Categories: Accessories and GearEtiquetteLook ProThe Hardmen

Dress Like An Onion: The Art of Layering

Kelly crushes fools with properly layered kit.

The thing about the cold is that you can never tell how cold it is from looking out a kitchen window. You have to dress up, get out training and when you come back, you then know how cold it is.

– Sean Kelly

Apart from the obvious lesson in Rules #5 and #9, hidden within Sean’s sage advice lies a paradox: if we can never tell how cold it is until we’ve arrived home from our ride, then how are we to determine how much kit to wear?

The Kelly Paradox is the layering equivalent of the Goldilocks Principle, wherein we aim to be neither overdressed, causing us to overheat sweat excessively, nor underdressed, causing us to needlessly lose energy through shivering and to hate life at a conceptual level. By extension, it also implies that whatever choice you make, you will get it wrong.

The answer lies in the art of layering, wherein one deploys several layers of clothing that can be unzipped, shed, and added back as both the temperature and the engine room heat up and cool back down throughout a ride.

The first rule of kitting up is that we should expect to be chilly for the first ten or fifteen minutes, allowing for the body to warm up and start producing its own heat to counter the cool outside temperatures. But this may not account for changing temperatures throughout the ride, and therefor we will need to be prepared to alter the composition of the kit.

The second rule of kitting up is that unless it is mid-summer, you are likely to misjudge the weather, so you should be prepared to make adjustments en route. Please observe the following pointers when kitting up for your ride.

Always wear a base layer, which should be made of wicking material and is designed to keep the skin of your torso dry. In colder weather, heavier wool base layers may be used as an insulation layer against the skin.
Long Sleeve jerseys and full leggings are always encouraged at the café for pre-ride espressi unless it is genuinely warm and sunny, in which case one is encouraged to bask in the sun and admire you own guns, Boonen-style.
Arm warmers are preferable to long sleeve jerseys unless the weather is sufficiently cool or the temp sufficiently moderate to ensure the long sleeve jersey will not be shed throughout the ride. Arm warmers may be slipped down to the wrists for further cooling. Under no circumstances, however, are the sleeves of a long sleeve jersey to be pulled up towards the elbows to regulate temperature.
A gilet should be considered before a long sleeve jersey as it can be easily removed and stowed mid-ride. A gilet should be light and close-fitting like a jersey. When stowing, fold flat in thirds from top to bottom, then in half along the zipper. Slip this between your jersey and bibs rather than into a jersey pocket. This should be done for bonus Casually Deliberate points while riding hands-free.
It is acceptable for any and all layers to be unzipped and allowed to flap in the wind, emphasizing how hard you are crushing it. Additional Casually Deliberate points are also available for zipping back up while riding hands-free, particularly when doing so while cresting a climb with fools suffering on your wheel.

frank

The founder of Velominati and curator of The Rules, Frank was born in the Dutch colonies of Minnesota. His boundless physical talents are carefully canceled out by his equally boundless enthusiasm for drinking. Coffee, beer, wine, if it’s in a container, he will enjoy it, a lot of it. He currently lives in Seattle. He loves riding in the rain and scheduling visits with the Man with the Hammer just to be reminded of the privilege it is to feel completely depleted. He holds down a technology job the description of which no-one really understands and his interests outside of Cycling and drinking are Cycling and drinking. As devoted aesthete, the only thing more important to him than riding a bike well is looking good doing it. Frank is co-author along with the other Keepers of the Cog of the popular book, The Rules, The Way of the Cycling Disciple and also writes a monthly column for the magazine, Cyclist. He is also currently working on the first follow-up to The Rules, tentatively entitled The Hardmen. Email him directly at rouleur@velominati.com.

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View Comments

Sparty says:

Nov 9 2015 at 5:05 pm

@chuckp

If you’re going to get it wrong, better to be too warm and un-layer than not have enough and be cold. At least for me, when it’s cold I can never be too warm. I can, however, be too f**kin’ cold.

Same here. Someday I'll live where I can ride year round in mild temps (La Serena, Chile). Until then I need to better my kitting-up skills.
EBruner says:

Nov 9 2015 at 5:49 pm

@chuckp

If you’re going to get it wrong, better to be too warm and un-layer than not have enough and be cold. At least for me, when it’s cold I can never be too warm. I can, however, be too f**kin’ cold.

This!
Ron says:

Nov 9 2015 at 8:38 pm

My god, in all of my time as a Follower, I've never considered pulling a LS jersey sleeve up. I guess I understood the function of arm warmers and the awesomeness of colorful Wrist Skirts when riding so fast in bad weather your arms need cooling.

I guess I understood this conceptually. And "hating life conceptually." Wow, what an incredible idea, which we've all had when sitting in the saddle on really cold, wet days. NICE work, Frank. I'm sure this will be explored in the coming winter riding season.

Finally, out of all the things I love about the peace of mind cruising along in the middle of nowhere provides...the fact that zipping and unzipping is a constant part of that journey, and means the difference between Perfect Onion and Sweatin' Onion. Sweatin' Onions could dessicate to Funyun stage, and those things are weird.
Chipomarc says:

Nov 9 2015 at 9:03 pm

This guys don't seem to be in agreement on the kit needed for the ride.
cognition says:

Nov 9 2015 at 11:12 pm

Come to think of it, I really should have brought arm warmers and a gillet on Sunday's ride... Descending those 2800' from Camino Cielo down to Santa Barbara was chilly.

On the other hand, I'm certainly not going to earn any hardman points on my regular rides these days, so I guess I'll just follow Rule #5, zip up the short-sleeve, tuck more deeply, and enjoy the ride.
RobSandy says:

Nov 10 2015 at 2:03 am

I've had a bit of a change of heart about kitting up recently - I used to go for wearing as little as I could get away with; bare arms and legs unless it was really quite cold. I'm now enjoying long legs and long sleeves more, although I think that's more to prevent me getting covered with crap off the road (most of my rides are commutes) than to keep warm. I also enjoyed the snugness of an undervest recently, even though it wasn't really cold enough to require it.
nobby says:

Nov 10 2015 at 2:23 am

"There's no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing options". Apart from the fact that this may directly impinge on rule#5 the kit conundrum is a very tiresome one. I've spent years accumulating kit to solve every climate riddle, but still I make school boy errors. Forgetting arm warmers being one of them.
RobSandy says:

Nov 10 2015 at 3:22 am

@nobby

Apart from the fact that this may directly impinge on Rule #5...

Rule #5 does not mean you deliberately go out to get cold and uncomfortable. Rule #5 means that you don't complain about it when it happens. And if it makes you go slower it means you are contravening Rule #10
nobby says:

Nov 10 2015 at 3:40 am

@RobSandy

@nobby

Apart from the fact that this may directly impinge on Rule #5…

Rule #5 does not mean you deliberately go out to get cold and uncomfortable. Rule #5 means that you don’t complain about it when it happens. And if it makes you go slower it means you are contravening Rule #10

Maybe I was thinking of Rule#9, which suggests that, despite what you wear, you should be riding regardless of the weather.
antihero says:

Nov 10 2015 at 5:03 am

Here in Tennessee, the weather changes rapidly through the day - it's not unusual for the temp to start below freezing and then climb into the mid-twenties Celsius by midday, so if you're out on a long ride layer storage becomes an issue.

Having a Jersey with adequate storage is essential - nothing is worse that rolling along with a jumbled mess of warmers, gilet, and whatnot flailing about from the top of one's jersey pockets.