Bike Noob

One afternoon last week I got home early enough that I thought I could squeeze in a bike ride before it got dark. But it was unusually cold for Central Texas — around 42 degrees. I decided to take my mountain bike out for a spin around the neighborhood, rather than hit the roads on my road bike.

But I didn’t want to wear my biking tights. For starters, they’re not cold weather tights — they work great when the temperature is in the 50s, but on an afternoon like this, I knew they wouldn’t be enough.

Likewise my bike jerseys. I like my long sleeve jersey with the brushed inside, and mostly, it works well when teamed up with a base layer and my windbreaker. But I thought I’d need something more substantial.

So I pulled a wool sweater out of the drawer, put it on over my long sleeved twill shirt, and put my windbreaker on over that. To cover my legs, I had my jeans. Instead of bike shoes, I wore my flat-soled sneakers (the mountain bike has platform pedals).

It all worked fine. I did 12 miles in about an hour. The wool sweater kept me warm, and the windbreaker broke the wind. A pair of light wool gloves substituted for my half-finger biking gloves, keeping my fingers from freezing, but without adding so much bulk that shifting and braking would have been a problem. Okay, the blue jeans weren’t the wisest choice for legwear — my thighs were pretty chilled when I finished the ride — but I’ve got alternatives to those for future similar rides.

Since I started my “serious” biking about two-and-a-half years ago, I’ve taken to biking clothes. I like my padded shorts and my lightweight lycra jerseys. It’s become second nature to me to rummage through my bike clothes drawer (yes, I have a whole drawer dedicated to them — don’t you?) to pick the best combination to wear when heading out.

But for the half-century before I started “serious” biking, I didn’t bother about that. I just rode, wearing whatever I happened to have on at the time. In fact, my wife and I both thought the cycling getups were over the top — and we’d chuckle at some of the kits people wore when we were out riding rails-to-trails bike paths.

Street clothes can do very well for a biker under most circumstances. I’ll be doing neighborhood rides in them again. How about you? Cycling kits are fun, but are they really necessary?

With the Giro d’Italia just ended, and the Tour de France looming over the horizon, we bikers (or this biker, anyway) start to pay more attention to the pro teams.

I like to see whether their team kit, to use the veddy British expression, has changed at all since last season. Some of the redesigns are forced because of sponsor changes — CSC to Saxo Bank, for example — and some are changed just to have a new look, like Columbia Highroad. They’re pretty spiffy, but would you ever deck yourself out in team kit?

This poor guy has been floating around the Internet for awhile now, and I couldn't resist.

A lot of bikers seem to think that dressing like a pro makes you a poseur — a wannabe — since we recreational cyclists can’t hope to match the performance of the pro tour riders.

But others say there’s nothing wrong with it. If it feels good, do it, etc. The comparison is often made to NASCAR fans who wear racing jackets covered with flashy sponsor logos. They don’t race, and probably couldn’t match the ability of a pro driver if they tried. Then there are fans of U.S. pro football, who wear replica team jerseys with the number of their favorite player. For some reason, no one seems to knock folks who do that.

Besides, a lot of the cycling team jerseys are pretty eye-catching. They’re generally made by prominent manufacturers, so you’re getting good quality items. I especially like oddball ones from defunct teams — they look the part, but maybe I’m less of a poser because the team is no longer active?