Anyone here suffer from Reynaud's syndrome / use heated gloves?

[hellymedic]

My intuitive but totally unverified opinion about hot drinks is that they are more effective as hand  (and maybe face) warmers than when drunk.

I can tolerate only around 10ml of hot liquid, with a temperature of maybe 48C, in my mouth; any hotter scalds, any cooler will contribute little warmth.

The skin on my paws is thicker and more heat-resistant than that on my tongue. Hands, when not 'shut down' and white, are effective heat exchangers.
A decent 3-400ml mug can hold more heat than my mouth.

You do have to hold the mug though...

[Oaky]

It can be particularly bad when getting back on the bike in winter, after a stop (eg: a control on an audax). My hands will typically go completely white and dead.

I've suffered this to some degree in the past fingers very white and basically numb/almost useless for the controls.  Also happens to me usually after a stop, after getting back on the bike. Sometimes swinging my arm quickly through 6 o'clock position a few times followed by frantic finger wiggling kick starts the circulation again, but sometimes not.

[mattc]

My intuitive but totally unverified opinion about hot drinks is that they are more effective as hand  (and maybe face) warmers than when drunk.

I can tolerate only around 10ml of hot liquid, with a temperature of maybe 48C, in my mouth; any hotter scalds, any cooler will contribute little warmth.

The skin on my paws is thicker and more heat-resistant than that on my tongue. Hands, when not 'shut down' and white, are effective heat exchangers.
A decent 3-400ml mug can hold more heat than my mouth.

You do have to hold the mug though...

But isn't the alimentary canal a pretty decent heat-exchanger? [it's long and thin!] I can see that if hands are the specific  problem it may well be better to heat them directly.

[Why the 10ml limit? Can't you drink the 400ml in 10ml gulps? Just curious!  ]

[hellymedic]

The top of the drink will be cool enough to swallow when the rest is too hot - evaporative cooling and all that.

I can never drink a whole 'hot' drink unless it's tepid.

Tepid drinks cannot contribute any significant heat.

[hazeii]

Used to suffer from this a lot (fingers dead and white anywhere from mid-palm up to the tips, taking hours to recover).

One factor I didn't see mentioned above as a trigger is vibration  - cold and winter riding isn't a great combination!

Best answer I've found is to start out warm. Sitting around a warm house with a wound-down metabolism then going out in the cold is a sure-fire trigger. Getting hot inside, whether it's a few minutes housekeeping or a quick spin on a turbo, works wonders.

[Kim]

Best answer I've found is to start out warm. Sitting around a warm house with a wound-down metabolism then going out in the cold is a sure-fire trigger. Getting hot inside, whether it's a few minutes housekeeping or a quick spin on a turbo, works wonders.

This fits in with my approach of getting all the bike faff done at stops before you go inside, ideally you want to be able to step outside, climb onto the bike and start riding, rather than hanging about in the cold before you get going.  If you're in a group, send the faffers out ahead as an advanced party.

If you're starting from home, bring the bike indoors and get all your luggage, lights GPS, water, etc done in advance.  By the time I've done the stairs a couple of times for the last-minute loo visit and forgetting my glasses/gloves/etc I'm reasonably warm, and can just grab the bike and go.

[Tigerbiten]

My trouble is my feet on the bent trike.

I can be absolutely sweating buckets everywhere apart from my feet, which can still be deep frozen.
I think part of the trouble is having my feet higher than my hips doesn't help the circulation to much because as soon as I stop and unclip, my feet warm up.

But when it gets hot I suffer from hot feet instead ..... 

[Kim]

Yeah, I get cold feet on the trike too.  It's worse than a 'bent bike even, because you never need to put a foot down to stop.  And it's definitely circulation rather than airflow, as it happens even when you're hacking through slush at walking speed.

