They might have caused a dozen or more raised eyebrows, and certainly a few fellow tri club cyclists thought they were hilarious, but my new skiing mitts have become the genius solution to cold hands while cycling. One of the reasons that I don’t like cycling in winter is that my hands get very, very cold. I have tried all kinds of of solutions, such as wearing two pairs of gloves, other winter mittens, hand warmers, etc. But I still find that my hands go numb.

The problem with cycling is that your hands stay mainly still while the cold air and wind whips over them. I can usually manage to keep the rest of my body warm with clothing layers and because  I tend to be working quite hard at the pedals so my body generates enough heat to keep my body, arms and legs warm. My feet do get cold, too, but less than my hands. I deliberately bought cycle shoes a size too big so that I can wear two pairs of thick socks. I also put wind and rain proof cycle shoe covers on over the top.

But on Saturday while out for a fab group cycle with the Glasgow Triathlon Club on the southside of the city I came up with a fantastic warm hands solution: My skiing mitts. These are no ordinary mitts. These are furry Barts ski gloves gifted to me for Christmas by the G-Force. The Christmas before he had given Little Miss Outdoors a pair of furry ski gloves and I have talked and raved about them so much that this year he found an adult-sized pair for me.

The gloves are fleecy on the inside and mega furry on the outside. They are sooo warm and although they do look very ridiculous while cycling they did solve the problem of cold hands. The wind just seemed to fly over the top of the fur gloves and my hands stayed warm for the entire three to four hour outing.

The other great thing about the gloves is that because they are soft they allowed me to feel for the gear levers and manage changing gears without any hassle. I know some people also swear by the Lobster Claw style cycling gloves but I don’t have spare cash for these just now – and I like the idea of doubling up my kit for cycling and skiing. If the gloves gave a few people a laugh on Saturday morning then all the better!