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

[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.