Warm toes

[toaster]

I'm thinking wool socks as a base and a GoreTex laminate sock over them might be a good first line of defense before even discussing booties for warmth in cold, and wind, and rain.

These socks, with a gore tex or DuPont Hytrel membrane (water and wind resistant) sandwiched between thermal layers of polyester, over wool seems the way to go.

Anybody have sucess with these?

[Kane]

The best defense for cold feet is to warm your head, neck, and torso in that order. (Torso last because we assume that you already have a jacket on your torso).
Make sure that your shoes are wide enough (think sidi mega's) for your feet. Warmth in the feet is proportional to blood flow. If you cramp your shoes with thick socks than you decrease your blood flow, cold feet to follow.
The counter-current heat mechanism is built into your body's vascular system. When the torso temperature is decrease their is a vein in your leg that lies next to your femoral/tibial artery. The blood is routed into this vein which pulls the heat by conduction (?), (when a cold object and warm object that are touching, the cold object will absorb the heat of the warm object). The cold blood coming from the foot in the vein absorbs the warmth of the blood coming from the heart/torso and the heat is returned to the torso.
Lesson: Keep the blood in your torso warm. Put a hat, scarf, ear warmers etc.

Cheers,

Kane

[toaster]

Great tutorial.

Now even though our torso is toasty, what about dem' toes?

They still get a bit nippy, now don't dey. ;)

[bfd]

Two other things that help in keeping your toes warm and toasty are toe covers over your shoes and wool socks. Yes, wool socks work wonders. Defeet woolie boolies are excellent.

[Sandy]

Great explanation.

Toaster- How can a toaster possibly be cold?? Turn up your dial a little more.


Sandy

[vaxn8r]

The best defense for cold feet is to warm your head, neck, and torso in that order. (Torso last because we assume that you already have a jacket on your torso).
Make sure that your shoes are wide enough (think sidi mega's) for your feet. Warmth in the feet is proportional to blood flow. If you cramp your shoes with thick socks than you decrease your blood flow, cold feet to follow.
The counter-current heat mechanism is built into your body's vascular system. When the torso temperature is decrease their is a vein in your leg that lies next to your femoral/tibial artery. The blood is routed into this vein which pulls the heat by conduction (?), (when a cold object and warm object that are touching, the cold object will absorb the heat of the warm object). The cold blood coming from the foot in the vein absorbs the warmth of the blood coming from the heart/torso and the heat is returned to the torso.
Lesson: Keep the blood in your torso warm. Put a hat, scarf, ear warmers etc.

Cheers,

Kane
Agreed. Especially shoes too tight...always leads to cold feet. Set your buckles a little looser and don't use overly thick socks.

[toaster]

Great explanation.

Toaster- How can a toaster possibly be cold?? Turn up your dial a little more.


Sandy
Toaster is Serotta spelled randomly. I usually use the oven.

My low bodyfat doesn't provide me with much insulation although I do have a warm heart and give off lots of bodyheat, that's why my wife and our cats enjoy being close to me. It's the rest of the world that doesn't feel so warm and fuzzy about me all the time.

:bike:

[M_A_Martin]

Ditto what Kane said!

Plus: Dry feet are warm feet. Wool socks. Yes! Wool both wicks and insulates.

If you're riding in nasty wet winter slush: Get a pair of looser shoes with no mesh on top. If you're not riding in slush and rain they don't need to be waterproof.

I ride with gortex lines mtb shoes in winter time. They may have improved the cleat plate sealing, but if they haven't and if you are riding in slush, remember to caulk under the cleat plate before you put your cleats on the shoes. All that waterproofing on top is useless if you get water in the bottom of the shoe through the cleat plate hole. I set my cleat position and mark it on the shoe. Then I dismantle the cleats and the sole of the shoe, caulk between the cleat anchor plate and the shoe sole, set the plate into the hole, run another bead of caulk over the plate between the plate and the insole. Flip the shoe over, install the cleat where it belongs and tighten it down, get back inside the shoe, smooth the caulk out and wipe up any excess that might cause lumps and bother my foot while I'm pedaling, then clean up the bottom of the shoe.

