Still waiting for my voucher I’m tired of mulling over different bikes so I’m moving on to kit. My kit is also tired, one pair of thermal bib longs must be ten years old. But no holes so…
Goal is not to have loads of kit piled up all over the place, and always know what I’m going to wear for the weekend ride. Wash sports stuff once per week. Commuting is out of scope although I’ll reuse winter stuff. Some old kit retained for indoors only.
Yet to experience, or feel the need to. Normal bib shorts and knee warmers or running tights over the top on extreme cold days if want to rationalise kit.
I’m sure if I had thermal bibs I’d agree they were better than running tights so fair enough, but I’m too tight to buy them.
Utterly Baltic weather
Baltic weather
Winter
Light Winter
Wet Winter
Autumn
Summer
Hot Summer
Spring
Gravel spring/summer
Gravel autumn/winter
Indoor kit.
And commuting is just old club kit. Or jeans and a t-shirt.
Goes in the wash as soon as I’ve worn it, dried, all wrapped back up inside the outermost top layer (let’s say a jersey) then it’s all nice and neat in my wardrobe drawers.
Next ride, I just pull out a package and put it on.
Sorted
Well then it’s pretty much
1 pair of bibs (2 if you cycle regularly enough to not be able to wash)
A short sleeve gabba and a thin summer jersey,
Shoes and helmet
± gloves, arm and leg warmers, a buff, shoe covers, and a base layer or gilet or both to keep warm.
Don’t think I’ve ever worn a jacket either, always trusted the gabba enough to keep warm (except if you’re asking for easy commuting, but then doesn’t need to be cycle specific).
I’ve also never owned cycling socks, not sure what I’m missing out on.
That’ll work if you genuinely want to rationalise your kit and make do, I cycled like that for 3 years in UK. But you’ll constantly see something that serves one weather slightly better and be tempted to add it to the wardrobe.
Could well be. I’ve also never had a cycling jacket, and never needed one outside commuting now I think about it. I have other stuff I can wear for awful commutes I suppose.
I bought the Castelli Alpha ROS 2 jacket. I can get away with pretty much only wearing that up top all through winter in Switzerland. On really cold days I sometimes put an under-layer on but rarely. It has 2 layers to it so you can unzip one (2 if you’re feeling racey) on a climb. The ROS stands for rain or shine so it’s fairly versatile.
This was bought after an absolutely Baltic ride in Feb 22 and was an absolutely solid purchase. It’s often on sale so now might not be a bad time to pick it up ahead of next autumn/winter.
It does a good job of not holding onto the sweat smell and is properly robust.
Pair that with a pair of bib trousers, few pairs of bib shorts and short sleeve tops with arm/leg warmers and you’re golden.
My kit is also tired, one pair of thermal bib longs must be ten years old. But no holes so…
