cycling in shorts in 10 degrees?

[mrandy]

good bye knees if you go out regular at this temperature without keeping them warm

[Silver Smudger]

JFReturns said:

john_p said:

What sort of damage can be done to knees from the cold?

Good question...

I'd like to know too - PE at school was always in shorts - Junior school was year-round shorts. I may be older now but never feel any ill effects on the bike, even in snow. Last year I was out in one short- and one long-sleeve shirt, buff over mouth and nose, but shorts only on the legs.

Why should I avoid this this year?

[Parsnip]

Silver Smudger said:

JFReturns said:

john_p said:

What sort of damage can be done to knees from the cold?

Good question...

I'd like to know too - PE at school was always in shorts - Junior school was year-round shorts. I may be older now but never feel any ill effects on the bike, even in snow. Last year I was out in one short- and one long-sleeve shirt, buff over mouth and nose, but shorts only on the legs.

Why should I avoid this this year?

Two theories:

The Synovial fluid (think Castrol GTX for your knees) gets more viscous at low temperature, so the knee is a lot stiffer.

The muscles around the knee relax less between contractions when cold.

Don't know what it can actually do - arthritis seems like an obvious one though - as does "knee pain" but as to what actually causes the "knee pain" I have no idea.

[zebedee]

and knees are exposed to a steady airflow whilst doing a lot of pivoting, unlike any other part of your body and have no real flesh or padding on them!

[okgo]

Its the constant 20mph winds too that do them no good. I can't see that many people run at that speed for hours on end.