This past week the weather in Boston took a winter turn and I had to dig around for some of my winter gear. I somewhat subscribe to an expression I heard from a native of Norway – “There is no such thing as bad weather, there is just bad clothing.” As long as I have the right gear, I don’t mind riding in cold weather. My toes and fingers definitely need protection in cold temps, but I have never had an issue with my face. When I have tried to wear face covers of some sort, I have found breathing through them to be annoying.

Reader Dave (website here) rides in the cold and contacted us about posting his way of protecting his face from cold winter temperatures. This is reminiscent of a previous post. Are these hacks a pathway to the dark side or light side?  Take it away Dave . . . 

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I ride mountain bike throughout the winter months in Southeast Michigan. Goggles and face wraps just weren’t working for me as I’d end up coming home with red, wind-burned facial skin from the exhaled condensed air freezing on my face. In addition, lung burn was common from inhaling oncoming incident cold air through my mouth and nose. An extensive online market survey was conducted to determine product alternatives to improve the comfort when biking in cold weather. As there were no reasonably-priced alternatives that I found in the market survey, I developed the Face Comfort Shield for Cold Weather Bicycle Riding and I’m very pleased with the performance of this product after using it during the previous 4 winter riding seasons (2015, 2016, 2017, 2018).

In my opinion, the Face Comfort Shields provide cold weather bikers with a more comfortable alternative for cold weather biking than goggles and face wraps. After the biker properly dons the safety helmet, the face comfort shield carrier (yellow component) is fitted on the forehead below the front of the helmet and secured with an adjustable elastic strap that wraps over the helmet and onto the back of the head.

The shield and strap do not affect position of the safety helmet fitting to the biker’s head. The face shield improves comfort in cold weather riding when compared to the comfort level offered by eye goggles or a cloth material face wrap. The shape and angle of the shield provides an optimum combination of clear vision for the biker with minimum peripheral visual distortion. The forward angle of the shield allows for an efficient mixing of inhaled and exhaled air reducing cold strain on sinus and lungs while minimizing the propensity for fogging. If fogging becomes an issue in very cold weather, the use of a non-toxic anti-fogging spray can be used. The shorter shield offers comfort for moderately cold weather (35-45F) biking while the longer shield offers comfort for the bitter cold winter rides (below 35F).