Beat the Heat

After the long and brutally cold winter we had this past year, I promised myself I would not complain about the summer heat this year. Just being able to get wheels on the ground without worrying about snow and ice seemed like a dream only a few short months ago. That said, I found myself riding home from work recently, sweltering in the humid heat, thinking; "there's got to be a better way."

There's no getting around it: one of the great joys of motorcycling is being out in the elements. Feeling the wind, hearing the sounds, basking in the sun - all come with the price of having to deal with temperature and weather extremes. It's a lot easier to deal with cold: I can throw on my cold-weather gear, heated Gerbings gloves, vest and insoles, and I'm comfortable and warm riding when water outside is freezing. Keeping cool when it's hot is another deal entirely. I am an ATGATT (All the Gear, All the Time) guy, which means I've got boots, pants, jacket and gloves on, even when it's 100F (38C) outside. Actually, wearing protective gear in those temperatures will actually keep you COOLER. But that's a discussion for another day.

So what to do when the mercury climbs into the red zone? Well as it turns out, we do have some options:

Mesh jackets, gloves and pants allow cooling air to flow through your protective gear, pulling heat away from you. These are very effective up until around 85 F (29C), at which point no amount of mesh gear alone will keep you cool - particularly if the humidity is also high.

Ventilating devices such as windshield vents, Air Wings, Hand wings, etc. bring blasts of air into the cockpit, helping to cool you off. Again, these work extremely well up until a certain temperature. They have the added benefit that they can also be used to direct cold air away from you during cold weather riding.

Evaporative cooling vests use the cooling effect of evaporating water to keep you cool. These are relatively inexpensive, but do not work very well when the humidity climbs along with the temperature.

Circulating cooling vests circulate cold water from an icebox through tubes in a vest, to carry your body's heat away from you. These work amazingly well, but are very pricey, and take up much valuable storage space.

Phase change cooling vests use special chemicals that freeze at relatively high (65F, or 18C) temperatures, in packets held tightly against you, to keep you cool.

After quite a bit of research, based on the type of riding I do, the weather in my area, and the features and drawbacks of each system, I decided that a phase change cooling vest was what would work best for me. A fair bit more research ensued, learning about the different types of phase change materials, vests and manufacturers. I spent quite a bit of time reading motorcycle forums, specifically reviews from people who had purchased phase change vests from different manufacturers, and what they thought of them.

I was surprised at how many manufacturers of these types of vests there were at one time - and how few remain today, most having been bought up by their larger competitors. I also learned about heatstroke, and how riding overheated is a serious safety issue, that can compromise your performance, decision-making, and more.

Eventually I whittled my choices down to one manufacturer, and I am happy to say that I now have the vest, have spent a little bit of time riding in very hot weather while wearing it, and can report on its efficiacy. I have written a full product review: Polar Vest Phase Change Cooling Vest

I encourage you to have a look through the review, learn what you can, and ask questions before deciding on a solution that will fit you. I promise you, it makes hot weather riding so much more enjoyable!

The Perfect Sunglasses

With heat comes sun, and it's an absolute must to protect your eyes with a decent pair of sunglasses. Some people prefer tinted faceshields on their helmets, but I don't want to have to swap faceshields when it starts to get dark, and sometimes I flip my faceshield open to get some cooling air inside. Some helmets have internal flip-down tinted shields, however the mechanism for these devices takes up valuable compression material from the helmet (the helmet's primary purpose), and I have seen pictures of people with faces sliced open after a crash with one of these internal flip-down shields in place. So for me, the answer is a good pair of sunglasses - something I have been looking for, for many, many years.

My perfect sunglasses had to have very good optical quality, be relatively inexpensive, have thin arms so that they are comfortable to wear inside my helmet for hours at a time, block UV light, and be non-polarized. I have utterly failed at finding these perfect sunglasses, and believe me, I have tried.

I have utterly failed that is, until now.

I am proud to announce that I have found The Perfect motorcycle riding sunglasses. I have been using them for almost a year now, so I can genuinely claim that they work, and work beautifully. Not only that, they sell for less than $5. Yes, you read that right: My long-sought-after perfect sunglasses are commonly available for less (much less) than $5 a pair.

Curious? I know you'll want to find out what they are, and where you can get your own pair. Don't waste another minute, read about them here: The Best (and cheapest) Riding Sunglasses

New Forum Features

I have added a couple new features to the site forum, one at the request of a user (and I thought it was a great idea), the other I came up with on my own. The first is topic pop-ups:

On every listing of forum topics, when you hover your mouse cursor over the topic title, a small pop-up box will appear as shown above. Inside the pop-up will be an excerpt, along with the author's name, of the newest message in that topic that you have not yet read. If you have read every message in that topic, it will show the most recently posted message. You can read more about this, and how it can help you find what you need here: Forum Topic Preview Pop-Ups

The other new feature is a Similar Threads list. This list appears at the bottom of every topic page:

The list is generated by looking at the topic title, content and forum of the current topic, then doing a search for other topics that might have similar information. The logic behind doing this search is fairly complex, and I am continuing to refine it on an ongoing basis to try to make the topic list as relevant as possible. The idea is that if you have just read (or even posted) a topic on one subject, that you are now presented with even more on that same subject. This should help great information from being buried in the sands of time and never seen anymore simply because it is on page 17 of the list of topics. You can read more about it here: Similar Threads List

GPS Input for F6B

Lastly, I'll mention that our GPS Input Device has been fully tested and is now available for the F6B GL1800. If you have a GPS on your F6B, and would like to be able to hear its spoken instructions in your headset, this is what you've been waiting for!

That's it for July! Time to get back out on two wheels and enjoy the fantastic weather. See you out on the roads - stay safe!

Contest winner for June

Congratulations go out to our GoldwingDocs.com user "Wein6" who is the June 2014 contest winner! He wins a King Kooler Saddlebag Liner, just for entering the contest and posting messages in the forum. The July contest prize is a travel first aid kit, a must-have for every motorcyclist. To be eligible for the July contest, just visit the GoldwingDocs.com Contest Page and click to register for the contest. As always, it's free to register! Once you're registered, every message you post in the forum during the month of July gains you another contest entry! Good luck!