Choose the Proper Bad-Weather Mountain Biking Gear

Video Transcript

"Hi, I'm Aaron Phillips for Expert Village. This is an arm warmer coupled with a vest. It just slides up the arm and it's just a nice little kind of fleece material. Coupled with a vest, arm warmers give you that upper body warmth that you need. If you know anything about hypothermia, that's what happens is your upper body is your core warmth. When you start losing core warmth your blood all goes to your core and goes away from your extremities and you start losing your feeling and it's all down hill from there. So, make sure you have a vest and maybe a set of arm warmers with you on every ride, even if it's a summer day and you don't see anything. You never know when those thunder heads are going to build up, especially when you're in the mountains. Just like with any cycling, the array of gear you can have for protecting yourself from the elements is huge. This is an example, the cycling specific top, it's a women's but I got it on sale a long time ago and I'll tell you what, if I hadn't told you you wouldn't be able to tell. This is one that protects the front of the body thereby keeping your torso warm, it zips so it can vent, it's a fleece material and the back does not have as much of that fleece material which also allows you to vent. And a couple of pockets to throw in an energy bar, your keys, things like that. And, if you think you're going to get rained on, if you're up in Alaska or you're in the Northwest where it rains all the time you're going to want not just a vest but a full on rain jacket. This is a rain jacket made of Gortex. What that is is basically it's just a drip-stop nylon and on the inside is a treatment of what's called Gortex. It's a laminate that goes on inside and it's just a waterproof and breathable garment. Since it's cycling specific it's got a pocket in the back, as most cycling garments have, and you've even got a reflector so if in inclement weather it starts getting dark and you happen to be out on the road after you finished the ride motorists can see you and avoid you, which is a good thing. You've got pit zips here which will allow you to vent from the arm pit area and that's a really important element so look for pit zips in a cycling jacket. Cycling is an aerobic sport and in deed an anaerobic sport, you're always producing heat even if it's cold outside so you want to have something vented well for cycling."