{"id":28098,"date":"2024-10-06T00:01:18","date_gmt":"2024-10-06T07:01:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/?p=28098"},"modified":"2024-10-04T10:06:54","modified_gmt":"2024-10-04T17:06:54","slug":"the-wayback-machine-riding-in-high-temps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/exhaustnotes.us\/blog\/index.php\/2024\/10\/06\/the-wayback-machine-riding-in-high-temps\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wayback Machine: Riding in High Temps"},"content":{"rendered":"
By Joe Berk<\/h6>\n

With the temps hitting over 100 degrees out here, I thought it might be a good idea to rerun a blog we ran a few years ago.\u00a0 Let’s stay cool out here, folks!<\/p>\n

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I visited Chiriaco Summit and the Patton Museum last week (we’ll have a blog on it soon) and it was awesome.\u00a0 But wow, was it ever hot.\u00a0 As in 111 degrees when we left, and that’s not an unusually warm day out there in the Sonoran Desert.\u00a0 The next town over is called Thermal, and a little further north there’s this place called Death Valley.\u00a0 Death Valley recorded a whopping 131 degrees three weeks ago.\u00a0 Sensing a pattern?<\/p>\n

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Looks like the Mojave, doesn’t it? Nope. That’s Joe Gresh in the Gobi Desert. Gresh and I rode across it after coming down off the Tibetan Plateau. It was a bit warm out there.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Yeah, it gets warm in these parts, and in other parts of the world as well.\u00a0 Hot weather is not ideal riding weather, to say the least, but sometimes we find ourselves riding in shake and bake conditions. I’ve done it. I rode a 150cc scooter all the way down to Cabo and back in Baja’s hottest month of the year (September, when it was well over a hundred degrees every day).\u00a0 It was humid down there, too, once we crossed over to the Sea of Cortez side of the peninsula.\u00a0 We were literally entering the tropics as we crossed the Tropic of Cancer.\u00a0 Whoa, that was rough riding!<\/p>\n

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Simon Gandolfi, suspenders flying in the breeze, riding my Mustang replica bike south of the Tropic of Cancer in Baja California Sur. It was one of the hottest rides I ever experienced.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When we did the Western America Adventure Ride with CSC and the guys from Zongshen, we rode through the same corridors described earlier above, riding across California and the Mojave Desert, through Joshua Tree, and on into Arizona with temps approaching 110 degrees.\u00a0 That was brutal riding.<\/p>\n

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King Kong and Mr. Zuo in Joshua Tree National Park. That was another brutally hot day.\u00a0 Higher higher temps were still in front of us when we later rolled through Amboy, California. This picture became the cover photo for 5000 Miles At 8000 RPM<\/a>.\u00a0 You should buy a copy or three (they make great gifts).<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The ride across China that Joe Gresh and I did had similar challenges.\u00a0 It started out hot, then it got cold as we rode into the Tibetan Plateau, and then it became brutally hot and humid as we descended into central China and rode east to Qingdao.\u00a0 That was a 38-day ride<\/a>, and I’d guess it was well over 100 degrees for at least 30 of those 38 days.<\/p>\n

The risk, of course, is heat stroke, and it’s often not the kind of thing you can feel coming on.\u00a0 \u00a0You’ll think you’re okay one minute, and the next you’re waking up in an emergency room wondering what happened.\u00a0 If you start to feel a headache while riding in hot weather, you are already perilously close to heat stroke.\u00a0 You need to stop, drink copious amounts of water, and get some shade.\u00a0 \u00a0The better approach, though, is to not let yourself get anywhere near that condition, and that’s what this article is all about.<\/p>\n

It almost seems like heresy to say it, but my first bit of advice about riding in hot weather is:\u00a0 Don’t.<\/strong>\u00a0 Given the choice, postpone the ride.\u00a0 But let’s assume that this is not an option, as was the case for each of the rides mentioned above.\u00a0 Okay, then…here’s my guidance on the topic.<\/p>\n

12 Hot Weather Riding Tips<\/h3>\n

One: Don’t ride naked.<\/strong>\u00a0 I’m not trying to be funny here, and I’m not implying you might be the kind of person who would go down the road wearing nothing at all (although there is that story about Gresh riding around with only a bathrobe).\u00a0 Nope, what I’m talking about is not shucking your safety gear.\u00a0 You have to wear it.\u00a0 All of it.\u00a0 ATGATT.<\/strong>\u00a0 All the gear, all the time.\u00a0 You can’t peel it off just because it’s hot.\u00a0 It’s saved my life.<\/p>\n

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My Viking Cycles<\/a> mesh jacket and the mighty Enfield.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Two: Wear a good mesh jacket.<\/strong>\u00a0 \u00a0These are available from several sources.\u00a0 I have a Viking Cycles<\/a> jacket I’m wearing these days and it works well.\u00a0 I wore a Joe Rocket mesh jacket on the ride across China and it made a big difference.\u00a0 You can get them from Viking Cycles, CSC Motorcycles<\/a>, British Motorcycle Gear<\/a>, and other sources.\u00a0 Trust me on this…you need a ventilated jacket for riding in hot weather.\u00a0 EDIT:\u00a0 We’re getting interesting comments advising not<\/span> wearing a mesh jacket in hot weather.\u00a0 Make sure you read the comments below, and for those of you who responded, thanks very much!<\/strong><\/p>\n

Three: Use a cooling vest.<\/strong>\u00a0 These things actually work, but they’re not as easy to use as it sounds.\u00a0 They don’t work for long, but they work.\u00a0 The idea is you soak them, and then wear them under a jacket.\u00a0 The airflow causes the water in the vest to evaporate and that cools the vest and you.\u00a0 I’ve found that on really hot days these vests need to be remoistened about every thirty minutes, but you should be stopping that often anyway (more on that later).\u00a0 It’s the remoistening part that I don’t like.\u00a0 It seems like they take forever to soak up water when you remoisten them.\u00a0 I’ve found it easer to just get my clothes wet (see the next point below).<\/p>\n

