microcord
Maximum Pace
- Aug 28, 2012
- 1,650
- 1,195
. . . Very cold - could not get my legs warm. . . .
Short version: Long pants (not skintight): any suggestions?
A year or so back I bought Uniqlo tights. They were packaged like an "energy" gel or similar and seemed no better at warming my legs, but they only cost maybe five times as much as an energy gel so I'm not complaining. Recently I bought a pair of Mizuno tights (a bit thicker). The pair cost perhaps forty times as much as much as an energy gel but today I wore them for the first time and found that they are no better at warming my legs. They're so uncomfortable that I guess they're good at averting deep-vein thrombosis, and they have wavy white lines on them: I can't think of any other pluses.
I learn here that what I need are Rapha merino wool this 'n' that. I looked at the prices. Howls of derisive laughter.
I've had it with skintight. I guess it's a good idea aerodynamically, but I'm slow so this doesn't matter. I'm thinking of legwear with space inside, or outers. Right now I don't have any. Maybe a good outer would work with good old scratchy wool momohiki, or no-name merino stuff. (Who knows, I might even spring for "Rapha".) Anyway, I want, um, overpants or anyway what might go on top of a "base layer" and extend from waist to ankle. But what I've seen in stores and on the web has had silly sizing, basically "S", "M", "L", etc. When I order jeans and the like from the US, it's simple: if waist and inseam are both 32, it fits; with these cycling versions my choices are usually (A) "pretty much OK waist and bum, too short" and (B) "pretty much the right length, I'd need to gobble chanko-nabe every day for two months". Somewhere there must be a company that isn't inspired by matryoshka dolls when deciding on sizes; but when I use "cycling long pants" or similar to look on the web for alternative brands, I'm flooded with info for skintight this and that. Anyone know of a brand of good value non-skintight long pants that come in an intelligent array of sizes?