I once meant to create a dickey out of something like Tyvek, but ended up with a couple cut from old merino turtlenecks; very useful for those in between days, where a merino base layer plus an outer wool layer is not quite enough. I find I need neck protection in cold weather, otherwise I quickly get a sore throat and thence a cold, and those dickeys, or a cut-down Royal Stuart scarf, are very nice. One benefit from these is that they are very easily removed when the temps climb, as they do rapidly and widely here in the high desert -- it's not unusual to start the morning in the 20s and top out in the 60s.
But for wind blocking, I found a very lightweight L Garneau vest, about 30% mesh, at half price at a LBS a couple of years ago, and this, with its high collar, is also a very nice supplement to a wool base layer on warmer but not quite warm enough days; it also has the statutory rear pockets, the absence of which makes life so miserable. Today, leaving the house, 45*F, and partly cloudy (believe me, at 5K feet, the radiation of even the winter sun makes a huge difference), a merino ls jersey under a light ls Road Holland merino + plastic jersey with full zip that I use as a very light jacket, and with high zip neck, was just right. Getting home, 50*f and the combo was just getting a wee bit warm after I was fully warmed up. Back when I did serious commuting mileage, often leaving the house at 20*F or so, I found that 3 layers of wool, or perhaps 2 with a gilet, kept me warm but also kept me free of sweat. OTOH, before I wised up, I'd ride ~13 miles into work in just 2 layers, a thickish Kucharik ls jersey under a Cannondale nylon riding jacket, and arrive soaked in sweat. Aggressive (if not necessarily fast) riding. But layers of wool, including the base layer -- not at all. One project now on my long list of projects to procrastinate about, is to get an inexpensive mesh undershirt and see what it does. On Thu, Dec 15, 2016 at 12:20 PM, Tim Gavin <tim.ga...@littlevillagemag.com> wrote: > > > In that spirit, my friend uses a square of mylar metallic fabric (as seen > in shiny novelty balloons and survival blankets) in between his layers to > shield his chest. > > > I wear a wind-blocking vest over lots of wool layers when riding in the > cold. And I carry a survival blanket and hand warmers in my bag in case I > have a flat or mechanical problem while out in the cold. > > My current favorite base layer is some aramid long johns I got when I flew > in the Air Force in South Dakota. They offer are warm and wick sweat > well. If I wear merino next to my skin, it holds too much sweat and chills > my core. This is for sometimes-aggressive riding on a fat bike in temps > down to about 10 F. > > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "RBW Owners Bunch" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to rbw-owners-bunch+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to rbw-owners-bunch@googlegroups.com. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/rbw-owners-bunch. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
