May 4, 2025
Finding the Ideal Riding Temperature: Comfort on Two Wheels
In this episode of the Throttle and Roast podcast, host Niels Meersschaert reflects on his recent coffee ride and the concept of the ideal riding temperature. He shares his personal experience with gear choices, including a non-vented waxed cotton jacket and a windshield, and how these influenced his comfort during the ride. Niels discusses the significant role weather plays in motorcycling and the challenges of maintaining comfort without the climate control systems found in cars. He highlights the importance of appropriate gear and wind protection, as well as how temperature variations can affect rider fatigue and the need for hydration on longer rides.
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00:00 - Introduction
04:02 - Why is weather such a factor?
09:45 - What is the ideal temperature range?
13:28 - Wrap up
WEBVTT
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This soup is too hot. And this soup is too cold. But this soup is just right.
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Welcome to the Throttle and Roast podcast. I'm your host, Niels Meersschaert. I was on a coffee ride earlier this week, and many of the blossoms of spring were evident on the sides of the road. The air was fresh.
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I wasn't feeling too hot with no way to escape, nor was I so cold that I was shivering. It just felt ideal to me. And it got me thinking about what the ideal temperature to ride in is, and if it's even universal, or too much based on personal preference. I'll explore that in this episode.
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So first, let me give a little bit of background of the context of that ride. Because I think for you to have an understanding of why I felt it was such a perfect temperature, you probably need to understand what the temperature was, what kind of riding gear I was on, what sort of bike, etc. Because that's all going to play a role.
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So I was in a waxed cotton jacket with my insulating liner removed. So this is sort of a jacket that I use year round.
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But in the summer months, I take the insulating liner out. So it's not quite so hot. It doesn't have a lot of airflow because there are no vents. Of course, as any sort of fabric jacket, it will have just a little bit of going through just by the nature of the material.
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But there was no explicit vents that are in that particular jacket. So aside from maybe leaving the top buttons undone by my neck, that was really the only source of airflow that I really was getting through the jacket. Now I was on my R18. And because it had still been a bit of chilly weather, I've still had the windshield in place. So that was blocking a little bit of the cooler air, let's say, and providing a little bit of tempering effect to any sort of wind chill that I might experience. I do normally ride in the warmer weather of the summer months with the windshield taken off. And I only put it on for the fall, late fall going into winter and then through the the temperature when I first left for this coffee ride, it was about 55 degrees Fahrenheit or 13 degrees Celsius.
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by the time I returned home, it was up to about 65 degrees Fahrenheit or 18 degrees Celsius.
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The skies were blue with plenty of sun. So it was a pretty beautiful day. And for me, the effects of the gear and everything is, you know, as I said, that airflow was more restricted because I had that windshield in place. I didn't have a vented jacket on, but I had no insulation nor heated gear. It was just a normal ride in terms of its temperature that I had on the jacket, right?
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There was nothing that I was doing to sort of adjust for hotter temperatures nor for cooler temperatures. It was sort of that Goldilocks sort of positioning, at least in terms of my riding And how I felt was, I felt perfect on the way out.
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It was still a bit of room before it would feel too hot. You know, when I got home, you know, it was getting closer to it. It was, as I said, about 65 degrees Fahrenheit, which is about 18 degrees Celsius when I got home. And I think if it was maybe a few degrees warmer, it might've been getting right on the cusp of it, feeling a little too warm for the conditions that I had. As I said, completely clear skies. I had the windshield in place and I was wearing a non-vented jacket And it's important to realize that when we think of riding a motorcycle, the weather is a big factor into our comfort level what sort of gear we choose to use for the ride.
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Maybe any sort of adjustments we make to the bike because, you know, we're not in a car, we don't have a temperature control or climate control system that is adjusting the heat and the cooling for us automatically. We are effectively at the whim of what nature is throwing at us.
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So in cold weather, you know, we can of course add in layers if we're feeling a little too cold or even add in heated gear for when it's really cold. I do this in the winter months here. I've ridden as low as three degrees Fahrenheit, which is well below zero Celsius, Of course, when you're on a bike and you're doing 60-70 miles an hour, you're going to have a bit of that windchill effect too. So it was way below zero in terms of the windchill effect. But I was toasty warm because I was wearing heated gear along with, of course, layers and proper protection from wind elements.
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And the other thing is that you can add in that wind protection that I mentioned. Windshields are a big factor for helping to temper some of the temperature variation that you would But at the same time, they can also be a negative effect because in the warmer weather, that windshield is now blocking some of that airflow. And as a consequence, the bike might feel a little bit warmer than it would have otherwise. And because it's feeling so much warmer for you, you're going to now start to get a little bit more fatigued.
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You're going to maybe need to drink more often and not be able to ride for as long. You're going to have to take more breaks as you're going along.
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Now, of course, in hot weather, in addition to maybe removing that windshield, and I'm fortunate because on my R18, I have the capability to remove the windshield. On my scooter, I also mount a windshield for the winter months and then take it off in the summer months. And a couple of my other bikes are naked bikes, so they never had a windshield really to begin with, although I have sort of a little bit of adjustment that I can do on my sport bike of a slightly taller. You could think of it more as like a fly screen. So it does help a little bit, but it's not going to be really blocking a lot of wind. And then on my adventure bike, I do switch to a shorter windshield in the summer months, so I actually will get a little bit more airflow as a consequence for that. Versus the stock windshield is phenomenal and blocks a lot of airflow. But again, that hot weather, the more wind protection that you have, the less airflow. Now you don't have that cooling effect that you would get when you're riding at speed. The other thing, of course, that you can do in the hot weather is switch to a mesh jacket. And I was not wearing a mesh jacket, obviously, for this ride earlier in the week. But a mesh jacket would get me even more airflow and could help make it where the warmer temperatures are not going to feel quite as hot as they would otherwise with a jacket that doesn't have any natural airflow coming through it. Another thing that could be a factor for us in terms of that temperature is whether it was a beautiful, clear blue sky day like it was on that day versus an overcast day. Of course, an overcast day, you don't have that radiant heat from the sun hitting you, which is going to warm you up more just naturally.
