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Step 6Legs
Handy hint: when looking for inspiration for a pithy pun for your step title involving warm legs, do not google "hot legs".
The trousers are the most DIY part of this ensemble. Being way too tight-fisted to pay for proper bike trousers, I instead bought some waterproofs for �2 from the nearest Oxfam shop after the first time I had to ride home in the rain. These are acceptable in warmer weather, but in the cold they don't provide much thermal protection and I found the fronts of my legs getting bitterly cold on long rides.
The inspiration came on picking up an old fleece scarf and noticing that it was almost exactly twice as long as one of my legs (or, to put it another way, as long as both of my legs put together). A trial run involving sticking the scarf down the front of my waterproofs for a ride home on a below-freezing night showed the principle worked, so I decided to sacrifice the scarf to the cause (again, a replacement would be �3 from the market so I'm now down the princely sum of a fiver).
Acquire a pair of waterproof overtrousers and a long scarf from whatever source seems appropriate. Ensure that the scarf is long enough to cover the majority of the fronts of both legs. FInd the middle of the scarf, and either cut in half, or cut a small section out of the middle (I'll come back to this) leaving two equal long parts either side. (Pic 1)
Sit on the arm of the nearest armchair or something that approximates the riding position of your bike and determine the portion of the leg you would like to cover- I went from about bottom-of-trouser-pocket to ankle height. Pinch this part, take off the waterproofs and turn them inside out. Duct tape the scarf segments to the chosen part of the inside of your trousers, making sure to keep them as flat as possible to avoid a wonky seam. (Pic 2) The tape doesn't stick very hard to fabric so you can reposition the scarf on the tape, but it does stick well to the trousers. I was running out of tape so only taped a few strategic points but a complete seam might work better.
Optional: turn the trousers over and attach the extra section of scarf to the "seat" region. I decided to do this after coming out of work one evening to find that a heavy frost had fallen and my bike seat was covered in ice- next time you hear someone talk about "freezing their nads off", that actually happened to me. If you can park your mount inside then this might not be an issue- YYMV.
The trousers are the most DIY part of this ensemble. Being way too tight-fisted to pay for proper bike trousers, I instead bought some waterproofs for �2 from the nearest Oxfam shop after the first time I had to ride home in the rain. These are acceptable in warmer weather, but in the cold they don't provide much thermal protection and I found the fronts of my legs getting bitterly cold on long rides.
The inspiration came on picking up an old fleece scarf and noticing that it was almost exactly twice as long as one of my legs (or, to put it another way, as long as both of my legs put together). A trial run involving sticking the scarf down the front of my waterproofs for a ride home on a below-freezing night showed the principle worked, so I decided to sacrifice the scarf to the cause (again, a replacement would be �3 from the market so I'm now down the princely sum of a fiver).
Acquire a pair of waterproof overtrousers and a long scarf from whatever source seems appropriate. Ensure that the scarf is long enough to cover the majority of the fronts of both legs. FInd the middle of the scarf, and either cut in half, or cut a small section out of the middle (I'll come back to this) leaving two equal long parts either side. (Pic 1)
Sit on the arm of the nearest armchair or something that approximates the riding position of your bike and determine the portion of the leg you would like to cover- I went from about bottom-of-trouser-pocket to ankle height. Pinch this part, take off the waterproofs and turn them inside out. Duct tape the scarf segments to the chosen part of the inside of your trousers, making sure to keep them as flat as possible to avoid a wonky seam. (Pic 2) The tape doesn't stick very hard to fabric so you can reposition the scarf on the tape, but it does stick well to the trousers. I was running out of tape so only taped a few strategic points but a complete seam might work better.
Optional: turn the trousers over and attach the extra section of scarf to the "seat" region. I decided to do this after coming out of work one evening to find that a heavy frost had fallen and my bike seat was covered in ice- next time you hear someone talk about "freezing their nads off", that actually happened to me. If you can park your mount inside then this might not be an issue- YYMV.
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My only gripe is that we seem to have gone into a 'easy on/easy off' phase with specialized clothing, which means zippers more often than not. Zippers leak, even it they are flatlocked. I use ordinary canning wax rubbed over the zipper to seal them somewhat better, and I couldn't be happier.