Personal Cooling Gear - evaporative, phase change, etc.

In My Humble Opinion
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I’m very sensitive to heat. Hate hate hate it.It’s the only thing about physical effort that I despise that makes me avoid it. I also generate enormous heat very quickly when put out effort because I am very overweight.*

So in the past when I would work out I would employ multiples of those bandanas that are filled with absorbant gel beads and sorta stuff them everywhere. But they would get hot and stop helping quickly, so I would freeze them.

I also picked up a super cheap and funky vest that has pockets for ice packs in it. That’s pretty good, but looks crappy because it was old and funky when I got it and has limited pockets.

Anyway, I sold my car a few months ago and I have committed to bicycling as my transportation. I love it a great deal, I am very, very happy with it. (I biked 17 miles the other day uphill into a headwind for the first half. I had to be in 1st gear almost the whole way. It was brutal, but I was still completely happy.) But I see the summer coming and this is not a happy thing. I need cooling gear. For my neck, my head (under my helmet!) my body…

So I’ve been cool-gear shopping and I’m looking at:

Personal misting systems (Attach to the bike)
cooling fabric products: towels and vests
but I kinda think that my standards for what is genuinely cool are harder to meet than most people’s and I will find that these feel warm quickly, as I felt with the gel-filled bandanas.

Then there’s ice scarves and vests

And if it really works, a little something else to help me avoid using the AC too much in the house, especially at night because I am nuts about that- I can handle warm in the day but please give me cool for sleep!

And I’m very intrigued by the very expensive “phase change” products; they sound great, but do they really work as advertised? I’d love to get one for my head, since even with vents my head gets pretty hot when I’m biking and that is dangerous on top of being unpleasant. But so expensive, they had better work as advertised!

SO… anyone want to weigh in on your knowledge and experience with these or similar products? I’m almost certainly going to do some combination of things, so it’s not a matter of picking one- I just want to get Doper feedback if you have any.

I am prepared to keep going with ice pack styles if I must, but they are very bulky. The Amazon reviews really rave about the special material in the towels and vests, so if that stuff actually works… And since I’m going to be using it on my bike, if they work well when chilled, I could probably carry spares inside of cold pack carriers for longer trips.

So the ultimate goal is maximum cooling over the maximum area of my body forthe longest period of time for the least cost.

*I’m also just that way…I was like that when I was kid and skinny, too, my mom said it was like having a heater in the bed if I crawled in with her. And yet my normal average temperature runs low…that’s probably why: I’m throwing off heat instead of keeping it.

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I have used one of the Joe Rocket brand evaporative vests on a motorcycle. Very effective for an hour or two. Perhaps too cool if it wasn’t at least in the 90’s. Not sure how well it would work on a pedal bike, due to lower airspeed. Also, people in Albuquerque start bitching about high humidity if it gets over 25% or so. You need to let it dry out frequently, or there will be mildew issues…so you can’t keep it in a ziplock for days at a time. Also, on the bike, I wore it under a mesh jacket, which kept it in contact with my torso. It would be less effective if it were flapping around loose.

My motorcycles mostly stay parked now, as I am bicycling nearly every day. I haven’t needed to get out the cool vest.

My advice is to drink lots and lots of water and let your body’s built-in evaporative cooling system do it’s job. If you are overheating, drop a gear or three and take it easier. The purpose made bicycling clothing works well as long as you are moving, as long as you don’t buy it sized too big. It needs to cling to your skin to work right. A little ammonia in the laundry will keep the stank out. Keep moving when you can…I only really feel the heat when forced to stop at traffic lights and such. If you are getting tired, don’t stop, just slow down. If you must stop, find some shade.

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That misting system-ditch it. You won’t really cool yourself despite how it feels. You will actually retain more heat as the capillaries in the skin will close down in response to cold water on the skin.

Drink ice water on the bike, you won’t cramp and some of your body heat will go to warm up the water.

Don’t wear vests or other clothing that blocks airflow to the skin.

Keep the helmet, it insulates you from the direct rays of the sun.

You can keep some of those ice wraps on your neck, the cold is transferred to the blood itself and you won’t impeded airflow to the body.

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I really like these evaporative cooling pads. Tie one around your neck and one around each wrist and stay hydrated, that might do the trick.

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