Overheating in winter

neilo23

There are a few long climbs near where I live (over 8 miles) and when I go out in my winter gear I tend to get uncomfortably hot going up them. I open up my jacket or stuff it in a pocket, roll down my arm warmers and (despite looking ridiculous) have been known to roll down my leg warmers.
I'd like to be able to take the warm gear right off and stash it at the bottom of the climb, but that's not an option because I need it for the descent. Anyone have a blindingling obvious solution to this problem? I'd give the stuff to my directeur sportif in his car.... if I had one

cougie

You wear leg warmers in winter ? Full tights for me. All I would do is unzip my top and maybe take off my gloves, and just man up and get on with the climb.

Pretre

cougie wrote:

You wear leg warmers in winter ? Full tights for me. All I would do is unzip my top and maybe take off my gloves, and just man up and get on with the climb.

+1 although it does depend on the climb. Did the Galibier in September last year & it was between 0 & 4C at the top (depending on whose car thermometer you believed) & I did the entire climb in summer shirt, shorts, gloves & armwarmers & felt pretty hot by the top. I kept all the cold weather gear for the descent in my back pockets & a small Topeak saddle pack (rain jacket, leg warmers, buff for under the helmet, long-fingered gloves) - looked like Quasimodo going up but so worth it for the descent!

Brian B

I used to have this problem but years ago when I used to layer up until I purchased a really good soft shell jacket and base layer. Now if I feel hot I only have unzip on the way up on climbs and I can regulate my temp and stay insulated when I need it.