Gonna be a hot one today!

[inditx]

Stay frosty out there!
My motto is “if it’s too hot for protective gear then it’s too hot to ride”. This is my conviction, what do y’all think?

inditx

[Lannis]

Stay frosty out there!
My motto is “if it’s too hot for protective gear then it’s too hot to ride”. This is my conviction, what do y’all think?

inditx

Depends on how "hot" is hot - it's different (as discussed on another recent thread) for different folks.   Some have different tolerances for heat and cold, relative to their desire to ride.

I seldom ride below 25 degF because it's too hard to keep your hands warm, even with my new lo-tech heated grips, and there's too much chance of standing ice.   

I've never lived or ridden in a place where it was "too hot" to ride.   I hooked up with some Triumph guys the other day, and we went riding, 300 miles or so to go get lunch.   I was in my old "Brooks" leather jacket, full helmet, cotton jeans (yes, I know), and armored boots and gloves.   It was 93 degF and about 75% humidity when I got home, and I was JUST getting good and warm, but I didn't change into mesh.

The hottest I've ever ridden was about 98 degF, but that's because that's about as hot as it gets where I live.   Pretty warm, but not a ride-killer.   For trips that we plan where it can get hotter than that, we just schedule it so we're not riding there in dead summertime.   If I LIVED there, I might easily find an upper limit where my 'Stich gear would be too oppressive.

Everyone's different; different motivations, different comfort levels ...

Lannis

[Ncdan]

Like any other decisions one makes in life. Do the calculations, figure the statistics, then make a personal decision and be willing to accept responsibility.

[oldbike54]

 Hell , I barely go outside in weather like we're have , heat indices of 112 , no thanks . Rode to the store yesterday morning , took the long way out , short way home , in by 9:30 .

 Dusty

[cloudbase]

Sweat cleans off a whole lot easier than blood.  Stay hydrated so you can keep sweating.  Do not succumb to get-there-itis.

[bodine99]

During hurricane season daily early right at sunrise or @ dusk. My riding season to go anywhere out of the zip code is Halloween to Memorial Day. Our 2nd season(tourist) only 2 down here!!!
Today off at 6:30 am back by 8 am. stay

[oldbike54]

Sweat cleans off a whole lot easier than blood.  Stay hydrated so you can keep sweating.  Do not succumb to get-there-itis.

 We live in a similar climate , NE Oklahoma is normally a bit hotter , SE  Texas a bit more humid , but the numbers are almost the same. When the humidity is 70% at an air temp of 95F , sweating inside of protective gear just gets you wet , there is no evaporation to cool the body . Until about 55 there was almost no combination of heat and humidity that fazed me much , having worked out in it for years, at 66 much more caution is needed .

 Dusty

[JJ]

In the end...it's all relative...

...and welcome to my summer world...aka, "The Forbidden Planet"





For perspective, it was 102 yesterday late afternoon...then, we got a few MONSOON sprinkles, with wind, and the temperature dropped to 82 degrees...That's why the rains in July-August are somewhat cooling...

[kirby1923]

Having spent a lot of time riding in(very) hot conditions I believe that your fitness is more important than your age. Are you fit for the conditions and are you dressed properly. Have you made plans on hydration?(w/electrolyte fluids rather than just water).

In general I think no exposed skin to hot wx (especially triple digit)its like being in a convection oven and the drier the conditions the more you evaporate.

For most the first sign of heat prostration is your cognitive abilities begain to fail. As an example you are trying to calculate you mileage from your last gas stop and are having trouble with simple addition/division.

This is the first warning sign that its time to stop and cool down/hydrate.

Just my experience after riding in arid condition a bunch and other experiences/military training  w/heat survival.

:-)

[Caffeineo]

As I am kind of retired (work so little from home no one thinks I work) and have a very flexible schedule I only ride on the better weather days. Next week will be in the high 90's in the valley and low 90's in the mountains. Guess who will be waiting for less hot weather to ride? Even the mesh jacket vents hot air in the 90's. I do have a cooling vest (soak in water for evaporative cooling) that works good but needs to be re-hydrated frequently. I have gotten to the age/point where I just wait for the weather to turn better. 

[Gliderjohn]

Just returned from about a 100 mile ride. Riding the last stretch home was 89 degrees with 74 dew point but cloud cover and even a few sprinkles. Was riding with full gear and it wasn't bad as long as one is moving. Get above that with the sun out and it becomes a fight for survival IMHO.
GliderJohn

[Sykestone8886]

Being from western Pa we've had pretty mild winters for the last few year but still unrideable with all the crap Penn Dot puts on the roads. Being retired now I've rode just about every day for the last 3 months, it's been abnormally hot here lately, but I stay hydrated and still wear my gear, I'd rather sweat than bleed!!                          Lannis I have a brooks jacket that I bought 40 years ago ( made in the USA. ) still looks new. Do they still make brooks jackets ?

[Lannis]

Lannis I have a brooks jacket that I bought 40 years ago ( made in the USA. ) still looks new. Do they still make brooks jackets ?

