JSHRAM
.060 Over
Not all of us ride in the heat.. heck, I'm a native Alaskan and we never worried about heat, just heating UP! But 8 years ago I moved to the great South West of the USA... and here, you need to figure out how to ride when it is over 100F, or you won't ride in the summer.
The first and obvious thing that happens in the heat and dry is the wind wicks the moisture out of you.. you need to hydrate. As they say in the sandk--box, if you don't need to pee, you're not drinking enough... you might be able to handle being dehyrdated for one day, but not two.. it will wear you down and make you dangerous to yourself and to your mates... drink.
Then there is keeping your core cool. While Harley guys like to wear wife-beater shirts and vests with no helmets, letting the sun hit your skin direclty is bad ju-ju... if you aren't going to wear fully vented armor, at least wear a long sleeve shirt and cover your lid and your face. The sun on your skin will keep your natural evaporative cooling from wicking heat away from your core..
Tried and true: Soak your T-shirt and put it on then go.... I mean take it off and run it under the sink and put it on wet... you will be very cool for about 15-20 minutes.. the evaporation works wonders drastically dropping your core temp. This is how a "cooling vest" works.. it is a fancy vest designd to hold water.. soak it for 5 minutes then put it on and you get about 40 minutes of cooling... then they start to act like insulation and contribute to heating, so you have to stop and re-soak them.
And a recent discovery I made this year completely by accident. I like to wear a hydration pack so I can suck water easily while running.. this year I bought, simply because it was on sale, a Geigerrig hydration pack which has a patented pressurization system.. pump the bulb and the water squirts out the nozzle when squeezed instead of having to suck. This is great when you're winded and climbing.... but, I found that I could un-zip my vented armor coat and simply squeeze the nozzle and it would spray all over my t-shirt wetting it easily while riding.. all with the left hand... I could re-do it as often as I wanted, love it... cool core is the key to riding in the heat.
Anyway, those are my tips of the day.. rode 500 miles in 100F weather a few days ago and the Geigerrig worked amazing. This is not a product placement, I don't own any stock, just was really impressed.
John
The first and obvious thing that happens in the heat and dry is the wind wicks the moisture out of you.. you need to hydrate. As they say in the sandk--box, if you don't need to pee, you're not drinking enough... you might be able to handle being dehyrdated for one day, but not two.. it will wear you down and make you dangerous to yourself and to your mates... drink.
Then there is keeping your core cool. While Harley guys like to wear wife-beater shirts and vests with no helmets, letting the sun hit your skin direclty is bad ju-ju... if you aren't going to wear fully vented armor, at least wear a long sleeve shirt and cover your lid and your face. The sun on your skin will keep your natural evaporative cooling from wicking heat away from your core..
Tried and true: Soak your T-shirt and put it on then go.... I mean take it off and run it under the sink and put it on wet... you will be very cool for about 15-20 minutes.. the evaporation works wonders drastically dropping your core temp. This is how a "cooling vest" works.. it is a fancy vest designd to hold water.. soak it for 5 minutes then put it on and you get about 40 minutes of cooling... then they start to act like insulation and contribute to heating, so you have to stop and re-soak them.
And a recent discovery I made this year completely by accident. I like to wear a hydration pack so I can suck water easily while running.. this year I bought, simply because it was on sale, a Geigerrig hydration pack which has a patented pressurization system.. pump the bulb and the water squirts out the nozzle when squeezed instead of having to suck. This is great when you're winded and climbing.... but, I found that I could un-zip my vented armor coat and simply squeeze the nozzle and it would spray all over my t-shirt wetting it easily while riding.. all with the left hand... I could re-do it as often as I wanted, love it... cool core is the key to riding in the heat.
Anyway, those are my tips of the day.. rode 500 miles in 100F weather a few days ago and the Geigerrig worked amazing. This is not a product placement, I don't own any stock, just was really impressed.
John
