Trying to beat the heat.
Trying to beat the heat. Do you have any idea how hoot it is when you're wearing a black leather jacket, black helmet, jeans and boots when it's 100f out there? Oh, and you're only moving at 30mph.
I don't make a lot of personal posts so please bear with me.
I don't make a lot of personal posts so please bear with me. #Rufus hasn't been doing well for the past week or so. I mean, he's 13 (at least), and has slowed down due to age, but the past week or two he's been acting like every movement is a Herculean effort. A few times in the past couple of weeks his rear legs have given out on him completely to where I've had to pick him up and carry him which is, in itself, telling. Rufus has always hated being carried and struggled continuously when I did so. Yesterday while petting him I noticed two golf-ball sized things up under his chin. Now, they may be benign lipomas as Rufus is covered with them (one one each thigh, one on each shoulder, one on his chest and a few smaller bumps here and there) or they may be indicative of something else. I'm no vet and aside from emergency medic battlefield training I have no medical experience whatsoever, but these new things seem to be where your or mine lymph nodes are located....
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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.