Sacrifice safety for a cooler ride? Tips to stay protected.

It's hot. It's damn hot. Real hot. What's it like? It's hot. Welcome to the Throttle and Roast podcast. I'm your host, Niels Meersschaert. In today's episode, I'll be looking at hot riding. I'd come across a post recently in a new motorcycle group asking how people deal with the heat when riding. And as I record this, we've had several days of upper 90 degree Fahrenheit weather here in New York as we've had a little bit of a heat So it's the perfect time to address this topic. so I saw this question posed in one of the new motorcycle rider groups. And they asked during the summer heat, are you sweating it out in full gear or are you sacrificing safety for a cooler ride? the problem with this question lies in the premise that taking off your riding gear actually would make you cooler. And in truth, it oftentimes is the opposite. And in fact, it can make you hotter. So we'll get into why that happens. I think this is sort of a assumption that a lot of riders will have is that by taking off layers, they will be more comfortable than if riding with a riding gear. So we're going to, we're going to talk a little bit about So how do we do with adjusting for when it is getting really hot out? How do we make ourselves more comfortable on the bike? Well, one of the first things you can do is on your motorcycle, if you have the ability to remove the windshield, take it off, you'll get far more airflow. And if you do have a windshield that cannot be removed, but you can at least swap it, swap it for a shorter windshield so that you can maximize your airflow. The key thing is that the more airflow coming over you, you're going to feel cooler. And this works with the premise of wind chill. So in 99% of the times when you're riding, it will feel cooler if you have a lack of windshield. Now, if you look at any sort of wind chill chart, there is a very small region in which this starts to change. And that's when you get up above like 95 96 97 degrees Fahrenheit, where the windchill will actually make it feel warmer. still, I would say that you still want to have the airflow because it allows then you to evaporate any of the sweat that you may have. So it's still going to be beneficial, but there, there will in general be a windchill effect for most riders. So the next thing you can do is focus on your riding gear. And this is kind of where I'm going to get into a little bit of the misconception that I think spawned that question. A lot of riders, we think of that the almost the uniform that we have to have as we're riding a motorcycle is leather and leather looks great. But it's best to think of leather as just one of the options in your closet of riding And because we don't have climate control, our choice of riding gear really dictates what our comfort level will be like. And you may love the look and that's phenomenal. And I love it too. I think it's an amazing look. But I think it's best suited towards the spring and the fall when you have some cooler temperatures and that leather is going to really help almost keep you a little bit warmer. The thing is, is that if use it in the summer, you are going to be baking. It's just going to be, it's literally a second skin that is just going to be insulating and keeping you hot. And of course, most leather jackets that you have are black. Well, what happens to darker colors when you are using them? They are absorbing heat. So that's going to be a double hit for you, of that the black leather is going to be sucking in and absorbing all of that heat. And it's trapping it. There's nowhere for it to go. Now, there are some perforated leather suits that people will say, Hey, that fixes And it helps a little bit, but I will say that nothing is going to flow as well as a textile mesh suit. And this is really what I recommend. If you're going to be riding in very, very hot weather is get yourself one of those when you're in the heat of summer. Now, obviously, you can have a few different suits and adjust to what makes sense for the temperatures that you expect to reach. But getting a textile mesh suit is probably the single handed best way to make yourself more comfortable in the summer months. And if you can try to get it in a lighter color. This way, it will reflect more of the heat. Remember, darker colors do absorb that heat. Now, the mesh that is in these textile suits really does allow a ton of airflow to get to the rider, and this is where it gets a little bit confusing, and I think where the premise of that question started from is, well, if I don't have any riding gear on, then I'll have maximum airflow. It's almost as though I didn't have any mesh. And, yes, there is a truth in that you will have more airflow. The problem lies in when you have a mesh riding suit, you will actually feel cooler than if you were riding without a jacket at all, and the reason for this is that the sun is beating down directly on your skin when you're not having a riding jacket at all, and that's just super heating your skin. I mean, it's making it as hot as it possibly could be. There's no escape. When you have the riding jacket on, it's almost like a portable shade with you. You're sitting in the shade because of the virtue of the jacket, yet you're getting all the advantages of the airflow, and that's why wearing a mesh textile jacket will actually feel cooler than not wearing a jacket at all. And this is the biggest fallacy I've seen with, especially a lot of newer riders who have this, or riders who feel that it's a leather jacket or nothing. There's sort of only two operating modes. And I think if you really want to maximize the best out of your riding experience, having a few different suits to adjust to the conditions is really going to help you. And of course, it's not just the riding jacket. There are also mesh riding pants. And if you pair these two together, you're going to get a ton of airflow and it is going to feel a lot cooler. There are some riders who think of the classic, I'm just going to wear regular jeans and a black leather jacket. Well, the problem with regular jeans is first off, they're cotton, which doesn't really breathe very well. It's going to be very hot. And as you sweat, it's going to start to feel clammy. It's just going to be kind of gross feeling. Whereas