Cold weather riding gear question for the sake of my knees

A couple of questions, firstly, how cold, for me I have a couple of rules that work for my body, no riding below 40 degrees, no running below 20 degrees, if its lower I get on the trainers. Secondly, your note mentions sweat pants, did you mean old fashioned sweat pants? If so, that could be your problem, they will hold moisture and thus make you feel the cold that much more, try switching if you haven't to the micro fiber outfits they really work great at wicking the moisture away. Also, I have had problems with knee and muscle soreness I use one of the "icey hot" rubs to increase blood flow.

Pearl izumi makes some great cold weather tights with extra knee protection...or you could buy their knee warmers. I love the stuff.

On those colder mornings and evenings, I put on a pair of nylon pants. It helps keeping legs (and all other stuff !!) warm...

Christian.

I echo what Special K said: No riding when the temps are below 40.  That being said, performancebike.com sells arm and leg sleeves that can be worn with regular bike shorts and jerseys that can be used to keep everything warm.  I bought those last year because I didn't want to shell out the money for tights.  I had plenty of bike shorts; I didn't need tights.  They work very well in temps around 40-55. 

Special,

I was wearing the old fashioned sweat pants. I guess I'm a bit on the old fashioned side. The temp was about 36(?). It warmed up later to about 40-ish but that wasn't until after lunchtime.

I have been pretty cheap and will look into what the others said as well.

Thanks everyone else for your help.

I forgot to mention that by "colder mornings" I meant -20 to -25degC (~ -10F). You probably don't want to wear nylon pants when its above the freezing point as you'll quickly get very wet inside your pants..

CHristian.

It's late winter which mean ski gear should be on sale. I find that my ski gear works great when I'm on my bike and it's cold out. Checkout a pair of thermals?