Cold weather clothing & Fatbike ride in -28°C / -18.4°F #extremecold

We had some extremely cold weather in Central Finland and naturally I wanted to go out riding. In this video I’ll present all the clothes which I will wear when riding in cold weather. After that I ride 2 hours on the trails in stunning winter conditions in -28°C / -18.4°F on a Fatbike. I would like to say, this is extreme mountain biking 🙂

00:00:00 Introduction
00:00:30 Video description
00:01:53 Presentation of the clothes
00:07:19 All the clothes on
00:07:45 Riding in the beautiful weather in -28°C / -18.4°F
00:10:21 Summary

Hello and welcome back to my channel! When I post pictures of my winter riding in the social media, people often ask what kind of  clothes I’m using when I’m riding in the cold weather.  We have relatively cold weather here in  central Finland now. In fact we haven’t had that cold weather in many years.

Yesterday there was -30°C (-22°F) and of course I went riding   and I thought that I can do some kind of threshold training, about three times 7 minutes   I could ride only few minutes on threshold  power. Afterwards I found out that it could be   even dangerous to do hard trainings in that cold weather.

Anyway the riding was so fun, that I took off from the work to get riding on the day like today. Now the temperature is about -28°C (-18,4°F), which is almost the same as yesterday. Also the forecast shows that there could be some kind of sunshine, and if it happens,

The weather should be very very beautiful. I also may have been found new trails, where I haven’t ridden ever before and I’m going to check those also today. But before the ride I’m going to show you what kind of clothes I’m using in this temperature.

Naturally I’m using the normal underpants that I’m using every time when I’m riding. And and on them I use these Hellly Hansen Merino Lifa boxers. And there is some kind of layer which keeps my genitals warm. These are already quite worn, but they work still very good. And then comes the traditional Long Johns.

Due the long rides in the cold weather, I have  had issues in my wrists and my shoulder and I have had also tennis elbow. The recovering of those is very slow and needs a lot of exercise. So I want to protect my hands very good from the cold.

So the first thing on my torso is this merino shoulder warmer. On that I have this Marino long sleeve shirt and on that I have this technical t-shirt. My arms are protected with these self-made  wool arm warmers.

I’m suffering very much cold feet and the only solution that works for me in these kind of temperatures, are these Therm-ic Power socks. These are battery heated socks and I’m using them on setting two of three. And on them I’m using these quite thick merino  socks. I have also tested some heated shoe insoles,

But they were too hot and I didn’t like them  at all. The outer layer consists of a normal ski pants and a down jacket. I like to ride clipless, so I the only solution that I know are these 45NRTH Wolfgars, which are the most warm clipless shoes that I know.

In my hands I use these Hestra merino wool liners and then Hestra Army Leather Heli Ski mittens. And they are perfect for this kind of weather. Some say that they don’t like to ride on thick mittens because they lose some control to the brakes and the shifting lever,

But I haven’t had that kind of experiences at all. My hand is very small it’s only seven or eight, and I guess that it could be one reason why I haven’t had any problems with the controls.

I have also tested battery heated mittens, but I didn’t like them at all. The problem was that when they  get a little bit moist, and I needed to stop for a drinking break, the hand was very hard to put back in the mitten.

And I also felt that they were not warmer than the Hestra combo that I’m using. And finally to protect my head, I’m using this Klim Arctic Balaclava. This is very practical, because there is a tunnel for the air flow, and it directs the airflow downwards and  it reduces the fogging of the glasses.

As a helmet I use this old ski helmet with visor. First there was a problem that it first fogged and then it froze. But then I bought a spare lens for the heated snowmobile goggles and removed the heating element and moved it inside the visor. That helped a lot but of course it’s not perfect.

For example when you stop for a while, then the fogging starts anyway and the other problem is if there is snowing a lot, and when the snow comes on the helmet and when I raise this visor and put it back, then there is  snow inside the visor.

I have bought already a new helmet and I’m moving the heating element later in the new helmet. And I guess I’m going to do a video of that and you can check it later on my channel, if you are interested of that kind of things.

I have used hydration backpacks for years and yesterday I tested this USWE Nordic hydration backpack, which should work quite well also in the colder conditions but it froze. So the only solution is to keep the hydration backpack under the jacket and also the hoses.

It works quite well. In the last year I was participating a winter race and my hydration backpack was under my jacket and it worked very well. If you want to see that video please check it from there. But anyway today is 2°C (35.6°F) warmer and I decided to give the USWE backpack another chance.

What works for everyone is very individual, so everyone have to try different options and that’s the only way to find out what is the best solution for you. But hopefully this gives some ideas for you.

Okay I guess that was all about the clothing. Next I’m going to wear all the clothes. Let’s see how does that look. Okay, now I have all the clothes on and of course now when I’m here inside all these clothes on in room temperature,

I’m feeling quite hot currently. But I guess that the air in the outside is quite refreshing. So, now it’s time to go out riding in -28°C (-18.4°F). I have soon finishing this ride. I have ridden  about 15 km and a little bit over 2 hours.

It’s quite slow, when I have to keep the heart  rate zone on the basic endurance Zone and also the trails are quite slow. But I have to say that I didn’t suffer any cold and I would say that the  winter riding depends on attitude and of course the right clothing.

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