if you're riding with a mesh riding suit, this is going to dramatically make it feel as though you have a lot more flow of air. It's going to keep you cooler, which is going to keep you fresh and you're going to be less likely to have any sort of distractions going on as you're riding, especially as the temperature is climbing up. And while jacket and the pants are sort of the outward facing view of your riding gear, I would actually encourage you to start at the bottom, so to speak, can often feel cooler by leveraging some of the modern materials that help you stay cooler. So, sythetic sweat wicking fabrics can pull the moisture from your body up to the airflow of your mask jacket, thus taking the heat away from your body very effectively. And cotton t-shirts just don't do that. They're going to just make you feel hotter. So the type of materials that you choose to use can really help. And if you ever get the chance to try it out, just even if it's not a motorcycle specific undergarment, but getting a just maybe it's like a workout shirt or something like that that's made of a synthetic sweat wicking fabric, put that on instead of your normal t-shirt and go out for a ride and you will feel a huge difference in how much cooler you will feel because it just is getting that sweat much more effectively away from your skin. It's allowing your body to breathe just much more and thus you will feel cooler. And it really is, it's something that you don't think of, but it really makes a huge difference when you get out onto the bike. Now, as I talked about in the opening, it's been hot, like really, really hot here up in the mid upper nineties, like every single day. I was taking out the garbage the other day at 845 in the morning and it 85 degrees at 845 in the morning. It was insane, it was insane how hot it has been. And when it's hot like that, this is when you start looking at almost like a portable air conditioner. And while it's not technically an air conditioner, but it's the closest proximity that we have for motorcycling. And this is a cooling vest. Now cooling vests are available in usually two basic variants. One is where they're soaked in water, and the other one is where they are filled with water. And you might hear that and say, "Yeah, but that sounds basically exactly the same," although there is a subtle difference in how these work. But both of these work from the principle of evaporative cooling. So if you were to put these, for example, on top of your synthetic base layers and underneath your mesh suit, you are gonna get a tremendous amount of cooling effect in it. It really does feel like a portable air conditioner. In ideal conditions, I've put these on, an area, and it feels at least 15, maybe even 20 degrees cooler than it would be without the cooling vests. So it really can help a lot when it gets into those upper, upper temperatures. as I mentioned, there there's two versions of these. And one of them is the low cost version. And this is, tends to be under about $100 to get these vests, sometimes even really much lower than that. And these work by being soaked in water. So you essentially take the garment, you put it underneath, you know, into a sink filled with water, you get it totally wet, soaked out, and then you put them on. And these do work. So you're literally wet because the wet water is just right up against your base layers or against your skin. And you kind of have a little bit of this sort of clammy feeling to them. Because they're just a surface layer or it's a very thin layer of what's absorbing that moisture, they tend to dry out a little bit quicker and thus they don't last as long for the cooling effect. But they are a great budget item and if you only are going out for a quick ride, they're certainly a very effective way to do this. I actually started with one of these type of cooling vests way back when. There is a higher end version though and these higher end options will tend to be over$200. So they're a significant bump up in terms of price and the way that these work is that they're filled with an internal bladder. And this lets out a light mist of moisture over time so you don't get that feeling of just being soaked in like a wet t-shirt and just totally wet. And because of this, they can actually last much longer. As I said, I've owned both of these. I switched to the higher end one probably like five, seven, eight years ago at this point. And the soaking kind, the cheaper one, pretty much would give up the ghost maybe a couple of hours of riding. While the internal bladder options, I've gone an entire weekend and still had cooling effect. it's a huge difference between these two designs of how effective they can be. Now the problem, and this is what comes down the premise of underlying technology being evaporative cooling. It's just like the sweat that's on your skin. It's the same premise. It's the water is going to be evaporated when it is converted from that liquid into a gas. It actually takes some of the heat from your body at the same time. The thing is, is that when it's hot and it's dry, these work amazing. They're, they're exactly like an air conditioner. They feel at least 10 to 20 degrees cooler than they would if you didn't have them. But as the humidity increases, the air is so saturated that just like when you're just sweating and you're like, oh my God, I'm still so hot. Nothing is making me feel cooler because it's so muggy. Your sweat can't do anything. The air literally cannot take any more moisture. So there is no evaporation occurring. Therefore, there is no heat exchange and therefore you just keep feeling warmer. So they don't work as well when it's humid. Now there is still, I'll say a, a small impact because, and especially with the one that is filled with water. Because the water itself is going to have a cooling effect just by virtue of it's probably at a lower temperature than your body that will help make you feel a little bit cooler for a little bit of time. But once it starts to match your body temp, that feeling starts to dissipate a little bit. So that does help a little when it's really hot, but not as effectively as when it is dry. Of course, when it's really hot most important thing that you can do is stay hydrated. when you're on a motorcycle, it's not like you're driving in your