[Wombat]

Only just stumbled across this.  Mrs W suffers from this quite badly, and is on calcium inhibitor stuff which does help.  What some of the earlier contributors didn't twig, (because they don't have Reynauds) is that insulated gloves will have very limited effect, because all the insulation in the world won't help if the hand (or foot, or whatever) isn't generating any heat to be retained.  I can only assume that any remedies are medical ones that help the blood to get around the areas in question, or heated clothing, to put heat in, where the body is failing to do so. Obviously a combination of medical intervention and insulated clothing might also be effective.  A good thread, keep it going!

[hellymedic]

I have never bought in to the idea that 'You won't get the benefit of your coat/hat/scarf/gloves if you wear them indoors.'

If you prewarm the air in your clothing, the extremities will be warmer when they hit the Great Outdoors IMO.

[Kim]

I have never bought in to the idea that 'You won't get the benefit of your coat/hat/scarf/gloves if you wear them indoors.'

Is that a thing?  Basic thermodynamics says otherwise, unless the room temperature is higher than that of your body.

Which isn't to say that pre-emptively filling your clothing with sweat is a bad idea if you can avoid it, but since we're talking about riding bikes, you're going to be doing that anyway.

[hellymedic]

It is a thing.
I like to fill my clothes with warm, dry air.
Moisture/sweat brings evaporative cooling badness.

[bikepacker]

As an addition to my earlier post. My wife tried the heated inner gloves and has found them to be not very good. The battery pack strapped to her arm caused problems and the heat given out was insufficient to make any difference to her cold hands.

Also I reiterate what others have said; with this condition insulation is not the answer as the sufferers hands cannot generate any heat.

[Kim]

That's the other problem - wearably sized battery packs don't actually hold very much energy.  A battery that can run a nice bright LED for a few hours won't actually get you very far in the heating water (or indeed hands) stakes.  Chemical hand warmers work slightly better....for a few minutes at a time.

You could probably get a decent result if you strapped an e-bike sized battery to the frame, but that's not going to be something off-the-shelf and you'd have to make the connections in a way that wasn't a tangling risk.

(Electric assist, incidentally, is a really good way to get cold on a bike - you get more airflow for a given level of effort, and it's the hands and feet that suffer most.)

[hellymedic]

Has anyone tried those wheat bags??

[campagman]

Has anyone tried those wheat bags??

I have. When the outside temp drops below 0 deg.C I use a wheat bag to warm the bottom of my bed. A couple of mins in Micro is good to heat it up.
On the Reynaud's front I am with Helly. My mum always used to say "don't where your coat inside, you won't get the benefit when go out again" but I now know that to be rubbish and think it's all about keeping your core temp good and if that means putting your coat on before going out so the coat warms up before going out then that's good. Putting the coat over a warm rad  is good too.
Before my commute to work I do some Dynamic stretches to help warm me up before going out. It helps a  lot if I put my gloves on before doing these stretches so my hands and gloves are nicely warmed up before going out.

[L CC]

Insulated gloves surely help to stop the extremities losing heat from an initial warmth (of indoors) rather than retaining heat generated outside? Any heat has to be generated elsewhere - central heating, chemical hand warmers etc.
This is what I'm trying to achieve with putting Mr Smith's hands inside my clothes when we stop, anyway. Honest.

[bodach]

  I have used Snowlife heated gloves but found as soon as they became wet the insulating properties collapsed to zilch. They were very good in dry, cold conditions. However I would not recommend them as mine have failed and the makers (in Switzerland) have gone bust and they did cost £250. I do still have the heated insoles from the same maker (£250 again) which I use with thick hillwalking socks inside my Specialised winter boots and I have found these pretty good for all day use. I also take Nifedipine, in cold weather only, for my Raynauds and this does make a real difference, works quickly so need only be taken when really needed. It is important to stay dry and not allow rain to run into your footwear or gloves. Sport Pursuit had some heated gloves for sale very recently which I was going to try. Unfortunately all gone when I tried to buy. I will be trying loose over mitts this year over a good thick pair of gloves to see how I get on. I now have something like 20 pairs of gloves/ mitts trying to solve this difficult problem.