Brian Ignatin - Pineville, Pennsylvania

Hands and feet? Honestly, I cannot remember because they have long succumbed to frostbite and fallen off.

Brian, it took me a really long time but eventually I wised up and fled the cold weather. This is one question that I have absolutely no answer for. I have tried any number of different kinds of shoe covers (aka booties) and gloves of every shape, kind, color and construction, to absolutely no avail. Yes, there are a ton of outstanding glove and shoe cover option available now but, for the most part, keeping your feet and hands warm has a lot to do with your own hands and feet.

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Dan Johnson -  Missouri

My name is Joe and I have a shoe problem. I think you might even refer to it as flat-out craziness. I have owned (bought and been given) more cycling shoes than I can remember. I have filed, cut, heated, bent, sawed, glued and otherwise mutilated them in, pretty much, every way imaginable -- shoe mania. Imelda Marcos had nothing on me.

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David A  -  Portland, Oregon

It’s funny, but actually didn’t know what “Belgian Kneewarmers” referred to until about a year ago. I guess it might be, perhaps, that as I was in the habit of putting on one or another type of embrocation gunk on the knees and legs, and that everyone else was doing the same thing, I never knew there was an American term for it.

Yes, for those of you who have never been in a dressing room immediately prior to a Belgian kermis, classic, semi-classic, or cyclocross race … the air becomes thick with the fragrance of at least a dozen different analgesic ointments. Some of these are familiar smells – a lot like that Ben Gay smell you got when you went to visit your grandparents. Some of them, on the other hand, are like nothing you have smelled before – and quite possibly could be some sort of cross between a freaky hillbilly poultice and a high desert meth lab.

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Georges Auberger - Emerald Hills, CA

While this is really just a case of personal choice, it has a lot to do with old habits and beliefs that have been passed down through generations of cyclists. Back in the ancient times, before there were radio ear-buds pressed into the skull of each and every rider in the pro peloton, many of the fabrics that were used in jersey construction were only just slightly better than junk. You'd go uphill, sweat yourself silly, point the bike downhill and feeze to death. Cyclists, myself included, wore department store variety, wool undershirts that practically rubbed you raw, yet kept you somewhat dry.

There was also the belief that two layers would lessen the severity of road rash in a crash. I have done a fair bit of asphalt sampling but cannot honestly claim that I was ever any safer wearing a baselayer.

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