I'm allergic to wool.
Winter comes, I carry an entire goodwill store of silks, rayons, and cashmeres with me.
I have a double extra large set of scrub bottoms that I can pull on over my trousers.
Silk pajama bottoms add a little bit of warmth, great wicking, and almost no bulk.
I always have an extra pair of gloves and extra hat in the bottom of my pack. This is often in addition to the 2 or 3 I might have on.
I found some glare ice on Millvale last year, coming down from Liberty. I hit the brakes. I went right down. The only thing that saved my ass was that I was doing my pillsbury doughboy imitation, so I was well-padded.
The thing about glare ice on a hill is that you're like the coyote running off the cliff - you just keep going blissfully along after you've left solid ground.
A few years ago, I think there must have been frozen rain while I was at work.
I was going down the gentle slope of Elmer Street east toward to Negley. In a kind of controlled fashion, I put on my brakes, then put down a foot, then set the bike and me down in the street. No deceleration at all.
I slid another 12 or 15 feet, grooving along comfortably, but in despair, at about 8 or 9 miles an hour. I went onto the edge of Negley and was just lucky there was no car coming.
When I walked back roughly the way I came, I found out there were whole blocks I had ridden that were so slick that I could barely keep balance using my bike as a walker.
I guess I need to get some studded tires.
Mick