They do.   Matter of fact, they still make exactly the same model that my Mom bought for me as a high-school graduation gift in 1972.   It's this one ...

https://www.brooksleather.com/515-road-warrior-ii.html

They're $500 now, so it was a pretty nice gift for a young motorcyclist even at prices of 48 years ago.

I wore it for about 5 years, "grew out of it", then my son wore it for 5 years or so and then HE "grew out of it" (we're a growing bunch) but now in my old age I've grown back into it, and it's my go-to jacket any more.   Has a bit of "patina" now, paid a nice seamstress lady $50 to replace the broken zipper, and I get people asking where I bought it.   They'll need a time machine for mine, but they can get started on THEIR 48 years if they buy one now!

Lannis

[moto-uno]

  Well all this talk of heat is making me envious . This month is supposed to be summer here in B.C and I can tell you
that up until 5 days ago every ride I took up to Lillooet I had my electrical vest on and running . It was 13 degrees Celsius .
Usually this time of the year it's in the low 30's and I've ridden this route for over 15 years . I do love my heated vest . Peter

[Lannis]

  Well all this talk of heat is making me envious . This month is supposed to be summer here in B.C and I can tell you
that up until 5 days ago every ride I took up to Lillooet I had my electrical vest on and running . It was 13 degrees Celsius .
Usually this time of the year it's in the low 30's and I've ridden this route for over 15 years . I do love my heated vest . Peter

I ain't complainin'.   When we were sitting around in the house shivering in April when it was supposed to be warming up but never would until June, Fay and I swore that for 2020 we'd never complain about the heat, just bask in it.

Last year, the borer worms destroyed all my garden vine plants (cucumber, pumpkin, squash, zucchini, watermelon, cantaloupe) just at the time they were starting to bear.   I tried everything but couldn't stay ahead of them, and they won.

This year, I planted the garden in the usual place, but planted all the vine plants down in the river bottom, about a 1/2 mile walk from the house.    Not only do I get much-needed exercise walking down there, but the borer moths never found the plants on which to lay eggs and hatch the larva worms.   I'll do it one more year to make sure all the larva in the ground have died, then move it back up.

All that is to say that I walked down there early this morning.   It was only 75 degF, but had to be 95% humidity, and I was soaked with sweat when I got in.

We're all riding today to meet in Buena Vista (of former Virginia Guzzi Rally fame) and have lunch, it being a Third Saturday and all, and it's supposed to be 94 degrees.   I'll revel in it!

Lannis

[john fish]

I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism which should really be called "you will get fat, bald, lose all heat tolerance and sweat like a Very Disgusting Thing indeed" disease.  I cut yesterday's ride short because 90+ degrees and 80% humidity had me soaking my kevlar jeans through with perspiration.  The only advantage to this is that when I inevitably become incontinent no one will know.  Moisture is moisture.

[willowstreetguzziguy]

I ended up buying two Different cooling/hydration Vests the other week from RevZilla. $39 each.  Now’s the time to go riding with them! Going to be 92 today and 95 tomorrow.

[creaky99]

Being from western Pa we've had pretty mild winters for the last few year but still unrideable with all the crap Penn Dot puts on the roads. Being retired now I've rode just about every day for the last 3 months, it's been abnormally hot here lately, but I stay hydrated and still wear my gear, I'd rather sweat than bleed!!                          Lannis I have a brooks jacket that I bought 40 years ago ( made in the USA. ) still looks new. Do they still make brooks jackets ?

I have a Brooks knockoff branded "Phase 2" that I bought in the late '70s that has also weathered the test of time. I still wear it on when it fits the occasion, still get comments on it.

[blackcat]

I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism which should really be called "you will get fat, bald, lose all heat tolerance and sweat like a Very Disgusting Thing indeed" disease.  I cut yesterday's ride short because 90+ degrees and 80% humidity had me soaking my kevlar jeans through with perspiration.  The only advantage to this is that when I inevitably become incontinent no one will know.  Moisture is moisture.

I'm hoping to miss disease, best of luck.

[Lannis]

I was diagnosed with hypothyroidism which should really be called "you will get fat, bald, lose all heat tolerance and sweat like a Very Disgusting Thing indeed" disease. 

That's "low thyroid function".   I had a spell of "Tachycardia" in 1992 where my heart rate went to 280 beats/min while I was at work  ... like a typically stupid human male I drove MYSELF to the emergency room, sort of went woozy and missed a traffic light, and left the Olds idling on the ER sidewalk.   The triage nurse took one look at my pulse rate and BP (Low/Very Low) and called for the paddles.   Doc gave me an injection which stopped my heart for 5 seconds, and it restarted normally (so "turn it off and reboot" is not just a Windows procedure).

ANYhow, they kept me for a couple days to test for why that happened, and the only thing they found that was out of whack was my Thyroid level.   So for 28 years I've been on 137 microgram/day of "Synthroid" or "Levothyroxine" and no more trouble, no more low thyroid, none of those other ugly symptoms.   

Is yours not something they can treat with a synthetic thyroid hormone pill or injection?

Lannis