Well, this is my much-beloved Old Reliable mountain bike. The ten-ton Trek. The first picture was from last spring, before I started doing stuff like putting bottle cages on it. It just had blinky lights, and I think it still had the bar-end rearview mirror, which it no longer has. It kept getting knocked off and I unfortunately hastened its demise one day when I unthinkingly flipped the bike upside-down to do something maintainence-y to it and, of course, when the handlebars landed on the floor, the mirror snapped right in half. I’ve since switched to a helmet-mounted mirror, which may be way dorkier, but is also rather more practical. Anyway, don’t the new fenders make it look mega-gnarly? I love ’em. They look so tough, and they help keep my feet and butt free of mud and road-sludge.
Here’s a very small portion of my cold-weather gear. Helmet, $5 hardware-store safety goggles, and balaclava (lightweight–I also bought a heavier-duty one with an eye toward the weather getting worse). One of my old co-workers told me I looked like a terrorist. That’s only, as I said, a small portion of my weather-battling gear. I also wear nice, thick, cushy wool hiking socks, my super-posh Sugoi Sub-Zero tights, a wool sweater, a pair of real pants, neoprene gloves (and I have a heavier pair of Thinsulate ones to layer over when the weather gets worse) a windbreaker jacket, and my normal combat boots.
I’ve also got a heavier coat and now a pair of snowpants for when the weather gets REALLY awful.
Oh, and my super-sleek, super-dorky UnderArmour base layer. It totally looks like an old-school Star Trek uniform, doesn’t it?
So, here you see me being a jackass, wearing my UnderArmour base-layer and a bigass pair of wool socks. As you might surmise, this photo was taken before I whacked all of my hair off. Also, you see my cat’s ears, because Griswald has to try to get into every picture I take or am in.
I have no idea why this picture exists, but here you have documentary evidence of the fact that obsessive bicycling gives you a meaty butt.
[…] cold-weather biking gear has gotten a little more sophisticated since my early days of year-round riding, though it is still quite a hodge-podge of thrifted clothing, cycling-specific […]