Summer shoes and over shoes
Summer shoes and Sealskins (merino lined)

Which is the better of the two options?

Overshoes (and normal merino socks). Keep your summer shoes nice and clean too.

Goretex lined winter boots, and thin cotton socks with a thicker thermal pair over the top too.

If you REALLY want your feet to stay warm and dry riding on road right through the winter.

To be fair though, my circulation is bloody terrible in my fingers and toes, I know people that will happily ride through winter with just summer shoes and thin overshoes, their feet even getting wet. Not for me though, belt and braces approach as I get bloody miserable when I’m cold and wet!

Decent overshoes are great. I find the neoprene ones work best

overshoes are enough,

any in particular?

Endura neoprene road ones here, happy with them and never felt the need to try anything else.

An old road trick is to tape some (small) disposable hand-warmers to the tops of the shoes and then neoprene over-shoes on top.

how would that help? Heat rises!!

No, heat doesn’t rise*. Warm regions of gases and liquids rise in colder bodies of the same gas or liquid – and even then it’s not because they’re warmer per se, but because the heat causes them to be less dense.

This is not what’s going on with a foot in a shoe in an overshoe.

* If we’re being incredibly pedantic, heat is energy and, by Einstein’s working, it therefore constitutes a tiny amount of mass. This will be acted on by gravity and thus heat will, if you ignore other effects that transport it, actually fall. Thing is, the mass is virtually bugger all, and the effects that transport it – like the change in density of a gas – are vastly greater.

if its dry and cold, then summer shoes ( not race shoes), thick socks and over shoes/socks. If its wet than winter boots and overshoes. Winter riding is all about base miles, so keeping as warm as possible is the key. Anything cold or wet is simply annoying and painful. A -2 winter day with a chilly wind will be more like -8 so prefer to wrap up around the head, toes and feet and maybe breathable layers around legs and body

I use thin summer merino socks and overshoes, neoprene for rain and cold <4C normal “Belgian booties” for just cold and clear. I also use overshoes for mtb riding and the reason I use thin socks is neoprene is really warm…

mboy, I have the same issue with circulation in my hands and feet. I have good gloves for dry and cold, but not for wet and cold – you got any recommendations?

Also worth considering neoprene socks if its really wet. Your feet won’t stay dry. But they will stay warm.

Decathlon sell them cheap enough in the water sports section.

+1 bikebouy, thin merinos and neoprene overshoes worked fine for me last winter (caveat- I dont feel the cold too much).

A tip a friend in Sweden told me was to make sure the sole is well insulated, apparently a lot of heat is lost via conduction through the cleat screws. Not sure if he’s talking rubbish, as above I don’t really feel the cold.

Shimano RW80s… Nigh on perfect IMHO.

MTFU surely?

Cleat conduction is a definite issue with metal cleats, but not much of one with plastic cleats.

I used heated insoles I got from Alibaba all last winter, best thing ever 🙂
I think they cost about £40 including customs charge, obviously get the ones with the batterys built into the sole.

lightman do you have the details of who you bought from

Don’t overtighten your shoes. Lots of people seem to crank up their shoes to make sure they can’t move on their feet but then they cut off the circulation and so get cold feet. If you’re putting on thick socks you need to loosen off even further.

Bez – Member
mboy, I have the same issue with circulation in my hands and feet. I have good gloves for dry and cold, but not for wet and cold – you got any recommendations?

POSTED 2 WEEKS AGO # REPORT-POST

For gloves, Glacier perfect curve. Unbelievably awesome in the cold and wet. There’s a cleaning website that does them for twenty odd quid.

Overshoes for me, with merino socks when it gets proper cold (or I’m feeling a bit of a wuss).

It gets proper cold over these parts in winter and in the past I just suffered along with my regular road shoes and overshoes. They are OK for a couple of hours but after that I really started to feel the cold and would arrive home with frozen feet followed by a painful shower. Since getting winter boots from the big S I have never had a problem with long distance winter riding. If it is really, really cold (-20 for example) then I put the overshoes over the winter boots or if it’s really chucking it down some gore-tex overshoes.

+1 for winter boots. I like my northwave ones with the artic lining. Overshoes seem fine if it’s dry, but rapidly get cold in the wet, and feet always get wet.

They are OK for a couple of hours but after that I really started to feel the cold and would arrive home with frozen feet followed by a painful shower.

Yup. Overshoes aren’t much use for longer rides IME – in particular the neoprene ones get clammy then your feet get cold, plus they don’t keep out the rain for all that long.

This winter I’m going to switch to mtb boots and spds if it’s properly cold/ wet.

Decent overshoes are great. I find the neoprene ones work best

+1

winter shoes and overshoes with warm socks inside here.

summer shoes and overshoes might be ok for an hour in the middle of the day but not at 5am when its -15

fluided

I quite fancy getting a pair of these. the remote control ones were double that price last year, thats why I didn’t get them.

The planet X overshoes are good and really cheap too. I use these and merino socks.

Yup. Overshoes aren’t much use for longer rides IME – in particular the neoprene ones get clammy then your feet get cold, plus they don’t keep out the rain for all that long.

Strange. Find neoprene overshoes to be very good (Endura road ones here). Though I do always use them with thick merino socks which probably helps with the clammy thing.

Used pair of Sidi winter boots. Long Merino socks. Not had to go to the trouble of adding overshoes, even down to -10C.

Summer shoes and too-thick socks will restrict blood flow and make your feet colder.

Strange. Find neoprene overshoes to be very good (Endura road ones here).

I have the Endura ones. Leaving aside their tendency to self-destruct, they’re fine for ordinary club runs, but on long winter night rides, particularly in the wet, they’re not up to the job.

My extremities get cold and make long road rides in the winter quite miserable. I sort of cured the hand thing last winter with a change of gloves and silk glove liners. Would silk sock liners do the same job for your feet?

The glove liners are warm and very thin so logic would sort of suggest a sock liner would help with warmth and would not bulk up too much*? Outdoor shops seem to stock this type of product but as I’m not a walker/mountaineer I don’t know whether this is more of a blister prevention or a warmth thing.

*In conjunction with ‘normal’ socks and overshoes

Don’t overtighten your shoes. Lots of people seem to crank up their shoes to make sure they can’t move on their feet but then they cut off the circulation and so get cold feet. If you’re putting on thick socks you need to loosen off even further.

+1 constricting your feet with thicker socks and ratcheted down fasteners will just bugger blood flow, cause discomfort and numbness without much real benefit.

A comfy fitting shoe / sock combo with extra insulation/water/wind protection on the outside (overshoes) trying to trap more heat in the shoe and keep the weather out as far as possible makes sense to me…
Never know seal skins socks to be much use

The handwarmer tip above is a new one to me, but I like it, I might give that a go when the weather turns a bit more…

The heated insoles thing sounds good, but I’m not too sure I fancy having cheap far eastern electronics strapped to the sole of each foot…

I also tend to leave all my footwear, shoes socks, overshoes on a radiator before a ride if I have the chance, starting a ride with warm feet helps quite a bit…

I shall look further into some of the ideas above though…