Thanks to our continued warm winter weather, I’ve started off 2012 on a biking tear. I’ve already ridden to work 9 times, reaching that mark a week earlier than any previous January. The spreadsheet I use to track my rides tells me that I’m on pace for 259 total rides and 5617 total miles in 2012. Somehow I doubt that I’ll get quite that many, but at this pace, 180 sure seems attainable. I’m sure we’ll eventually get some winter weather this year, but for now, I’m enjoying the salt- and ice-free roads. The studded tires I put on back in November still have yet to be tested in true winter conditions.
I received a Merino wool t-shirt as a Christmas gift, and so far I am really liking it. It is the “Minus 33” brand. In the past, I’ve always worn t-shirts or jerseys made out of synthetic fabrics, by themselves in the summer and as a base layer in the winter. The problem with them is that they only last a ride or two before they start to (ahem) smell funky. The mean time to smelliness seems to be inversely proportional to the amount of sweating I do. When you ride 4 to 5 days a week, you end up washing a lot of shirts. I was attracted to wool due to its ability to resist odors, which is one of the reasons I swear by wool socks. So I figured I’d give a wool t-shirt a try, and so far I haven’t been disappointed. This shirt has gone through 5+ rides now, and still no hint of any funky odor. The real test will be to see how it does in the summer. For the Minus 33 brand, I got an extra large, and initially was a little worried that it’d be too big for cycling. However, it ended up fitting just fine. I am 6′ and around 180lbs, and the fit is comfortable but not form fitting. We’ll see how it fares after the first time I wash it.