Rapha, nice but a bit pricey?

Vintage or FTFO

Birthday present from my girlfriend:

Bit heavy that?

I'm off to a sportive tomorrow and the weather's looking to be around 8 degrees and raining. I don't have any tights with me, only short bibs. Is there anywhere in London I could pick some up tomorrow morning? Preferably something nice, and not too pricey...

sports direct will have running ones.

Leg warmers?

http://www.rapha.cc/leg-warmers?locale=UK

Hmm. Leg warmers. Never really "got" those. Do they stay up?

need suspenders, but what you lose in comfort you gain in allure

make sure you get the suspenders too

ha

Screw it. I'll just rock the exposed hairy legs look and tell people that it's just how we roll back in the UK.

Sparky, if it's going to piss down you don't really want tights- they'll just carry a load of water around and chill you down.

Get the epi-lady out, and then use some embrocation on the day- water should run off you, and the gak will keep your legs feeling warm.

(Full disclosure: I've never used embrocation)

There's no way I'm shaving my legs. I've ridden bicycles for many, many years now and I've never felt the need to do that. And even if I was to do it, I'm not going to experiment now before a weekend away.

Just get some knee warmers.

And a dose of this.

embro on a rainday is like flypaper

Really? Didn't know that, I think Hippy recommended it for use in the rain, but I may have got the wrong end of the stick.

In other news, I wore my new jacket yesterday on the bike and it was very comfortable- and enabled me to simply roll a trouser leg down when I got to the office, rather than getting changed.

morning boss!

Roubiax knee/leg warmers for the rain. Yes you will get wet. But as long as you dont stop for too long. You will stay warm.

A thin buff under the helmet has the same effect.

Surely this is basic stuff?

Castelli nano-flex arm and leg warmers FTW (built in water repellance using the same tech as the fabled Gabba jerseys)

May as well go for Giordana Gshield at half the price (check Wiggle)

I have basic cheap Endura arm warmers, basic Giodana leg warmers, and cheap ProBikeKit knee warmers. All perform perfectly. Super roubiax just works, why try and bling it up?

Does anyone do a super roubiax style short sleeved jersey?

Seeing as the discussion is going this way, go for leg or knee warmers over tights at this time of year, cheap, versatile and not as insulated as layered winter tights.

if there's a choice go for ThermoRoubaix over SuperRoubaix/Roubaix. They might be more expensive, but has uses two different fibres with polyester next to skin (over predominantly polyamide/nylon in Super) which is designed for better insulation and moisture movement. There are versions with Teflon/Nanopel/dwr treatments when will shed rain and spray and prevent them wetting out, or next step up are softshell-type like the Castelli ones which will also have the advantage of being windproof.

Super roubaix knee warmers ftw
Warm enough down to low single digits and surprisingly non waterlogging.
I also do the leg shaving + embro though. Only thing I find with the embro is it takes ages to kick in sometimes.

Shave 'em Sparky, you know you want to ... :-)

Seeing as the discussion is going this way, go for leg or knee warmers over tights...

Does that work? I've never seen it done.

I use superroubaix tights (no pad) over regular bibs in the winter. When it's really cold (or wet and cold) it would be nice to have more windproofing on the thights. If someone made some windstopperx knee warmers that can sit over tights that'd be just grand.

• I see how that reads, I meant 'go for leg of knee warmers in preference to tights'
  
  

If it's brass monkeys then yeah, leg-warmers underneath windproof tights!

I use thermal bibs + leg warmers, with windproof running tights over the top in the winter. Cant say its comfortable