Last year I wore a hodge podge of gear composed off Farm and Fleet bibs with Sports Authority jacket with Menard's $25 special rubber boots with 3 layers of socks (non-snowmobiling junk) and seemed to have done alright. I finally bought some decent gear and dropped the coin on some good snowmobiling boots. The most common brands you're going to see and find are FXR (think of the early 2000s FOX craze, and that's FXR now), Klim (expensive but reeeaaalllyyy nice gear), 509, Castle X, and then manufacturer gear (Ski-Doo, Arctic Cat, etc) which is really just rebranded gear from the previous. There are a ton of brands but the ones I listed are the "popular" ones. I have FXR jacket and bibs, and Klim boots and gloves.
Honestly, the boots and helmet/balaclava are the three most important items, IMO. My feet were constantly cold last year from the crappy boots I had but my head was fine from my helmet and balaclava. The jacket and bibs I had were also fine but no one could see me because I had no reflective material (ask [MENTION=16]PANDA[/MENTION] and [MENTION=340]Eagle[/MENTION]).
Klim uses Goretex for water-resistance and you're going to pay easily 1.5-2 times the price for Klim over other brands but their gear is top-notch but bland. FXR is flashy and uses a knock-off of Goretex called HydrX but seems to insulate very well. Not sure about anything else.
IMO, invest in good boots. I just bought some nice Klim boots that look like a beefier version of my combat boots from the Marine Corps with a fuck ton of insulation and water-proofing. I also bought some Klim gloves because, again,Goretex and water-proofing. The FXR stuff will be fine because I can easily brush snow and junk off jacket/bibs but if water/ice gets in my boot, game over. I'm going home.
That's my newbie experience thus far. i'm sure [MENTION=19]Yaj Yak[/MENTION] will come in and call me a retard but as much as I love the cold, I'd rather be prepared with good gear since I actually enjoy the fuck out of this sport.
you are a retard.
not for any of the things you said there, but just in general.
joking aside... one of the biggest things your write up forgot... and is probably why your feet were cold... is good socks. like $20-$40 a pair good socks.
NEVER wear more than one pair of socks. that is when you fuck yourself. get a great pair of socks or three... i have smart wool & point 6 socks. from smart wool, they don't directly make a snowmobile sock (at least they didn't before, probably do now)... so i wear their snowboard lineup/ski socks... they have padding in the shins so that's a nice touch
i also wear my beat to shit K2 Prime Boa Snowboard boots and my feet couldn't be happier.
they are super supportive, warm, and easy to walk in, and extremely light as well.
i would totally rock fancy klim/fxr whatever shiiiit. butttt. i don't and didn't to save dollars... buying a "snowmobile coat" to me is important though, because of reflective material. my all black snowboard coat i bought, didn't have shit on it, and i might as well been invisible at night.
i wear some nicer (no idea on brand) snowmobile pants with suspenders built in- not the bibs that go up to your nipples. i don't like how the bibs feel and never have...
to me on the doo's, pants are pretty important becuase your knees will be out in the wind more often than not.
that leads me to my next point and seems to be forgotten here as well. base layer is insanely important. buy really good long underwear and wear it...
http://shop.hellyhansen.com/us/products/men/base-layer/
i have some helly hansen wool stuff like that and it's the best decision ive made for clothing stuff for cold. it wicks away moisture to keep you dry and keep you warm... once you sweat. you're fucked. if you have clothing to get the moisture away from your body, you will stay warm.
for me, gloves were important but no where as much as the other stuff.... doo's handlebar warmers get to the temperature of the sun, and you can basically ride barehanded
for me having flexibility in my hands & fingers outweighed the importance of having an insanely warm bulky glove. the carbureated doo's have a pretty hearty throttle that takes some oooomph to put into it, and i found that my super insanely warm thick gloves were awful to ride with, and went and invested in some simple thinner skidoo gloves on clearance from somewhere.