Four: Go soak your head (and everything else).\u00a0<\/strong> Don’t laugh; I’ve done this.\u00a0 On the Baja ride I mentioned above, it was so unbearably hot that we took to pouring water down the inside of our riding jackets and inside our helmets at every stop.\u00a0 We became rolling evaporative coolers.\u00a0 It helped.<\/p>\n

Five: Change your riding hours.\u00a0<\/strong> On the really hot days, I like to hit the road at 0:Dark:30.\u00a0 Get out and get a hundred or so miles in before it gets unbearably hot.\u00a0 You’d need good lighting on your bike to do this (I generally don’t like to ride at night, but I’ll make an exception when I know it’s going to be hot).\u00a0 \u00a0This is difficult to do when riding in a group because it’s hard to get everybody moving that early.\u00a0 If it was just me and Gresh or Welker, we’d leave way early and get in a couple of hours of riding (or more) before the sun comes up.<\/p>\n

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We knew it was going to be brutally hot riding through Joshua Tree and the Mojave Desert, so we left just before sunup on the first day of the Western America Adventure Ride.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Six: Drink a lot of water.<\/strong>\u00a0 The problem with riding in high temperatures is you don’t realize how much water you lose through perspiration.\u00a0 My advice is to stop every 30 minutes and drink a bottled water.\u00a0 Like I said above, most of us ain’t spring chickens, and you might be wondering if this means you’re going to be stopping a lot to pee.\u00a0 Hey, it’s a common old guy problem, but it won’t be in hot weather.\u00a0 Drink a lot of water; you’ll lose it through perspiration as you ride.<\/p>\n

Seven: Avoid alcoholic beverages.<\/strong>\u00a0 Alcohol will cause you to dehydrate more rapidly, and that’s the opposite of what we’re trying to do here.\u00a0 You shouldn’t be consuming alcohol on a motorcycle ride anyway.\u00a0 Drinking any kind of alcohol while riding in hot weather is just stupid.\u00a0 Where I found you really have to watch this is when riding in a large group (there will be one or two riders who have to have that beer or two at lunch).<\/p>\n

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Beer is good, especially when it’s a Tecate at the Old Mill in Baja overlooking Bahia San Quintin. But save it for the end of the day, when the bikes are parked for the night.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Eight: Stop regularly to cool off.\u00a0<\/strong> Find a bit of shade or someplace air conditioned, and get off the bike to cool down.\u00a0 \u00a0When I ride in hot weather, I usually stop to cool off and rehydrate every 30 minutes or so.<\/p>\n

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Stopping to cool off at the Tropic of Cancer. Wow, it was hot and humid down there!\u00a0 We were off standing in the shade, drinking bottled water.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Nine: Keep your tires at recommended pressures.<\/strong>\u00a0 Another thing you definitely don’t want on a hot day is underinflated tires.\u00a0 Tires flex with every rotation, and flexing causes the tires to heat.\u00a0 Throw in high road surface temperatures with underinflated tires, and you’re flirting with a blowout.\u00a0 This is especially important to remember if you’re one of those guys or gals who deflate their tires for dirt riding.\u00a0 Don’t forget to pump them back up when you get back on the asphalt.<\/p>\n

Ten: Don’t speed.\u00a0<\/strong> Tar melts on hot days, and melted tar is slick.\u00a0 Factor that into your riding when it gets toasty.<\/p>\n

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A meal fit for a king, but not for lunch. You wouldn’t want to ride in hot weather immediately after this Baja seafood extravaganza.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Eleven: Eat light.\u00a0<\/strong> Don’t over indulge.\u00a0 Heavy meals put a strain on your digestive system and your heart, and that can elevate your body temperature.\u00a0 When I was involved in testing munitions out in the Mojave on hot days (where it was sometimes over 120 degrees), we always brought along melons for lunch and nothing else.\u00a0 We didn’t need to keep them cool.\u00a0 They were a great treat, they seemed to make it a little cooler on those horrifically hot days, and they help to keep you hydrated.\u00a0 Good buddy Sergeant Zuo seemed to know all about that in China, too.\u00a0 We were riding through Ledu in central China one ferociously hot day when our favorite Chinese NCO stopped the group, disappeared, and returned with a couple of watermelons.\u00a0 That was a welcome respite and a marvelous treat.\u00a0 We ate a lot of watermelon in China.<\/p>\n

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Gresh taking a break in Ledu, China. That’s the Yellow River (China’s Mother River) behind Uncle Joe.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Twelve:\u00a0 Lighten up on the low sodium schtick.<\/strong>\u00a0 A lot of us older guys try to watch our sodium intake.\u00a0 When I was in the Army, they actually gave us salt tabs on really hot days when we were in the field, the theory being that we needed the sodium because we were losing so much through perspiration.\u00a0 I later heard the Army reversed that practice, but the fact is you lose a lot of minerals through perspiration.\u00a0 I don’t worry about my sodium intake when riding on hot days.<\/p>\n

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So there you have it.\u00a0 \u00a0You know, most folks who ride motorcycles these days…well, how can I say this delicately?\u00a0 We aren’t spring chickens anymore.\u00a0 Motorcycling tends to be a thing mostly enjoyed by full-figured senior citizens, and we have to take care of ourselves, especially when we venture out on hot days.<\/p>\n

If you other ideas about hot weather riding, let us know in the Comments section.\u00a0 We love hearing from you.<\/p>\n

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Never miss an ExNotes blog:<\/p>\n

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