Ideal Clothing?

Cluelessbiker

Now this may be subject to all manner of interpretations, but overall I have been in quite a few cycle shops now and find clothing for cyclists is not so good, first of all, gloves. I am unable to find any gloves that may protect your digits in the case of a tumble, would lightweight motorcycle gloves be a good alternative? Secondly, when it comes to weatherproof clothing I am becoming convinced that the garish bright yellow (or orange) safety jackets that council workers, police, security staff wear is the best for both safety and waterproof needs. (plus a hell of a lot cheaper) I seek your thoughts please as I am slowly getting out a little more on my bike. Please understand that my riding is more casual and not cross country, touring, racing or serious off road, although all of those aspects do interest me.

Lastly, Helmets, these are a particular bugbear for me as I can see the merits of wearing one, but the cycle helmets on offer just do not look convincing to me to be actually safe, I remember once seeing and old black guy in London with an old motorcycle full-face on, ok yes he did look odd but then London is a miraculous place where no one really gives damn about how you look but I do recall thinking he had the right idea up here in Doncaster I would get laughed out of town. Thoughts please....

Compost

If there was a market for more protection for cyclists, it would be filled with all the established clothing brands. If you want to wear armour, wear it, but you won't get it from a bike shop!

My suggestion would be not to worry about all that stuff but to get some proper cycle training instead - this will give you the skills and confidence to make yourself safer. Google bikeability.

As for the Council coats - unless you're going at about walking pace, you'll be like a boil-in-the-bag dinner. Aldi's regular cycling specials are the place to start.

bails87

A heavy builder style hi viz jacket would, for me, be horrible to wear on the bike. It would be too hot and stuffy.

Do you wear a backpack? Bear in mind that this will cover up a jacket when someone's driving up behind you, so maybe use a 'Hump' or similar backpack cover.

Plenty of gloves to protect your fingers : http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/Cate ... oryID=1543
As a specific example, these have extra protection. I can't see that you'd need them on the road though, most of the damage you're likely to do is grazing from your bare hands skidding on tarmac, any 'full' glove will protect against that.

And now helmets....
I can't help thinking that you're expecting to be hit/fall off a little too much.

Read Cyclecraft, which will hopefully help to keep you on your bike.

But yeah, bike helmets offer less protection than motorbike or full face helmets.

Compost, you can buy plenty of armour from bike shops. It's all for MTBing, but still...

stanarchist

a cycle helmet may look 'unsafe' to you, but I can assure you, from first hand experience, they are very capable of doing their job - and yes you would look a right d##k in a full face motorcycle helmet . But then again , coming from Donny.......;-)

roger_merriman

Cluelessbiker wrote:

Now this may be subject to all manner of interpretations, but overall I have been in quite a few cycle shops now and find clothing for cyclists is not so good, first of all, gloves. I am unable to find any gloves that may protect your digits in the case of a tumble, would lightweight motorcycle gloves be a good alternative? Secondly, when it comes to weatherproof clothing I am becoming convinced that the garish bright yellow (or orange) safety jackets that council workers, police, security staff wear is the best for both safety and waterproof needs. (plus a hell of a lot cheaper) I seek your thoughts please as I am slowly getting out a little more on my bike. Please understand that my riding is more casual and not cross country, touring, racing or serious off road, although all of those aspects do interest me.

Lastly, Helmets, these are a particular bugbear for me as I can see the merits of wearing one, but the cycle helmets on offer just do not look convincing to me to be actually safe, I remember once seeing and old black guy in London with an old motorcycle full-face on, ok yes he did look odd but then London is a miraculous place where no one really gives damn about how you look but I do recall thinking he had the right idea up here in Doncaster I would get laughed out of town. Thoughts please....

If you really must use the armour, then best bet is to check out MTB stuff, some of the full faces are apparently not that hot and sticky. plus body armour - gloves etc.

The Rookie

Seeing as how I commute in just a T-shirt and 3/4 length shorts right down to about 3C (mitts in summer, long fingered gloves once it's below about 6C) and only then put any more on, you can see how much heat you generate on a spirited cycle, most of what you wear would be OK if you intend pootling along at 5mph, otherwise you'll just cook.

Simon

Cluelessbiker

Thank you for the advice here everyone checking out all the links now.

61Sigs

I have a Altura Night Vision jacket, that and a base layer (plus a Buff on cool days) pretty much covers me down to about zero. As alluded to above, a cheap jacket will almost certainly ensure that you arrive soaking wet even when its not raining.

Also mentioned above, MTBing is where your digits are most vulnerable. Road cycling is more about grazes.

