Essential winter clothing?

+1 for winter boots. Such a luxury

Chiming in to say I bought a pair of lake spd winter boots (size 50) and have literally never worn them or fitted cleats. If anyone wants completely dry, toasty feet... Hit me up!

Gonna splash out and get some booties.
Sidi goretex on sale at merlin

I have the sidi gortex. There are nice, but I will say the fit is different than my genius shoes, get hot spots on my feet that I don't get otherwise, using the same insoles.

Go for north wave rather than sidi . Far better and warmer . Arctic or gtx

I also have genius and found the insoles uncomfortable so replaced them anyway. I'll probably do the same with these.
I wear a 44 in the genius which is perfect size in thin socks but a bit cramped in thicker ones so gone for a 45 in the boots. Hopefully that's not a mistake

Possibly but I'm shallow and I like the sidi brand :)

I think you'll find the one size larger boots too roomy. Like for like size are roomier as it is between the genius and boots.

I feared this. I'll try them on and possibly swap down then

I have the Sidis. Not that warm and water ingress quite easily and never leaves. On the plus side they're stiff and look good

Does anyone have knee warmer recommendations? Got a pair of Endura which are probably my longest serving bit of kit but they're getting holes and chafe on longer rides.

Most comfy ones I have tried were Rapha merino knee warmers. But can get waterlogged in rain so best for dry or damp days but not heavy rain.

I rate my Castelli nanoflex ones.

+1 for Rapha. I think they are back in a bundle with the arm warmers.

Not keen on Merino but always liked Nanoflex armwarmers so gone Nanoflex+

Whats the difference with the "+"?

Quite like my sportful no rain ones

Never understood knee warmers, is this a concept I need to try?

This time of year I do merino leg and arm warmers for mornings/evenings.
If temps do not exceed 12°C just go with tights.

I tend to wear my Lusso knee warmers in the morning and stick them in my bag for the commute home. Works out ok, usually. I like the Lusso Repel ones, for water resistance and windproofing :)

New version apparently.

I have three leg approaches, shorts with bare shoes, kneewarmers with oversocks and tights with boots. Works well.

Wore my new boots today. Soaked shoes, dry feet. Great success!

Also Hovis was right, sizing up was a bad idea. Had to exchange. My normal size in "summer" shoes which is fairly tight is much roomier in the winter boots

Need some shoes for winter coz i dont want to trash my empires and my crappy old shoes have finally died.

Not sure if I really want winter boots, probably more like a reasonably cheap, solid shoe that doesnt have vents. I'd then be happy to just go with overshoes in the rain. I cant seem to find anything like that though, so I might end up with winter boots after all. I had the northwave boots years ago which were great in real winter weather, but were too chunky and hot for wet autumn days.

The Shimano rw5s look a little lighter than the old northwaves or the sidis, and mavic do a winter shoe that again looks a little lighter.

Any advice?

Just went and bought the 8€ pair of Aldi winter cycling gloves.

Warm hands for winter commuting sorted.

just get decent overshoes, going from empires to cheapo shoes will feel grim and could fuck up your bike fit.
Empires have the advantage that they don't have any vents in the sole anyway so shouldn't get too wet from underneath.

I've yet to try them but the new Endura SL over shoes look pretty good and endura have really stepped it up with the whole "Pro-SL" range lately.