Under 55 degrees, cover your knees, or so the rhyme goes. The actual temp changes for each person but there's no fat on the knees to keep them warm.

Plus, here in Boulder you can go from warm to freezing in a ride without much trouble.

I actually heard 65° (F)

Troubling that this rhyme works for literally every single temperature, whether it be real, imaginary, rational, or irrational.

Any hard and fast rule for a given temperature is obviously inaccurate, since heat transfers differently at different temperatures due to wind/humidity/sun/etc, but the older I get I find myself wearing leg warmers later and later in the spring. Plus you don't have to shave. The downside is that leg warmers can also cause irritation.

I use knee warmers when it is below 55 - 60 on the road, slightly cooler for mountain biking. The reason is to keep muscles, knees, and patellar tendon warm. You would be surprised (or maybe you wouldn't) at the number of early season patellar tendon issues in roadies. Going at it too soon, too hard, cold knees. Knee warmers can be annoying. I have a vague memory when I raced in early 90s that some riders would glue back plasters to their knee over the patellar tendon to keep it warm. Anyone else remember this?

Yup..that's me. I've dealt with patellar tendon issues each spring, the last 3 years. I think that the main cause is increasing my mileage too quickly in December after taking time off in November. However, I'm a big believer in keeping my knees covered when it is under 65.

I personally like the castelli nanoflex knee warmers, which have grippers on the inside to grip your skin, and grippers on the outside to grip your shorts. They don't move around as much as the knee warmers that only have one set of grippers.

I also think that frequent stretching and rolling is helpful. I haven't been disciplined enough to stay in a regular routine of this, but when i feel the faintest bit of patellar tendon pain, stretching and rolling seems to knock it out quick.

Try it in Celsius :)

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--Chris

if it's below 60 I usually wear some 2xu compression tights and that's enough for me. Under 50 and it's either knee warmers or leg warmers

I'm going to say 12ºC, except for the Irish wind.

Yes, if you want to use the old school Euro/Italian rule, it's around 65 or correctly 15 Celsius and the legs and knees shall be covered. Having grown up in old school Italian cycling, I'm still terrified to not use knees warmers in cooler temps. I think riding with just shorts with knees exposed with 55 degrees out, the police would issue you a summons. In 16 years in Italy, I never saw bare legs at those temps. (unless they were a triathlete with no cycling background)

Perfect timing, I mountain biked last week with two friends, ever since I'm having knee pain. Now I'm on ice and resting till my knee heels.

Try in Kelvin....

Under 291 degrees? cover your knees...it just doesn't have that special ring to it :)