Cold hands and feet

Also having a few more layers on your core will help keep your hands and feet warm as the blood won't be needed to keep your centre warm and can continue heating your extremities.

Circulation problem would be my best guess. I grew up in the south of the US so am used to heat most of my life. Any time the weather gets below 10 degrees I suffer, especially in my hands.

RHR 0

Does that mean I'm dead?

@b...yup

I don't think it's necessarily a problem for those with low RHM. I've had issues connected with poor circulation for many years. As a runner I was getting white finger a lot and for the first year of riding. I think it's just blood being diverted to where it is needed most which tends to be away from fingers and toes.

I seem to have got it pretty much under control now through what I wear. Which is long sleeved merino base layer, winter weight jersey over and if needed, wind and shower proof top over bib tights, with under socks, sealskinz and overshoes if needed. And spesh below zero gloves of which I generally only wear the base bit. Having been riding in pretty cold weather for the last two winters and been surprisingly snug

I wear Silk inner gloves (£7) - they help.

If it's a real emergency then I'll wear the latex gloves that I keep in the on bike tool kit - they keep my hands toasty at the expense of sweat.

I add another layer between my shoes and neoprene overshoes .. corner of a plastic bag over the toes and part of the shoe.

I do keep the rest of my body warm but still suffer cold hands/feet - better kit is ultimately the true answer but I just can't afford it at the moment.

I get the same, even this morning on the Turbo in the garage (detached) - minus 3, my hands and feet were in agony - particulalry when I stop and come back into the warm.

It's not elegant, but I've used a bit of tinfoil round my toes when riding outside in the cold and it worked well.

I think chillblains are when you heat up a cold part of your body too quickly* I sometimes get something close to them if I have a hot shower after a cold ride. It's a different kind of pain (not particularly painful for a start but weirdly itchy).

If I get seriously cold hands\feet on a ride (to the point where it hurts) then I know I will have to go through it all again when I warm them up. In the worst cases it feels like some one has hit my fingers with a hammer. Hence I will use the latex gloves before they get too cold and not give a damn about the sweat.

* http://www.nhs.uk/conditions/chilblains/Pages/Introduction.aspx

OK it's a real long shot but that NHS link talks about Chilblains can also occur on areas of the feet that are exposed to pressure, such as a bunion or a toe that is squeezed by tight shoes .. your not wearing thicker socks or different shoes from before you got them?

bunter wrote:

the internet diagnoses you with this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raynaud's_phenomenon

I have this, it affects my feet worse than hands. Do your fingers/feet go white and numb? You can take medication to alleviate it which I did for one winter when I got bad chilblains but now just manage it by wearing shoes with well insulated soles and hiking socks through winter. For cycling I get by using normal cycling shoes and disposable chemical footwarmers like ToastiToes along with toe covers (Endura ones are good) in current conditions or thick neoprene overshoes in the depths of winter.

Hands I've never fully solved but (unlike my feet) they tend to warm up again after going cold for a bit, though that can be a painful process - currently using Castelli Estremo gloves which I like. Might invest in some lobsters this year. I have cheap battery heated gloves I got from Clas Ohlson for the MTB where my hands suffer a lot more because I can't shield them behind the drops/hoods. They are very, very warm but are way too bulky for a road bike, could use them for falconry though.