FOR AN OLD DUDE, I'M HOT!
No, not hot as in "Whoa, check out that hot guy", those days are long since dead and buried, unless you like the leathery skin look that is... I'm HOT as in I can't stay cool while riding. And it's gotten worse each year that I have gotten older too.
They say... That after you have your first real heat stroke, the next one comes upon you faster, and the next one faster, and faster, etc. WELL... I'm up to somewhere around number 36 or 37 heat strokes I think these days. And "they" are correct, they do indeed hit you faster and with less and less warning each subsequent time. I'm at the point now that when my face turns cherry red, I'm there, ready to pop like an overheated pressure cooker. I literally have less than 5 minutes before it'll be time for a trip to the ER for emergency hydration IV therapy. No, drinking water doesn't help. My problem is I don't sweat, so therefore, I don't cool. OK, I do sweat, but not like you see most people sweat. At best under heavy exertion, my skin may get damp, but that it. And it's just not enough to keep my core temperature from going thru the ceiling.
I've been trying to deal with the problem for quite a few years now. It also affects my greatly in the summer while I am trying to enjoy my other hobby of metal detecting. I got one of the Mission Endura-Cool "cooling towels" and damn if that thing didn't work like magic too!
Our oldest Grandson and Granddaughter do football and Cheerleading, so we usually have many games where the temps are still in the 90's when they start playing. The cooling towel worked great, especially when combined with some other 007 "trick gadgets" my Wife and Daughter bought me.
They also got me a "O2COOL" combo water bottle with a built-in "mister" valve so I can drink or I can mist myself to keep cooling water evaporating on my skin to replace what I naturally lack. And it too works like a badass! The combo drink/mist bottle is by O2COOL. The only drawback to both the cooling towel and the mister is, you need to have some air flow to help each one work at it's best.
Enter another "gadget" that my wife picked up for me/us to beat the heat at the football games. It is a mister bottle fan. Simple pump spray bottle with a 3v fan/mister nozzle. It takes 2 AA batteries and runs for several weeks/games for us It gives you the best of both worlds, the fine cooling mist AND a pretty good breeze to help keep things evaporating as they should.
And these items I mentioned are great for football games or stationary events, but wouldn't work too good on a motorcycle. However... I do think there is an application where the "cooling towel" (now sold by Harbor Freight Tools under their label for $3.00) could be sewn into patch panels on blue jeans to help keep you cool. You could do a thigh pad and a calf/shin pad fairly easily I would think. And you could just sew it on over the jeans I suppose, that way it would retain the original strength of the blue jeans material in case you go for a slide. And IF you had a cup holder on your bike, you could stuff one of the mister bottles or even the mister fan in the holder for a quick, refreshing spritz at each redlight to help you keep your cool.
And they make hard wired 12v mini fans that you could mount inside your fairing or handlebar so you could flick it on as you were pulling up to a redlight. It would help keep the exhaust from the traffic blown away from your face while helping to keep your cool too.
BUT... Here's the way I am going to try to handle the heat for now. Simply hose down my pants legs and the front of my shirt before I ride. I tried it the other day for my "High Noon" ride back from my Daughter's Restaurant and it worked pretty good, all things considered. The moving bike and the wet clothes did keep me fairly cool for a couple of miles or more, until everything had evaporated and I was "dry" again. The hard part was actually applying the water to myself accurately. I tried using my 20oz drinking cup from lunch and filled it with tap water and then tried to pour it on the front of my legs and thigh area. Yeah 75% of it hit my clothes and just ran right off before it even had time to soak in. OK, so I need something that would allow me to add the water slowly so it was absorbed instead of just running off. I picked up an Avia Sports Water Bottle, 32oz, that has a simple "one-way" valve in the spout that only allows the water to flow out, and only when the bottle is being squeezed. I figure I can invert the bottle, touch the nozzle to my pants and with a gentle squeeze, I should be able to wet myself down pretty good with a minimum of waste and runoff. At least that's my plan. In looking for a way to carry the water bottle(s) today, I did find some damn nifty water bottle saddle bags that I think might help me kill more than one bird with a single stone. I ordered the saddlebag below today. I'll get some pictures as soon as they come in and I get them mounted!
