Everyone who has ridden a bike any real distance in the cold has likely noticed a few things. Due to the speed to effort ratio of the bicycle, certain thermal realities have different relationships than they do on foot.
For example; a cyclist who is going up a hill can easily become hot and sweaty in clothing that would not sufficiently protect a sedentary person from the cold. If, however, they were to go down a hill shortly thereafter, they might find themselves facing an improbable gust of wind... with increasingly wet clothing from the prior effort.
To say nothing of if such a poorly protected cyclist were to start by coasting downhill in clothing insufficient to... either way welcome to my commute.
Now, there seems to be a vast array of, well, fiber technology meant to protect someone in just this scenario. I found that even wearing a $10 jogging undershirt made a huge difference over cotton. ("Cotton kills" as the boy scouts say.)
But that segue into my question: what exactly were people doing BEFORE spandex (aka lycra) and other synthetic fibers?
If you believe the industry, you'd think you HAVE to have the more advanced stuff, but I doubt that people just stopped riding in the winter before it was invented... or did they?
(And can I avoid buying any kit by imitating them?)