Cycling at this time of the year is dominated by how to keep warm, especially fingers and toes. The warmest socks I’ve found are these heat holders – a thick pair of tubular type socks.
- They have a thick layer of fibres to keep wthe armth in.
- The length of sock means heat rises up the foot and ankle, keeping whole foot area warm.
- There is no elastic to constrict the blood supply.
They are pretty chunky and in terms of aerodynamics, pretty useless, but for keeping feet warm, they are as good as they get.
Left sock (outside of sock) Right sock (inside turned inside out)
- Heat Holders pair (6-11) at Amazon £6.99
Overall Review of Heat Holders
They are the warmest sock I’ve found.
Don’t worry about sizing they are very elastic.
If you wear them around the house, they don’t last forever, and bits of fibre do start to come off. I have worn holes in the heels of some socks I’ve had for two years. But, I bought a new pair recently because they are still excellent value. If you want to keep feet warm, these are very good. As the weather warms up, they can become too hot, but they don’t get too sweaty, there is room to breath too.
As mentioned in recent post on hotpads, I get very cold feet, so I use an inner pair of socks, a pair of hotpads and then these heatholders on top. Cold feet will never be an excuse to stop cycling.
Cycling in the 2 degrees
Yesterday, the mercury was edging just above freezing. It was just about tolerable to cycle for a couple of hours. I had several thermal layers, 3 pairs of gloves and the hot pad / heat holder combination on the feet. The feet were amongst the warmest part of the body.
I chose the flat road around Ambrosden and Oakley and kept up a pretty good pace. It was a good two hours at sweet spot. Power was roughly between 210 and 290 watts. Weighted average for two hours of 220 watts. It was more like 230 watts, if you exclude the messing around getting out of Oxford. Despite a stop start winter, I’m not as unift as I feared. I averaged around 19mph and really enjoyed the constant effort. It was cold, but there is a certain beauty to the frozen landscape, especially when there is zero wind, no rain and a blue sky. The only thing is keeping a watchful eye on the road surface for any lingering ice patches. Visibility was sometimes tough cycling into the low bright winter sun.
Now all I need to do is start making a few rides over 40 miles, and maybe there is still time to rescue a season derailled by a week off in January…
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Seconded. By far the warmest I’ve tried, they are even occasionally too warm for me about the house, which is otherwise unheard of. They don’t last long for me but are going for all of £6 a pair at Millets so can’t complain.
Layering under 5C, longer than 2 hours: thin sock – sticky heat pad stuck on outside of said sock, heat holder sock, DhB extreme overshoes – happy winter feet all day long.
Sounds like a fellow cold foot person!
Yeah, my circulation is apalling, it can be 30C outside and I’m still wearing socks round the house! I should be grateful that it’s mainly limited to my feet and hands only need a mere double layer in mid winter…