Weight Weenies

Rick is dead right on this one. You don't need wool to be warm on a bike, and who cares if you are warm if you feel wet. The best synthetics are the way to go IMO. If it's cold double up your sythetic base layers and you will be warm and extra dry. I won't even use wool for skiing.

Now if you were in a situation where you were sure to get completely soaked and hypothermia was a risk, than wool would probably be your best choice.

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Razor wrote:

stella-azzurra wrote:How about a wind breaker in the front and polypropylene back half and wool.

I spent the better part of a day trying to track down a source for polypro to make a custom base layer, that is one difficult raw material to get. I like your idea though.

Walmart sells polypropylene t-shirts for 13$.

I have some cycling jackets that have a windbreaker in the front which is most likely nylon and a fleece back.
Combine that with a polypro shirt underneath and you should be good to go.

Brooks Equilibrium Base Shirt - Men's Galaxy base layer for 75$

stella-azzurra wrote:

Razor wrote:

stella-azzurra wrote:How about a wind breaker in the front and polypropylene back half and wool.

I spent the better part of a day trying to track down a source for polypro to make a custom base layer, that is one difficult raw material to get. I like your idea though.

Walmart sells polypropylene t-shirts for 13$.

I have some cycling jackets that have a windbreaker in the front which is most likely nylon and a fleece back.
Combine that with a polypro shirt underneath and you should be good to go.

Brooks Equilibrium Base Shirt - Men's Galaxy base layer for 75$

That Galaxy base layer is pretty cool looking, interesting construction. The source of Polypro I was looking for, is for a roll of the material so that I can make base layers that are actually sublimated like a jersey would be. REI has some good Polypro base layers too, I have a long sleeve and sleeveless ones for various weather conditions.

I have used both poly and wool, and after poly gets too wet it can't move the water anywhere. Wool will also dry much faster.

Poly also doesn't as have a wide temp range, wool will start cooling before Poly and keep you at a lower temp when you heat up.

I moved to wool socks and arm warmers 1st, then realized the modern wool all of that and a bag of chips : )

C

Wool as a baselayer is taboo for me as well. It really stays damp and I dislike that.

I like wool socks (defeet woolie boolie are ace), wool arm warmers, wool beanies and I really enjoy my defeet dura gloves merino gloves for those colder october/november rides.

Best baselayers for winter I've tried are Craft (Pro Zero is very warm but tends to smell) and Bryjne. Bryjne's 100% polypropylene Super Thermo are my favorites. They are incredibly warm (too warm for intensive work-outs) and the moisture transfer works very well. The only problem is their look - just don't take your jacket off wearing one of those baselayer in a public space