I'm shutting down Google+ for the night and quite possibly for the weekend. Why? This stupid #gifwars thing people are so proud of. This Adam Black guy said he doesn't like gifs and now everyone is mass trolling him. Having been mass trolled like this I can relate to him easily enough. Have an opinion and the collective might of Google+'s lower class denizens jump on a bandwagon. I just saw a post where someone wanted to jump on board and had to get clarification she was tagging the proper Adam Black. She wasn't even connected to him ! Nor was she a part of the original discussion. She just wanted to follow the herd. When I called her out of it she claimed, "one gif doesn't make a troll." Perhaps not, but she's contributing to a larger troll effort. One straw doesn't break the camel's back, but thousands will. So, tonight, Google+ disgusts me. It probably will tomorrow as well. And possibly Sunday. I gave up Google+ for two months this spring
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I've also ridden as low as 10F, and I really have to say that on both temperature extremes textiles are absolutely better. Non mesh textile is also arguably even better protection at typical street crash speeds. Sort of like how SNELL 2005 standards on helmets are great... on a race track at 120mph, but on the street at 35-50mph, the extra strength in the shell can actually cause more energy to be transferred to the head and actually be worse than a plain DOT but not SNELL 2005 noggin protector. SNELL 2010 is an improvement on this.
I lost about 3 pounds in water weight and am adding it back right now. ;)
I was riding with some of my Bikers for Christ friends and the stupid DOT had the freeway down to 1 lane during rush hour traffic on a sunny Friday. Finally got so bad our bikes were overheating so we started lane-splitting and riding on the margin until we could get off the freeway & take the surface streets to our destination.
I completely agree with Emily Evans regarding both mesh & textile gear being superior in extreme temperatures...
I rode to work 35 miles each direction in -16°F to -22°F (yes, negative) during the coldest week of Winter in 2009. My FirstGear Technical Performance Gear (TPG) 2-piece double-insulated suit and was not too cold other than the tip of my fingers & nose (from having to keep the visor cracked to prevent fogging). After that I bought some Gerbing's Hybrid bike/battery powered gloves (which are fantastic) for $400. Well worth the money.
On the opposite end of the spectrum, during my last riding trip to visit & ride with my father in Southern California we rode in temps as hot as 111°F and I was very glad to have been wearing my Vanson mesh jacket.
Speaking to the durability of that mesh jacket, I actually crashed (looped) my bike while wearing that jacket and both my bike and I tumbled/rolled down the road. The jacket had no damage whatsoever, absolutely none! My FirstGear leather overpants and FirstGear Silver Stone textile saddlebags sustained significant abrasion damage, my helmet was scuffed a bit, and my bike sustained $5,000 damage.
Vanson gear isn't cheap, but it's very high-quality. I was wearing my Vanson leather jacket when I totaled my first bike and the jacket only had a small scuff on the front-left breast area.