Riding in the heat

[PeterL]

With the heat index rising to uncomfortable levels, just as we're all looking to get back out there, it's vital to make sure you are safe, alert,  and as reasonably comfortable as possible.

Hydration is number one- I like to carry a camelback, either under my jacket or in my tankbag. It's really nice to be able to wet my whistle whenever I feel the urge. If you can't do that, at least carry a bottle or so with you, rather than having to look for a store that might be 2 hours away. If you don't need it, another rider might. Salt pills are also a good addition to your kit.

I love mesh gear. I love it even more when I put it on over a lightweight base layer I've soaked with water first. The evaporative cooling while you ride can make even a hundred degree day feel comfortable. For a while anyway! If that isn't an option, consider a 'neck cooler'. These are bandanna-like tubes that are filled with a water-absorbent polymer. You soak them in water (or carry it in a wet ziplock) and when you tie it around your neck, the evaporative cooling while you ride means you have at least some defense against the heat. My wife and I made a bunch of these a few years back as part of a benefit for a rider injured in a local club race, adding a few extra inches to the 'normal' length to allow more secure knotting. We still have folks wearing them to events here, and asking when we're making more!

What else do you do to cope with the heat? Let us know.

Ride safe all.

[bowlin01]

I live in England, we don't have heat here that's how I cope with it (although the rain occasionally gets warm) 😂😂🤣

[rustyshackles]

This article is the last word on the subject IMO. Until reading this I reached for mesh when the heat was really on.

 

https://www.ironbutt.com/ibmagazine/ironbutt_1002_62-66_Hot.pdf

[jthayer09]

Wearing moisture wicking base layers (compression shirts) and drinking water when stopped is the only method I've found to work once the ambient temperature is higher than body temp. 

It's the only way I can ride when I visit my family in Taiwan.

If you're worried about people judging you at your destination there's plenty of normal clothing that's poly/cotton blend. I've found 65/35 poly to cotton will keep you cool if you're moving.

[Lone Wolf]

1 hour ago, rustyshackles said:

...Until reading this I reached for mesh when the heat was really on.

https://www.ironbutt.com/ibmagazine/ironbutt_1002_62-66_Hot.pdf

How's that working for you? Better without the mesh?

That diagram shows you have to perspire twice as much to maintain the same skin temperature - however I was curious about real world experience with that.

It seems if you sweat a lot in mesh and it evaporates, you would get more cooling than being wrapped up like a tamale.

I have ridden in heat both ways and seemed to prefer the mesh, but maybe I need to do more, like moistened underlayers or something.

Edited June 15, 2021 by Lone Wolf

[draco_1967]

With mesh it really hot and dry conditions, the moisture evaporates faster than it can transfer heat from your body. Your body wants to sweat more as a result, which will cause dehydration faster. Humid conditions will change things quite a bit. Nothing helps in humidity  

A few years back, I was riding from the Pacific coast across the central valley from Oakland. It was 106. I had a Klim Latitude suit, which is a lightweight Gortex suit with a lot of vents. I closed up all the vents, opened the sleeve cuffs and collar, and the air would circulate inside the jacket. The cooling effect was quite nice. 

Now I ride most of the time in an Aerostich R3. From about 85-95, I prefer mesh for day rides. I don't like mesh when it's really hot. It just feels like sitting in front of a giant hair dryer. Really, for me it's less about the comfort and more about hydration. I feel hot in both mesh and non-mesh gear, but when it's really hot and I'm wearing mesh, I drink a ton more water and still feel dried out. 

The microfiber neck wrap is a really good tool. There is a ton of blood flowing through there, and the cooling wraps will do a lot to help feel cooler until they dry out. 

[angrygirafe]

I’m about to ride home from work, and it will be 118 . I do wear a mesh jacket, but at this heat, I think a lightweight, non-mesh jacket would be more comfortable. My only other option currently is a Klim Latitude, but that’s heavier than I’d like for commuting. I do wear the full set on trips. But it gets to a point where feeling the hot air blowing against your skin is more uncomfortable than being buttoned up in something that isn’t so breathable. I also close all the vents on my helmet, as the hot air blowing across my face is super uncomfortable. Tinted shield, and ALWAYS closed. 

[Lone Wolf]

1 hour ago, draco_1967 said:

With mesh in really hot and dry conditions, the moisture evaporates faster than it can transfer heat from your body. Your body wants to sweat more as a result, which will cause dehydration faster...

OK, it is starting to sink in. I just went for a ride at 100 degrees wearing my usual mesh, and noticed I had some sweat along my back. Everything else was bone dry, and I became very thirsty even though I drank twice as much water as yesterday.

That was an interesting article, because if it is simply warm outside the mesh can work. I rode in the 80's a couple days ago and could feel the evaporative cooling across my chest. Not today at 100 degrees.

I may look into these 

Motorcycle Cooling Vests - RevZilla

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Motorcycle Cooling Vests - Free Shipping, No Hassle...

 

 

Edited June 15, 2021 by Lone Wolf

[PeterL]

Interesting. Never been an Ironbutt type, but it makes sense they'd know a fair bit about it. 

I spent a week one afternoon riding back from Yosemite on I-5. I'd gone in via 120 (mountains, trees, cool), but a fire had closed that route for our trip home. Wife and I were in standard non-mesh gear and we felt like dying. No amount of drink, food, or supplements seemed to help. It was probably 110 F or so, and that road is the WORST! Straight line for hundreds of miles. You can go hours between tree sightings. And you'd think the state bird was the CHP helicopter, nemesis of everything fun. Never was I so glad to see the sun go down.