I would guess that a full face cycle helmet will offer better protection than a normal helmet, but having never worn one on the road I'd be interested to know how much you can see whist wearing one.

bradbox

I get all my clothing from Sports Direct. It's about quarter of the price of cycling shops and decent enough quality.

For this time of the year I wear a base layer top as well - also from Sports Direct. It makes a huge difference.

denzzz28

its all about layers! i have to say Ive been cycling all weather for 3 years now and I am still not use to the cold UK weather. from experience, i can say that layers work for me.

what i can suggest is for the upper body, you need a good thermal base layer, arm warmer, a thin thermal jacket or a thermal jersey(long sleeve) and a thin windproof jacket (it doesnt need to be thermal). for the lower extremities you need a thermal leg warmers or thermal base layer trousers and a cycling pants (doesn't need to be thermal).

if you notice i never mentioned thick garments. why? because you only need sufficient thermal clothing if you are cycling because as you pedal you will produce enough heat to keep you warm, and if you still feel cold you just pedal a bit faster. the wind proof jacket will do the trick of keep the windchill out. if you cant afford one, use a thin rain coat, it functions similarly. the objective is to be warm but still being light.

i have to agree with "bradbox", there are plenty of affordable cycling clothes in sports direct. i got my thermal base layer and wind proof jacket from sports direct. look for the "NEVICA" brand (on sale £9)for the thermal base layer, and buy a one size smaller so it fits like a compression shirt (its stretchable). they are very nice and warm, it comes in black, blue and green. i also bought some muddy fox cycling trousers from them. they are thicker than normal lycra cycling trousers.


for hands:
you can wear two thin (but not too thin) thermal cycling gloves. or you can buy a wind/water proof gloves but buy a size that is one size smaller. proper winter gloves tends to be thick so wearing one size smaller will have a snug fit and at the same time you can still feel the handle bars. you dont need those ones specific to cycling, they are expensive. any wind/water proof winter gloves will do. i got mine from TK MAX.

for the feet:
you can either buy an expensive thermal overshoe around £30-£60 or you can just improvise. what i did is buy a cheap thermal socks put it over my cycling shoe and make a small hole for my cleats and wallah! instant thermal shoe cover. but i highly recommend buying a black colored sock as other colors may look gay, LOL!!

and lastly, helmets:
some people will argue that you dont really need them, which I agree! but again youll never know when you need them! which I agree more! so id rather have one just in case.

now with this you have to go out and try it on personally. if you are not after looks then thats great because the prettier they are the more expensive they get. my only suggestion is buy the one that feels right. you might want to buy something a tad bigger (just a tad..!)if you are planning to use a cap underneath. and use the thinnest thermal cap that you can find.

shops you can find cheap cycling gears or similar

• sports direct
• Lidl
• TKMAX
• Decathlon (if theres one near you)
• EBAY ofcourse!!!!

i hope this helps! whew!!

denzzz28

oh i forgot to mention i dont buy hi viz clothing because they are expensive but rather i have plenty of lights. on my bike i got this two powerfull lights on my hadle bars:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/5w-LED-Mounta ... 4cf5127ab6

they came with rear light light to so i have then on my seat post and one on the rear stay (near the rear wheel hub).

I also have two lights on my helmet (rear and front), this is what i have:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2X-2-LED-Flas ... 870e04a424

its up to you how you put them on your chosen helmet. so you have to improvise or you can buy this hi viz helmet with built in lights:

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Proviz-Saturn ... 45fe081b5c

The Rookie

denzzz28 wrote:

what i can suggest is for the upper body, you need a good thermal base layer, arm warmer, a thin thermal jacket or a thermal jersey(long sleeve) and a thin windproof jacket (it doesnt need to be thermal). for the lower extremities you need a thermal leg warmers or thermal base layer trousers and a cycling pants (doesn't need to be thermal).

Heck where are you commuting - Lapland?

It's all about what YOU need, summer for me is a T-shirt, mitts and short baggies on the very coldest days last year (-12C where I was) I wore...
Long Fingered gloves (Aldi)
Base Layer T-shirt (Sports direct)
Soft Shell jacket (Aldi)
Buff for my cheeks/ears (magazine freebie)
3/4 length baggies (Fila from a charity sop)
'Long johns' (but only when sub -6C - original Karrimor designed for hiking)

I make my own heat - I appreciate some people run hot and some run cold, only the OP knows where he falls in the scale of things.

Simon

Lancslad

Go to decathlon Its great. No I don't work for them I got my gloves from there and some silk inners & some running stuff its all good.