Anybody tried these?
http://www.psolar.com/index.html
I was out for a great ride today. I had one challenge which was frost build up in the outside of the balaclava. Anybody try the Psolar with the built in heat exchanger?
I was out for an 80k ride yesterday… (on powercranks)… simply epic!.. riding from kingston to ganaqoue was fine… but then the next 1.45h was incredibly slow coming back (in a roundabout way), winds were 40-50k/h, blowing snow, and then i bonked hard… but no, to answer your question, never used the product - just wanted to commiserate over the crappy weather here!!
are you riding your cross bike or a mountain bike in those conditions? Do you have studded tires? The only thing I worry about is corrosion on the bike. Do you do anything special to avoid that?
We have so much damn ice here - it’s been below zero for several nights in a row (when you get icicles on the inside of your windows, you know it’s cold). I’d be freakin’ scared to bike. I don’t see any people biking. Am I missing something??
Blue Competition cross bike with Kenda Klondike studded tires. This will be my 3rd year with zero corrosion issues. Don’t do anything special that I don’t do during the warmer months.
I assume you mean 0 Farenheit. Isn’t that like -32C? If so, that’s COLD. I draw the line at -10C for riding.
With the Kenda studded tires I feel very secure on road, snow or ice. The studs bite & seem to give lots of traction. If been winter riding for a number of years & managed to keep the rubber side down.
Speedy,
If you decide to get one, let me know and I will split the shipping costs with you. This looks interesting.
Mark
I’m intrigued enough to try one. I emailed them & I will keep you posted.
I like being comfortable on the winter rides & I have everything else solved with the exception of the frost build up due to breathing. I tried not breating, but that didn’t work.
0 farenhiet is pretty cold. My limit is around 0C which is 32F. Depends on the wind. If it’s really windy it can be a problem. Calm and it’s OK. It’s about having the right clothing and gear. The other thing to do is to ride a cross-bike or mountain bike on the trails. It’s slower going due to increased rolling resistance, but less wind chill. I have a set of wheels that I put cross tires on for the fall/winter/spring. If I feel like riding outdoors and it’s not to bad, I’ll put these wheels on and hit the locals trails if they are ridable. It’s a great deal of fun.
Paul,
I have cross-country skied and run in temps down to -25C to -30C and I am not sure that anything like this would work to much to warm the air up or reduce frost build-up on the out side of a Balaclava. I would never ride when it’s that cold, but I find that I do not need to cover my face up until about -15C when skiing or running. This has more to do with frostbite protection than anything else. Pulling something up over the face, such as the bottom part of a balaclava, cuts the wind hitting the skin and the risk of frostbite. I did get a mild case of frostbike on the tip of my nose years ago in the Gatineau 55 XC race and it’s been a bit sensitive to the cold ever since.
Suddenly I am feeling guilty about my 70 degree sunny ride on saturday…
I can’t believe you’re able to fit those cross tires on your road bike. What brand/width are they?
Road bike? Did I say road bike? Sorry about that, I thought I mentioned that I have a Blue Competition cross bike (CX 6.5 or CX C).
On my road bike I can’t get anything bigger than 700x28. On the cross bike I tried 700x40 & still had lots of room. There’s pics in my photo gallery if you’re curious.
Agreed. It will depend on the bike and the clearance. The bike that I use for this is a 1998 Cervelo Erye Road bike. I can run the 32mm Vittoria CX Pro cross tires on the bike no problem. Most newer road bikes have much narrower tolerances and you woul have a hard time getting anything bigger than a 25mm tire on them.
The Erye Road is actually the bike of choice for the annual To Hell And Back ride that we do each year. This year’s ride was a week ago last yesterday. Both myself and ride leader Nigel Gray use one. It’s a stiff, aero road bike that will take a set of cross tires for this epic 140K road/cyclo-cross ride.
Is there a write-up or pics of this year’s ride? I remember reading last year’s recap and thought it was fantastic. Do you have the last year’s write-up? I guess I could read that one again! I’m trying to organize a similar thing here in Newfoundland.
JP,
My write up of the 2006 To Hell an Back ride is at the thread below:
http://forum.slowtwitch.com/gforum.cgi?post=1085390;search_string=;#1085390
Best wishes organizing your event.
Yeah, it’s damn COLD. Hurts to take your gloves off for 3 minutes to try and do something outside. Even if the sun is shining, so I guess it could be a lot worse.