If you find them a little too thick to shift gears effectively you can always just trim the index finger and thumb or make a slit about halfway down that your finger can poke through if you want to retain the option to tuck them back in side for a bit of warmth on that long straight.
Cycling tights over my cycling shorts to keep the legs warm. Cycling gloves. I wear an “underarmor” type tshirt that wicks sweat away instead of my regular cycling jersey, and then i wear a cycling jacket on top of that that has venting in the back.
I regulate my body heat using my jacket zipper to regulate the size of my neck opening.
That’s averaging 20mph. You must be !@#$ing superman. :)
Depending on how cold it gets even the thinnest gloves will work for frozen hands. My favorites are from a halloween costume and are spandex with glow in the dark plastic bones on them - they work great.
Layering is the key to comfortable biking in moderately cold/wet weather.
Its always cold when you start and you should be pretty warm from exertion halfway through so a couple of unzippable layers is nice.
Always wear a helmet - even when its nasty hot. When its cold I wear a thin stocking cap or even better for my ears, a hoody that I then put the helmet over. It holds the hoody in place and keeps my ears toasty (don’t sacrifice periferal vision for comfort though).
Edit - I’m a commuter biker and have a nice used bike I bought 10 years ago for $100 and put a $200 tune up on (including fenders). I never wear “biking” gear and in the mornings always wear my work clothes (under a water-proof pair of sweats if its raining). Unless you are biking straight uphill or riding like a bat out of hell you shouldn’t be too sweaty by the time you get to work. Keep a towel at your desk.
Oh, dude. how could i have forgotten the most important part?
A headband that has ear warmers on them. My ears would fall off if I didn’t have them.
You’re sure that isn’t a cock-warmer?
If I wore a kilt to work, I’d probably use it as one. Why do you ask? :-D
What? I can solve irrigation problems for a small village with the amount of sweat I produce. Maybe I’m a sweaty person.
Where did you get that?
Those are excellent for running in winter, too. At least in places where there’s a real winter.
I bike to work every day, but I’m only about 3 miles from my office. For winter I bought a snowboarding helmet that has a removable liner that comes down out of the helmet and has ear flaps. It’s very warm and comfortable. I also have a balaclava and a scarf that I put on if the cold and wind on my face get to be too much.
Some rain pants and a good light rain jacket are a good purchase, especially if you’re going to be biking in work clothes. You can get rain pants at REI that roll up into a pouch a little bigger than a coke can. Definitely a good thing to have. In the winter I wear two pairs of gloves on the coldest days, one of them with neoprene and rated to “very cold weather,” and after my 15-minute ride my hands are numb (though dry!). I don’t have a good system there yet. Good luck with that.
I guess it’s not not just a snowboarding helmet, but an “action sports” helmet. Whatever. Either way it’s comfortable and solid.
15 miles one-way for a beginner is awfully ambitious. And a rather large chunk of time. I did about half that when I was a teen-ager, but I also ran cross-country and track (and had no other means of transportation until the job paid enough for me to get a motorcycle). And it was during the summer. It just becomes a huge chunk of time to commit to ride 30 miles a day.
REI. $13.
http://www.rei.com/product/725705
I have to adjust the chin strap on my helmet a bit to accommodate the slightly extra bulk.