Cycling UK Forum

I normally pack away my shorts as soon as the average daytime temp drops below 14C, but I'm still seeing the odd crazy roadies rolling around the hills here in November in bare legged haste!

Our postmen are just as batty, staying in short trousers way past Xmas. What are your shorts parameters, is anyone daft/bold enough to ride the entire season through ? I'm a May till mid October rider, with the occasional bout to the south of Spain in March /April where shorts are de rigeur.

My knees are not the best, so I tend to err on the side of caution when it comes to cold weather cycling. This time of the year I'm pretty much covered up head to toe, with a nice pair of merino wool gloves to keep the worst of it out

I wish I wore shorts today. I was too warm in my thermal tights with shorts on top. Where's Speedo Mick at present.

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I wear shorts for cycling all year round. In winter it can feel cold when you first go outside but underway and I soon warm-up (or stop noticing).

Ian

I bumped into a dentist whilst fellwalking once who said that his doctor pals had warned him that if he values his knees, never wear shorts, but I wear them in summer.

I used to have a pretty cavalier attitude to the cold when I was younger, regularly getting hypothermic when I was a teenager and didn't recognise the symptoms. It's only in the last 20 years or so that I realised that a chronic back problem I have is triggered by the cold, and was probably originally caused by it as well. Now I have to dress like an Eskimo, because it's so sensitive that the slightest sniff of cold even for a few minutes is enough to cause trouble. That makes it difficult to exercise, but being as it starts suddenly without any warning, and recently left me on the brink of being bedbound, getting cold is a risk I have to try to avoid.

British weather varies too much to define clothing for specific months. It was 11'c this morning - 0.5 perhaps 4 days ago.

Meanwhile, I think it's a sensible Precautionary Principle to keep your knees warm even when you think you'll feel "OK once you warm up". You can't see inside your joints. So if I'm doing a hard or long ride, I err towards caution.
(probably not just your joints that benefit).

The pros seem to do most of their training rides in longs, and they're putting out more watts than most of us!

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Wilhelmus wrote: ↑9 Nov 2021, 2:02pm Of course, the real pros have shaved legs underneath their trousers. As do quite a few wannabes. Never got the shaved leg idea myself. Why dispense with a perfectly good layer of insulation?

Less hair getting in the way of wound dressings, allegedly.

Normally I won't wear shorts until the end of May, I'm wary of my knees as I've not had great history with several long periods off the bike on account of them. I wonder what (if any) benefits to all year round cycling in shorts are?

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Wilhelmus wrote: ↑9 Nov 2021, 2:43pm You save a fortune on cycle clips.

Chain guard will also suffice for that.

I wear shorts all year round......... with kneewarmers in spring and autumn, with kneewarmers and thin longs in milder winter weather and with with thick longs in cold winter weather

I wear shorts all year, unless I absolutely can't. I did work in Finland, however, and after that winters over here are just far too HOT. (And that includes days when I get off my bike and have to shake off my clothing to drop the layer of ice that's settled on me)

CliveyT wrote: ↑9 Nov 2021, 3:12pm I wear shorts all year, unless I absolutely can't. I did work in Finland, however, and after that winters over here are just far too HOT. (And that includes days when I get off my bike and have to shake off my clothing to drop the layer of ice that's settled on me)

There is always one on this kind of thread !!!

(how on earth do you cope in temps over 25'c ? Which does happen quite a few days in the UK,)

Wilhelmus wrote: ↑9 Nov 2021, 2:43pm You save a fortune on cycle clips.

I didn't realise cycle clips were that expensive.