Moving from California to Toronto this fall I forgot how miserable my hands get when the needle drops below freezing. I had seen some pogies online and in some stores but noting seemed worth the expenditure. MEC, a Canadian retailer, sells them here but they looks a bit cheese. Some were a bit nicer but with a price tag I am not trying to hit. I saw this thread on MTBR and got inspired to make a set myself.
The main objectives were to make something more compact and user friendly than many I had seen. The goal was to make them easy enough to take on and off that I would actually use them as well as keeping them from being embarrassingly large. The single speed also helped keep things slim as I don't need thumb/point dexterity (albeit these would work fine for a geared setup).
I went to the fabric store and got some Cordura and light insulation. From what I read you do not need/want thick insulation as it will make them unusable in anything above 20f. The product I found had a thin feltish side and a thin almost neoprene reverse side. The neoprene side would be on the hand side to promote sliding in and out.
I had seen some that were two ply with a dart sewn in for structure as well as some that featured a 3rd vertical layer to give structure. Some of the two-ply ones also used a stiffener like thin plastic to keep the opening shape and fore/aft rigidity. My goal was to not have to use a stiffener and keep it two-ply. The choice of the thicker cordura material makes this possible.
This thread would be worthless without pictures right? Here are some terrible ones. Huawei phones make poor cameras.
I first made a poor template on cardboard and cut it out onto some spare fabric. The first attempt was actually fairly close but required a second. You can see I wanted a "press-fit" on the bar/lever end. A lot of designs use a velcro lashing to tame the gaping opening. I wanted to avoid this.
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Here are the three iterations or templates.
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The cut fabric.
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Macro shots are apparently not possible but you can get an idea of the two fabrics.
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The only made two final adjustments. I stitched in some velcro in the opening bar opening between bar and brake lever as well as using some elastic on the inside to pull the pogies rearward. They attached to the end of the grip. Ourys have that nice lip to hold on the elastic.
I was super stoked with the outcome and took a spin around the block without gloves in a windy 20-25f which left my hands nice and toasty. I doubt I would use anything but a light MTB glove above 15f.
Anyone else with experience with pogies? I can grab other shots if anyone is interested in a terrible but detailed photo.
