My wife and daughter have been starting to winter bike commute this season.
One of the clothing challenges is the conflict between wearing a helmet for safety and wearing a winter hat for warmth, realizing that very few winter hats are designed to go under or over a helmet.
For the baby, I decided to try a kids winter helmet, which has few air vents includes padded ear covers. It’s paired here with a “thick and thin” kids balaclava that is thin on top and fleece on the bottom. Initially, this seems like it’s going to be a good solution.
For the baby’s hands we’ve been trying fleece mittens, but they have proven not to be warm enough, even for a for 10 to 15 minute trip, so we’ll look for something warmer. Likewise, the fleece blanket pulled over standard-weight pants didn’t work great either. We’ll be looking to refine that as well.
My wife was generally able to stay warm. She added a Turtle Fur headband to keep her ears warm, as well as a fleece neck gaiter and “windstopper” gloves. Overall I think the experience was positive and something we’ll continue to try.
Related Reading
- Dottie from Lets Go Ride a Bike has an excellent post on how to dress for winter bike commuting
- Chicargobike has a great post on how to dress kids for fall and winter bike commuting
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