Ridecool Sport Vest

RideCool Sport Vest

Beat the heat

CW EVALUATIONS

WE OFTEN RIDE WHERE IT’S HOT. LIKE Africa hot. And over the years, we’ve learned that riding bikes in extremely hot weather can be more than just uncomfortable. Nasty heat-related illnesses with symptoms that include confusion and muscle weakness can make it downright dangerous.

The good news is that it’s relatively easy to avoid all this ugliness with RideCool’s evaporative Sport Vest. The vest’s lightweight fabric contains a special polymer layer that retains water and releases it slowly, making it the equivalent of a wearable swamp cooler.

We put the vest to the test under an Aerostich Roadcrafter riding suit on a recent roadtrip through the desert Southwest. With the suit’s front zipper closed and the armpit and back vents open, we found this one thin addition to our normal riding gear kept us remarkably comfortable in ambient temperatures ranging from 85 to 105 degrees.

While the vest is better than nothing at a standstill, the full effect doesn’t come on until you start rolling. Once underway, however, air circulating around it created enough cooling

DETAILS

RideCool

3400 Anderson Co. Rd. 370 Palestine, TX 75801 800/706-4910 www.ridecool.com Price...$40

A Thin enough to go unnoticed under a conventional riding jacket A When dry, doubles as wind-blocking layer on cool mornings A Could probably ride through hell with new long-sleeve version

^)owns

▼ Waterproof inner layer meant to keep your shirt dry, but doesn’t

▼ Cool effect doesn’t last as long when worn alone or under mesh jackets power to leave us feeling almost chilly on a couple of occasions.

Better still, this internal air-conditioning effect lasted for more than two hours at a stretch. Which meant keeping our cool all day long became a simple matter of wetting the vest down every time we stopped for fuel.

Ultimately, we returned home convinced that if you do a lot of riding in hot weather this may well be the best $40 you’ll ever spend. □