Re: Keeping cool in the Dog Days of summer

[Bruno Valeri <bvaleri@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

- ----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Robert Silas" <robert.silas@xxxxxxxxxxxx>

>   One option is to wear an evaporative cooling vest. Though cooling vests
are
>   at their best in hot and dry climates, they can also offer benefit in
>   humid climates. There are quite a few on the market to choose from.
>
>   I have a review up on my website for the Joe Rocket Sahara vest.
>   http://pages.videotron.com/mcrides/product_evals/joe_rocket/sahara.htm


> Is there any chance to find a helmet which offers some kind of cooling
system???
>

Robert,

Here is something I have not tried but have thought about over time.There is
no place in your helmet for any thickness of material that would store water
for evaporative cooling. That is what the vest does. It serves as storage
and provides liquid that will be used for evaporation thereby cooling you
down. By doing this, it decreases the amount of sweating that your own body
has to do. So it decreases heat stress on your system. As we get older, this
becomes more important. I keep reminding my parents of that. :)

So for our head, maybe we can do it differently. You need a helmet with good
shell ventilation. Maybe wearing one of those Slick liners, wet down, inside
the helmet would work. Airflow would encourage evaporation, cooling the
surface of the Slick liner. This in turn would provide cooling by conduction
to your head.

I suppose you could do it by wetting your hair, but this opens up the
possibility of a smelly helmet. The Slick can be washed or rinsed out in the
hotel/campground sink. Don't even need for it to dry as you wear it wet.

I haven't tried this yet and maybe the idea could use some fine tuning. But
the basic principle is that if there is air circulation around the inside of
the helmet, there is possibility for eveporative cooling.

>He gave me a $110.- ticket saying: "today you rode without a helmet".

Given the circumstances, this seems to me like odd judgement. Especially
since it was obvious why you were doing it. Keeping your helmet on in
traffic would likely endanger your health. . I'm sure that if you had the
opportunity to explain that in court, the policeman's judgement would have
looked silly.

Cheers!


Bruno
Montreal, Canada
CBR 929
http://pages.videotron.com/mcrides

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