A GUIDE TO WARMERS
The humble knee, leg and arm warmer is a very useful bit of kit as we head into the seasons where the temp range you experience during your ride starts to vary between "quite warm" and "a bit chilly”.
They allow a gradual bridging of the gap between your high summer outfit and your deep winter kit because you can put them on or take them off at any point in your ride as conditions dictate. Anyone who has ever set out in the morning in thermal tights and a jacket only to catch some unexpected sun an hour later knows that by this point your only option is sweating it out! You'd do anything for the option of taking a layer off and this is exactly where warmers come into play.
Of course, the opposite can be true as well - you may have set off in a lovely bit of October evening sun only to find at 18.30 the heat isn't what it was and your still an hour away from sanctuary - the ability to slip on the arm and knee warmers at this point can be a game-changer.
All warmers should be worn under the short leg/jersey sleeve for max function and style points. Their lofted fabric on the inside should be touching the skin to do its job of trapping warm air, and like most performance cycling kit they are designed to fit snug. Our warmers also feature an external gripper strip to stop the shorts leg or jersey sleeve from sliding up and leaving a gap of exposed skin. If they get wet, no problem, they dry faster and also wick any sweat away faster when the correct size is worn.
The choice between knee and full leg warmer is down to you, but generally, we'd say go full leg when it’s a bit colder - they both cover the most important area to keep warm when cycling which is your knees! You don't want that lubricating fluid in your knee cap getting cold if you can help it, and annoyingly you may not even feel it when it is too cold on the ride - but you might know about it a few years down the line if you repeatedly ride with them unprotected in cold conditions.
If you do go for full leg warmers your final decision is socks under or socks over in the Belgian stylee'. And this is not our place to advise.