car. You don't have 17 cup holders, all within easy reach of where your steering wheel is. You're much more limited. Now, there are some people who will put a cup, literal cup holder onto their motorcycle handlebars. I'm not personally a huge fan of that because it's an extra huge amount of weight that's usually on one bar. It's going to make the bar feel a little unweighted or off-weighted in terms of out of balance. It could create some issues for you, but also you're going to have a harder time of taking that cup, grabbing a sip of water, you're now taking one hand off of the handlebars for a longer period of time, so I'm not really a super fan of these. What I do like is using a backpack that has a hydration bladder in it. And the way that these work is that they'll be a little tube that runs from the hydration bladder. You can literally just put it into your mouth or right underneath your helmet because they're fairly small. It fits very easily. So you can just put it in the gap between your chin bar and your face. these usually involve what's called a bite valve. So as you bite it, then the valve opens up. It allows the water to flow. And just like a big straw, you can just suck the water out of the hydration bladder. So you can take sips as you're going, both hands on the handlebar, no problem whatsoever. It's super easy to do. I use this quite often when I'm riding off road, but you can also do it on road trips. They're just, it's really, really convenient. And just like the cooling vest, this also will have a secondary impact of cooling you. Because especially if you have a pure hydration bladder backpack, that there are a few of those that are out there, the cooling effect of that big vessel of water right up against your back is going to suck some of the heat away from you anyway, at least until it warms up to body temperature. But it does have that additional cooling impact for you. these obviously will work if you have an open face or a three-quarter helmet. There's no problem. You can put the bite valve in there. No problem. As I said, for most full face helmets, you can kind of squeeze it in as well. Again, not a huge deal. If you have one of the ADV-style helmets, it's usually a little bit more space. So it's even easier where they will struggle a little bit is on a modular helmet. And mostly because modular helmets tend to have a much tighter neck roll. So there's not really a space to get that tube up in between. But modular helmets have this really cool thing where you can flip the lid up, and then you can just put the tube right into your mouth. No problem. It's super, super easy. You effectively turn your modular into a three-quarter helmet, and then it's very easy to do. And if you don't want to do that, if you feel uncomfortable with flipping up the entire helmet, the other way that you can do this is just open up the visor and just stick the tube in through the open visor. You can very easily get the water in there. And that will, of course, work for a full-space helmet as well. And it's really convenient and just easy to do this. The key thing is even if you don't want to wear a backpack that has this hydration bladder in it, make sure that you do pack some water or sports drink in your panniers. Stop and take a sip before you get thirsty. And this will help keep you fresh and alert, especially as heat is going on. The reason why I still tend to prefer the backpacks is you can get a backpack that has like a liter, even two liters of water. You're set for the entire day with that. Whereas if you have a bottle, what is it, 20 fluid ounces maybe? You know, a third of a liter at the most? You're going to get through that pretty quickly, especially if you have to pull over and stop to drink it. You tend to gulp more when you're waiting. So I feel like the hydration bladder will last you longer. So that's why I'm more of a fan of And the last thing that you can do to really help as you're dealing with the heat is choose when you ride. And this can probably make the largest difference that you'll find out there. As I alluded to when I took the garbage out at 8: 45 in the morning and it was already 85 degrees out. It obviously got up into the late 90s in the afternoon. And that's really when a lot of riders will say,"Oh, I want to ride in the middle of the afternoon." That is the hottest part of the day. Don't ride then. Just don't. It's, it's really, that is what you're trying to avoid is ride anytime but then. Now, if you ride more towards the evening hours as the sun is starting to set, usually the temperature will start to go down a little bit. But you still have all the heat of the day. So it's not going to be as big of a difference as if you ride early in the day before the sun kind of gets and heats everything up. That's when you're going to feel the coolest. And if you can do it like right around sunrise, it's even better. You'll be significantly cooler than it would be in other parts of the day. So let's wrap up. We looked at the question of whether you should give up on safety in the name of staying cool as the temperatures rise and eliminating or using a shorter windscreen is one of the best steps you can do to feel cooler. You'll get more airflow and beyond that, using a mesh riding suit and adding in a cooling vest on those really hot days does help. course, combine your mesh riding suit with some of the synthetic performance undergarments and this will also help to just channel that heat away from your body and then exposed out to the mesh riding suit to be able to really maximize that temperature flow from your body out to the extraneous outside air. And next we looked at hydration and how having something to drink with you is really critical. Even better is if you have bite valve and you can take sips while you're riding. And finally, we looked at when you ride makes a big difference. Try to get out early in the day before the sun warms up is usually your best option. But of course, an evening ride can still be better than something in the middle of the afternoon. So my question for you is, what do you do when it's so hot to make your ride bearable? Share your thoughts through the text to show link in the show notes or leave a voicemail at throttleandroast.com slash voicemail. Thanks for listening. I'll talk to you next week.