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so an overcast day, you might be able to go a little bit further in terms of that temperature range of going a little bit warmer temperatures. Whereas on the downside of it, if it's a little bit overcast and cooler temperatures, you may need to layer up a little bit. So this is this is where that range kind of comes together. Of course, in really hot weather, we can try to add in a cooling vest and that does help a bit. And if you're not familiar with what a cooling vest is, these are vests that you typically fill with water. There's usually two varieties, one that actually has internal bladder that you actually fill with water. And it then is able to cool over a much longer period of time. The other one is kind of more of a swamp cooler. You'd actually soak it in water. The vest itself is now wet and it's wet against your body. And it tends to dry out a little bit quicker. But both of them kind of do the same effect, which is leveraging the cooling effect of having some water, almost like sweat would be, to aid in removing some of that temperature. And it does really help in really, really warm temps.
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But, and this is the really critical it depends upon the external humidity level. So, if it's already a high humidity level, you're not going to really get a benefit from that cooling vest because there's nothing to evaporate. The water in the air is already saturated, so it can't pull the moisture from the jacket or from the cooling vest, rather, to cool you down as much as you would otherwise. And this is where you can start to feel a little jealous of those people who are still riding and driving around in their car because the car will have air conditioning. And air conditioning not only adds in a cooling effect, but it also removes the making it feel a little bit warmer. A again, this day that I was riding, temperature was perfect, it was in that 30-50% range, so it was a perfect, not too muggy, not super dry, it was just an ideal sort of temperature.
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And I think this is where it gets me to thinking about, well, what is an ideal temperature range?
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And is that ideal temperature range defined by that one where you don't need to make a lot of adjustments to your bike in order to be comfortable or adjustments to your riding gear in order to be comfortable? If I can just throw on a jacket and go and not have to worry about, oh, I've got to off or put on windshields or do all this other stuff, it's more convenient. It makes it a little bit easier to just get out and go. That, to me, feels like what an ideal temperature range would be. And for me, I think this is probably in that around 55 degrees Fahrenheit to degrees Fahrenheit, which would be about 13 Celsius to 21 Celsius. I find that that temperature range is, for me, probably the ideal one. And the reason is, is that it's cool enough that I'm not feeling like I'm sweating in my riding gear.
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Remember, I might, if I was just standing around outside, I might just be wearing a T-shirt on the upper end of that spectrum. But on the bottom end of that spectrum, I'd normally be wearing a jacket. So this gives me a little bit of insulation, a little bit of wind protection against the elements as I'm out on the bike. Bu it's also warm enough that I don't feel the need to think about more layers or even heated gear. I mean, I don't even bother with heated gear if it's, you know, unless it's below like 45 or 40 degrees Fahrenheit, because it's just, you can layer up. You don't even need the heated gear quite yet.
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And in essence, this really kind of makes it this Goldilocks temperature. It's not too hot.
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It's not too cold. But rather, it's just right. And personally, I'd rather be cooler than too hot because I can always add layers. And this is just another way that I sort of adjust for on the bikes is all often if I have, let's say, a backpack on or if I have saddlebags on the bike, I'll just throw in like a sweatshirt or another layer, whatever it ends up being. I have a windproof layer from AeroStitch, which is another great, very compact way to give you a little bit of variability.
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So that if the temperature changes or I move into an area, maybe I go up into the mountains where the temperature is a little bit lower, altitude is a little higher. It's going to feel a little cooler. I might then throw that on just to give me a little bit of adjustment into there. But this is why I prefer it to be a little cooler than hotter because I have that flexibility of adding in the layers. At a certain point, once it gets too I don't really have an option. And especially if I chose to go out that morning with maybe a jacket which didn't have mesh and I didn't have a cooling vest with me, I'm kind of stuck. If it's too hot, I'm just going to be sitting there sweating and miserable and just being, I hate this ride. This ride really sucks. But when you have that ideal temperature range, it's kind of magical moment where you could feel like you could just keep riding for hours and hours and hours. And fatigue is not necessarily playing a role into you that the heat will do. It's not going to be this feeling of, oh, I got to stop and take a drink of something because I'm actually getting parched. You don't have those impacts into there, nor is it so cold that you're getting like shivering and like, I just want to get inside and like drink a hot beverage and get back into the warmth. It's that sort of, I could just keep riding in this temperature forever. And that to me is that Goldilocks. That is that ideal temperature.
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So what do we talk about this episode? Well, I discussed this coffee ride that got me thinking about what is the ideal temperature and what the weather and the gear will have an influence on that ride. And certainly what was the conditions in that ride that I took. I also discussed how we might adjust our gear and even the bike to adjust or compensate for some temperature variation.
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And finally, I wrapped up with what I sort of consider the ideal temperature range. So my question for you is, what is your ideal temperature and weather for riding? Share your thoughts through the text show link in the show notes or leave a voicemail at throttleandroast.
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com/voicemail. Thanks for listening. I'll talk to you next week.
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