No, not hot as in "Whoa, check out that hot guy", those days are long since dead and buried, unless you like the leathery skin look that is... I'm HOT as in I can't stay cool while riding. And it's gotten worse each year that I have gotten older too.
They say... That after you have your first real heat stroke, the next one comes upon you faster, and the next one faster, and faster, etc. WELL... I'm up to somewhere around number 36 or 37 heat strokes I think these days. And "they" are correct, they do indeed hit you faster and with less and less warning each subsequent time. I'm at the point now that when my face turns cherry red, I'm there, ready to pop like an overheated pressure cooker. I literally have less than 5 minutes before it'll be time for a trip to the ER for emergency hydration IV therapy. No, drinking water doesn't help. My problem is I don't sweat, so therefore, I don't cool. OK, I do sweat, but not like you see most people sweat. At best under heavy exertion, my skin may get damp, but that it. And it's just not enough to keep my core temperature from going thru the ceiling.
I've been trying to deal with the problem for quite a few years now. It also affects my greatly in the summer while I am trying to enjoy my other hobby of metal detecting. I got one of the Mission Endura-Cool "cooling towels" and damn if that thing didn't work like magic too!
Our oldest Grandson and Granddaughter do football and Cheerleading, so we usually have many games where the temps are still in the 90's when they start playing. The cooling towel worked great, especially when combined with some other 007 "trick gadgets" my Wife and Daughter bought me.
They also got me a "O2COOL" combo water bottle with a built-in "mister" valve so I can drink or I can mist myself to keep cooling water evaporating on my skin to replace what I naturally lack. And it too works like a badass! The combo drink/mist bottle is by O2COOL. The only drawback to both the cooling towel and the mister is, you need to have some air flow to help each one work at it's best.
Enter another "gadget" that my wife picked up for me/us to beat the heat at the football games. It is a mister bottle fan. Simple pump spray bottle with a 3v fan/mister nozzle. It takes 2 AA batteries and runs for several weeks/games for us It gives you the best of both worlds, the fine cooling mist AND a pretty good breeze to help keep things evaporating as they should.
And these items I mentioned are great for football games or stationary events, but wouldn't work too good on a motorcycle. However... I do think there is an application where the "cooling towel" (now sold by Harbor Freight Tools under their label for $3.00) could be sewn into patch panels on blue jeans to help keep you cool. You could do a thigh pad and a calf/shin pad fairly easily I would think. And you could just sew it on over the jeans I suppose, that way it would retain the original strength of the blue jeans material in case you go for a slide. And IF you had a cup holder on your bike, you could stuff one of the mister bottles or even the mister fan in the holder for a quick, refreshing spritz at each redlight to help you keep your cool.
And they make hard wired 12v mini fans that you could mount inside your fairing or handlebar so you could flick it on as you were pulling up to a redlight. It would help keep the exhaust from the traffic blown away from your face while helping to keep your cool too.
BUT... Here's the way I am going to try to handle the heat for now. Simply hose down my pants legs and the front of my shirt before I ride. I tried it the other day for my "High Noon" ride back from my Daughter's Restaurant and it worked pretty good, all things considered. The moving bike and the wet clothes did keep me fairly cool for a couple of miles or more, until everything had evaporated and I was "dry" again. The hard part was actually applying the water to myself accurately. I tried using my 20oz drinking cup from lunch and filled it with tap water and then tried to pour it on the front of my legs and thigh area. Yeah 75% of it hit my clothes and just ran right off before it even had time to soak in. OK, so I need something that would allow me to add the water slowly so it was absorbed instead of just running off. I picked up an Avia Sports Water Bottle, 32oz, that has a simple "one-way" valve in the spout that only allows the water to flow out, and only when the bottle is being squeezed. I figure I can invert the bottle, touch the nozzle to my pants and with a gentle squeeze, I should be able to wet myself down pretty good with a minimum of waste and runoff. At least that's my plan. In looking for a way to carry the water bottle(s) today, I did find some damn nifty water bottle saddle bags that I think might help me kill more than one bird with a single stone. I ordered the saddlebag below today. I'll get some pictures as soon as they come in and I get them mounted!
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