

At least you won't be going up any mountains and I suppose if the weather's bad it's never far to a cafe?

If you get lonely here there are more people (including many fed up with the bikeradar thing) over at www.anothercyclingforum.com.

in the wire

Thanks Eurostar,

Yep, I guess the arm / leg warmers are good if you're on the move all day and don't want to be changing too often. Also small / lightweight

Alan H

Don't forget you can buy extra clothes here if you need to. There's nearly always a bike shop in even the smallest village and most will have a range of cycling-specific gear.

Anonymous

I find what works best in terms of layering is:
short sleeve jersey + arm warmers
long sleeve mid-weight wicking layer
then
waterproof

I find it's v versatile - I rode 3 day solo tour into a freezing north easterly earlier in March with this and didn't get cold.

toontra

Personally I would take a full waterproof top (rather than water-resistant), especially given the recent weather. You really don't want your torso getting drenched - it's very demoralising and unhealthy.

On the other hand, I wouldn't bother with waterproof trousers at all. Lycra shorts/tights dry out in minutes while you're cycling and every waterproof trouser I've tried results in unpleasant condensation.

Layers are the way to deal with the top half. I take baselayer, midlayer, long-sleeve jersey and waterproof eVent jacket. A combination of these will deal with 4-season touring (i.e. the best and the worst weather you are likely to encounter).

AchillesT

The problem with no waterproof trousers/overshoes is that your shoes get sodden. If you only have one pair this is not the most comfortable way of touring. Even if you have a spare pair for the evening, putting wet shoes on is a bit character building in the morning!

As I discovered on Monday , overshoes and no overtrousers is worse than useless - the water flows down you legs and fills the shoes up

toontra

AchillesT wrote:

The problem with no waterproof trousers/overshoes is that your shoes get sodden. If you only have one pair this is not the most comfortable way of touring. Even if you have a spare pair for the evening, putting wet shoes on is a bit character building in the morning!

As I discovered on Monday , overshoes and no overtrousers is worse than useless - the water flows down you legs and fills the shoes up

The original post made no mention of overshoes, so I assume they won't be taken anyway. It's true the shoes take longer to dry out, but they somehow do and it's never been a big problem for me.

I used to take waterproof trousers and overshoes on tour, but realised I was using them less and less. The palava of putting them on and taking them off everytime it rained got too much and, together with the weight/space they took up, they were more trouble than they were worth.

in the wire

Great - thanks for your replies, it's good to know I don't have to take a ton of stuff.

Another thing I was thinking about was bringing shimano mtb shoes with recessed cleats as my only footwear, for evening use as well.

Has anybody tried / had problems with this before?

Also, I guess I'd need some overshoes to keep them dry if they were my only ones

in the wire

thanks for the tips about the overshoes... your answers beat me to my next question!!!

I guess that wet shoes is too much of risk, and if you're going to get wet, you're going to get wet.

Extra pair of canvas shoes methinks Also probably more convenient than going out on the town in cleated shoes

andrew_s

It is possible to keep dry feet without wearing overtrousers.
I use full goretex overshoes (Chapal Mustang, Mike Dyason), and seal the tops with the cuffs off a pair of Marigold rubber gloves to stop the water running down my leg and in the top.

Eurostar

Ahhh...the ultralight tourist's shoe challenge! My thoughts: Rocket7 bike shoes (180 grams) and Inov-8 Flite shoes (320 grams) for the evenings www.inov-8.com/Product.html#315 . Total weight is lower than a single pair of some touring shoes. Plus your cycling shoes will stink after a while. What if you get taken home by a Dutch stunner, but daren't take your shoes off in case she throws up? On my last tour my Carnacs got so bad I couldn't sleep in the same room as them.

in the wire

haha

In that case better bring a spare pair of pants and my lucky shirt