I like the mesh with a moist baselayer when it's hot, as that works best for my personal biology. But then I tend toward bikes with copious luggage spaces that I can use to carry lots of spares. Naked bikes have it a lot tougher.

[taylormade21]

I like to freeze one of those neck gators in water inside a small Tupperware the night before. During the beginning of the ride, I'll wear another gator that was soaked in cold water. About 1/2 to 3/4 the way through a days ride, that frozen gator has now since thawed and is still ice cold and ready. As it drips and soaks the jacket, it's instant relief and so gratifying at speed.

The gator is also good about keeping the sun off my neck and can be used in areas where masks are still required.

[daboo]

When I was planning for my post-retirement ride, I tried to read everything I could about riding in hot weather.  Like bowlin01, I live in a very temperate climate.  In this case, the Pacific Northwet, instead of England.  But the climate is about the same.  When the temperature hits 80F, I'm dying.  What will I do for riding in temps in the 90s and 100+F...that are normal for where I'd be riding?

One article that was extremely helpful is from David Hough, When You're Hot, You're HOT!

Quote

The ride south over the Siskiyou Mountains from Oregon to California started out cool enough. Up at 4,000 feet, it was chilly enough that I was glad I had added the jacket liner and neck warmer. But a hundred miles later, as I descend down into the Sacramento Valley, the temperature begins to soar. By the time I reach Oroville, the temperature signs are flashing 118 F. It's another hundred and fifty miles to the rally site at Mariposa in triple-digit temperatures.

A rider passes by in the opposite lane, jacket bungeed on the back, bare chest exposed to the hot blast. I wave, but there is no response. His exposed skin is red, and he doesn't even appear to have noticed me, a bad sign that he's on the fringe of heat exhaustion. I don't wish any problems on a fellow motorcyclist, but there are lots of riders who have to contribute to the statistics before they crack the code.

To continue the ride, I go into hot weather survival mode...

At 93F, your thyroid can no longer keep up with the heat.  Sweat evaporates before you get any cooling effect.  Skin exposed to the air feels like you have a hair dryer blowing on the high setting on your body.  You can't reach for the air-conditioning button, so you have to plan ahead.

The first time I crossed South Dakota, I pulled into a rest stop.  I had several hours to go yet, and the temps were blistering.  I was offered the only shade by a couple who were also riding.  He had a Goldwing, she had a Victory Vision.  She said they had cooling vests, but those only lasted 30 minutes.  Hmm...

My cooling vest was still working.  All of us had mesh gear.  The difference?  I had a Hit-Air airbag vest on.  The vest blocked air going into the chest area...where the cooling vest was.  It let in some...but not all of it.  I was still getting a cooling effect, and they lost theirs almost immediately.  Lesson learned.

When I went south to Utah, I brought several pairs of gloves.  When it got hot, I turned to mesh gloves.  After a couple days of that heat, my hands were getting extremely painful.  I'd long passed what hand lotion could take care of.  I was actually at the point of using Chapstick on the painful areas when I went to a pair of leather gloves.  They were silver in colour and had pin holes in them to help them breathe.  Within the day, my hands recovered.  I wore those for the rest of the trip.  They had air flowing through them...but not too much.

There's a lesson here.  Get air flow above 93F...but limit it.  Restrict the airflow enough that you sweat...so you can cool down.

Last September, I rode down into Eastern Oregon and spent hours at 110F and more.  It was doable, but only because I'd planned ahead.  I had my cooling vest.  I was also wearing a Cycle Gear long sleeved base layer.  The sleeves kept the hot air from directly contacting the skin.  That's important.

 

When I was heading to South Dakota that first time, I pulled into a small town diner for lunch.  A large family came in and took a table in the center of the room.  Before my bill came, I went out to the bike and got my cooling vest.  I pulled it out of the gallon sized zip-loc bag where it had been soaking in water.  As I was putting it on and it dripped water onto the carpet, a teenaged girl looked at me with this look of total unbelief.  "He must be crazy!", I'm sure she was thinking.  I was only thinking of how I was putting on my air-conditioning and how great that would be when I went outside. 

Chris 

Edited June 16, 2021 by daboo

[OZVFR]

We cop it here in Oz, the hottest long ride I ever did was at 46°C (114F) and wore my full leathers with the vents opened.

It was only bad when you stopped, and you get used to it, continuously hydrating is very important.

I do have a mesh jacket and kevlar jeans but won't wear them on long trips.

 

Edited June 16, 2021 by OZVFR

[Lone Wolf]

11 hours ago, daboo said:

...One article that was extremely helpful is from David Hough, When You're Hot, You're HOT!

That was good, and that article linked to another that I found even more helpful 

12 Ways to Ride Cool

 

[rustyshackles]

Another good article, thanks for sharing @Lone Wolf.  I will add one thing to the electrolyte information that's less known outside of athletics.  A number of companies sell electrolyte capsules which take up next to no room and allow you to stick with water and avoid sports drinks.   Powders and other formulations are out there, I like the simplicity of the capsule.

[daboo]

2 hours ago, Lone Wolf said:

That was good, and that article linked to another that I found even more helpful 

12 Ways to Ride Cool

Another is 10 Hot Weather Riding Myths - BUSTED

Chris