toesies

[johnridley]

While waiting for my toes to warm up after my ride this morning, I came to what probably should have been an obvious conclusion. For the last several weeks, my toes have really been creaky; the big toes especially. They crack and creak quite a bit. I broke one of them playing racquetball 20 years ago, so I've gotten used to ignoring them.

However, it occurs to me now that the increased creakiness is well correlated with them getting quite cold on my daily rides. No frostbite, but definitely uncomfortably cold, to the point where they take a half hour of sitting barefoot, alternately warming the toes with the other foot.

I think maybe I'll keep my eyes open for post-season sales on some nice winter cycling boots. Lake and some others make them and they're apparently wonderful, but they're also about $200.

I've thought about getting some electric socks and hook them to my bike's electrical system, but I don't like the idea of being wired to the bike. And using toe warmers, and generating a couple of pieces of extra garbage per day kind of defeats the environmental aspect of riding. There are reusuable warmers, but I haven't found any that are small, and from past experience, toe warmers are way too much heat, I wind up sweating like crazy if not getting uncomfortably hot.

Comments

[ann-totusek.livejournal.com]

I think I have a pair of battery operated heating socks around here somewhere. They work kinda like an electric blanket with a 9V battery each. I MAY have given them away- not sure. I'll look around, and if I find them, do you want them?

[ann-totusek.livejournal.com]

If I don't find them, check out Amazon.com - $20.00 for a pair of Nordic gear Lectra socks. Just buy rechargeable batteries and keep a charger both at home and at work. They do make 9V rechargeables, don't they?

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but they kind of stink. Any time you're charging a pack instead of a cell, you're into a grey area. The charger can't monitor individual cells, so they have to trickle charge, which takes more time, and they can't condition the cells so they don't last long.

Most of the ones I've seen run on a pair of D cells, which is a lot more energy than a 9V. If I put two such in series, it's 6 volts. I run a 14.4v system, so I'd have to regulate that down. It's probably not a lot of current so I'd probably just use a cheapo linear regulator. On my HID headlight I built a pretty nice switching regulator, because that draws over an amp and I didn't want to throw away that much power. I guess what I do with the socks depends on how much current they draw. Worst case though is that I just have to charge my battery every 3 days instead of every 4. Not even that, this time of year; lately it's been daylight by the time I get out in the morning so I haven't been using the main battery at all, or just a little for the rear strobe if it's snowing.

Hm, two 9v in series, and my battery nominally puts out about 14 to 15 volts. That might be about right. Some heat but not a ton. Yeah, if you've got some unused ones sitting around let me know.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Hmm, the reviews aren't that good. Maybe I should be looking for some good boots instead...

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

I also haven't tried toe covers, and I bought some neoprene booties a couple of years back, exchanged them for bigger ones, those still aren't big enough, if I exchanged them out again maybe I'd be able to use those...

I think I've got a few good options short of going with electric or paying $200+ for boots. I'll try the other options first.

[mbcrui.livejournal.com]

You might try wool socks, too. My toes get cold walking with cotton socks on, but do MUCH better with wool. Tell Jenn to take the sock knitting panel at Duckon, if she doesn't already know how to knit them.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Oh, I'm already wearing heavy wool hunting socks over thin poly socks as a wicking layer. Plus my cycling shoes are fairly windproof, at least as compared to sneakers.

That doesn't help a whole lot when it's -5*F and I'm riding 50 minutes at 15 MPH, especially if it's into a headwind.

When I ride with my hunting boots, my toes do OK. But they have more room for socks, and they have a thinsulate lining and are completely windproof, and are high top.

I think exchanging my neoprene overboots for ones that fit properly will take care of it.

[backrubbear.livejournal.com]

The second I saw you mentioning the wool socks, circulation was the next thing I was thinking of. If you're stuffing too much into your shoes, especially given that your feet should swell from exercise a bit, you're cutting into your circulation. I have no idea if the compression from where your feet hit the pedals would contribute to circulation issues.

What about neoprene socks for diving? My Dad used to wear those for hunting.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

I absolutely am. I have two choices:
Wear thin socks and suffer frostbite
Wear thick socks and have my feet get cold.

I bought a pair of neoprene gloves. You can have them. They're the nastiest things ever. And, despite that they're supposed tob e warm, they're the coldest gloves I own. See, by the time I get to where I'm going, they're literally full of sweat. I wore them once, when I got there my fingers were freezing and I poured about 1/4 cup of sweat out of them.

I can't imagine neoprene socks would be much better.

The bike commuters up on bikeforums and the ice bikers on icebike are pretty resourceful; if neoprene socks were useful for cycling, they'd be using them. Most of them either buy winter boots, run regular boots on platform pedals, or they use sealskinz, which are breathable.

I really think my best bet is neoprene booties. They get vented because they're open on top, there's a large-scale zipper all the way up the back, and you have to cut a rather large hole in the ball of the foot to allow the cleat to come through. Plus, I already have a pair, I just need to trade them for the next size up.

[backrubbear.livejournal.com]

I'm not surprised about the gloves and the sweat - that's guaranteed to happen with neoprene. What I'm surprised about is that they weren't warm. Were these just "neoprene gloves" or were they diving gloves? I wouldn't be shocked if there was a degree of insulation the diving gloves give you that might not be in a "winter glove" set. Anyway, I have no anecdotal experience with gloves, just the diving socks. If you'd like, I can ask my Dad about it.

I'd probably go with thick socks in two layers: A polyester "business sock" layer under the wool. That combination seemed to show up a lot in some hiking resources when I was doing research a few years ago. That sort of argues that you should be able to find hiking shoes that would do the trick if you can't find a tennis shoe that works.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

I appreciate all the suggestions, but I think I'm in good shape with the neoprene booties.
These are Gil diving gloves, I guess they're wonderful for insulating from cold water; S&R guys use them a lot. But for cycling they were better than bare skin but not as good as a pair of $10 windproof fuzzy gloves from Kohls. On the flipside, the Kohls gloves wouldn't have done any good at all if I were trying to fish a drowning victim out of a frozen lake.

I've tried a few sock combinations, and thicker wool over thin poly seems the best.
I can avoid overcompression of my feet if I loosen the laces. The toes are not really cramped. In fact last week one day at work I discovered a catnip mouse in the toe of one shoe; I had felt it but it just bothered me a little, I thought the socks were just a little folded up.

If I were buying a new set of shoes for winter riding, sure, I'd buy them a few sized bigger for more socks. But I think I can just wear the booties. If I am going to buy shoes for winter cycling, I'll buy winter cycling shoes, not just regular shoes a few sizes bigger.

[johnridley.livejournal.com]

Jenn doesn't do Duckon. I'm not sure whether I will this year either.