*Now* you have waterproof shoes. But they don't breath. At all. Your feet are going to sweat too. So sometimes I'll wear polypro liner socks under my wools socks...the shoes have to be big enough to handle this!

If all else fails, and its below freezing, I'll use chemical wamers between the wool socks and the tops of the shoes. Do NOT put them directly on your skin, and below the toes will give you a hot spot so I only put a set under my toes if its really really cold (below freezing) Get shoe specific chemical warmers as they take less air to work...do activate them correctly though otherwise they're useless.
Keep in mind they can cause you to think that you're too warm and you might think to start removing core protection layers or your hat or something. Don't do it, just get rid of the chemical warmers! Keep the head, neck, and core toasty!

[93legendti]

Two other things that help in keeping your toes warm and toasty are toe covers over your shoes and wool socks. Yes, wool socks work wonders. Defeet woolie boolies are excellent.

Yup works for me. I also agree that keeping the torso and the head warm keep everything else warm as well. I now use a nice warm head covering that covers the ears well. When it gets colder I will add a helmet cover to keep in heat and keep out the wind.

[William]

Ditto on the wool socks. I also like the old SideTrax neoprene shoe covers for when it gets really cold/nasty. Plus at the time they were the only ones I could find to fit over my size 15 canoes. They're a bit trashed now so I'll have to start looking for another pair soon.

I like M.A.'s caulking method. I might have to give that a try.


William :)

[Andreu]

and very wet conditions (so cold it is almost impossible to sweat) I have been known to wear poly bags on my feet. It works, your feet sweat a wee bit but the plastic keeps off the chill factor.
It's dead cheap too.
A

[William]

Poly bags:
If you really hate getting wet feet, this is a little extreme but it works. Duct tape the poly bag to your leg and let it drape over your booties. Tape it to skin,water soaking into your leg warmers/tights can run down your leg and into your shoes if you tape it to clothing. You'll have to tape it to the booties as well so it doesn't blow upward letting water in. May look dorky but as Andreu said, it's cheap and it works.

(PS: Shaved legs are a must unless you dig pain ;) )


William

[BarryG]

On the coldest of days where even wool and covers aren't enough, I'll do a few turns of Saran Wrap around the toes. Sure they sweat a little, but they stay toasty. It's the "vapor barrier" principle, the virtues of which have been long extolled by the Stephenson folks at warmlite.com.

Barry

[Ozz]

Good advice so far, so I will echo:

Put on a hat
Keep circulation in your toes
Invest in some good booties

Insulation, circulation, and keep your toes dry.

[spiderman]

maybe i won't have to wimp out
with cold, wet feet every again!

[M_A_Martin]

I learned it from mountain biking. Trails are wetter than the road. But it works for road as well. The most water proof booties in the world will only help so much if you have water coming into the shoe from around the cleat plate.

Make sure you completely seal the cleat plate hole with the caulk on the inside of the shoe under the insole...including over the screw holes. And make sure you smooth it out when its wet so you don't have bumps and lumps to clean up after! And keep in mind that your shoes, unless they have some sort of vapor transport won't breath...so your sweaty feet will remain sweaty and cold unless you use wicking socks (like wool) inside to take the moisture away from your feet!

Oh, and moving the cleat plate is a pain after you've caulked it in...do-able...but still a bit of a pain.

[Kevan]

if you don't start out on your ride with warm feet, you're sunk. All else about you might be cold or chilled as you clip in, but them feet best be toastie from the get go. :D

[boneman]

If it's toes, take a look at Quintana Roo's neoprene toes covers. Cheap and relatively durable. They'll take the windchill off your toes and front part of your feet. I've been using them for 10+ years and they are a fine product. The last 6 years I've been in the UK where the median temperature where much of the time when I ride, it's between 55-63F and for these temps, I always wear toe covers. They also work well if it's wet, not necessarily raining but wet enough to get lots of water on your feet from water coming off your wheel.

Another alternative is the Assos toe covers which are made of a stretch windstopper material. Expensive like all Assos stuff but well made.

I also have a pair of Defeet Slipstreams but for me, they don't block the windchill from my toes and obviously useless in the wet so I've not used them much.