Cold Hands.

We’re talking Gloves. There’s no denying that it’s getting cold in the Southern Hemisphere and as we quickly head towards freezing temperatures, there’s an issue that I find so many cyclists battle with. Cold hands.

I want to hear your solutions for keeping your hands warm, or at lest not freezing, during the winter. 

Over the last few weeks I’ve been astonished by the number of rides I have been on, where other riders don’t just have cold hands but completely freezing, painful and numb hands, almost to the point of danger from a braking and control perspective.

With advances in kit, we are seeing people focus their attention on the core with good jackets, layering and quality winter shorts/tights. Finding good gloves sometimes is forgotten and continues to challenge many people. 

Get the wrong gloves for the conditions and you’re very quickly in trouble no matter how warm your body is. What could have been an awesome ride, becomes pretty unpleasant or even dangerous.

Not all full finger gloves are created equal and if possible, I’d recommend investing in a few pairs of  quality gloves to help you enjoy your riding. You’ll be glad you did.

I’ve found that the most versatile option is to go with a windproof glove that has water resistant properties. These gloves tend to allow your hands to breathe so you don’t get a build up of moisture inside the gloves, leading to potentially frozen digits.

The other thing to do is take the layering concept to your hands. Adding a thinner base layer glove to a wind proof outer glove can be far more effective than wearing one thick pair of gloves. If things do warm up it’s also simple to remove the base layer.

I tend to avoid gloves with ‘floating’ inners. This is where one pair of gloves is effectively made up of two pairs of cloves with an insulating material between them. With some exceptions, I’ve found they can be hard to get on and off, with the inner turing inside out easily and don’t have the option to remove a layer.

If you are going to be riding in the wet ,track down a waterproof outer glove, we’ve found these much better then trying to find an all in one waterproof glove.

Finally make sure the glove fits… if gloves are even slightly too small, it will likely result good gloves being far less effective. 

I’d love to hear your solutions for preventing frozen hands and what gloves work best for you.

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