Cooling vests???

[BamaDrifter64]

Wow, didn't mean to stir the pot with the helmet color thread I started....

I bought a cooling vest off the 'net and waiting for it to come in.  I leave for Sturgis in 2-3 weeks and remember the last time I went ridng through St. Louis with my mesh jacket and 3/4 helmet and virtually roasting.  With humidity at close to 100%, the heat index was probably 115 or more.  However, I was on my Standard and remember getting wet in a rain shower and then when the sun came out, I almost felt like I was in the airconditioning as it evaporated.  I have an I/S now and although I know that the basic principle of evaporation with the cooling vest works, I'm just wondering how well it might work this time since I'm behind a fairing, Baker Air-wings and a Rifle windshield.  Especially if I'm wearing it under my mesh jacket.  Any ideas?

Dave

[B]

Let me know how you like it running to Sturgis - I was considering one for my Rte66 run later this year. 
signed B (one of those guys still sporting the black helmet).

[Oss]

got one of those   one of the best 20 dollar investments I ever made

Also like to wet down the do rag when it is real hot at each stop in the ice bucket, maybe even leave some ice chips in it too

[Michael K (Az.)]

When I got my vest, each little quilted square, when soaked, swelled up making a bunch of little wet pillows. It stayed wet for a pretty long time. After not using it for a few years, I've found that the material will not absorb very much water at all! Is there some kind of a time frame on these things? Mostly the outer and inner linings are soaked but no action in the quilted areas. Needless to say, it dries out quickly. ???

[Jess from VA]

Try this one.  Crystals hold water for days, not hours like polymer. With mesh.  This site has all kinds of crystal head and neck bands too, for cheap.  I get them charged with water, and stored in ziplocks in the frig.  Throw it/them in the bags, and put them on later when it heats up.

http://www.tuffrhino.com/MiraCool_Poncho_Vest_p/hs1045.htm

[solo1]

I have a Silver Eagle cooling vest (no, it's not HD, this one's made in the USA).

It works very well with my mesh jacket but when following directions on soaking it, the water drips off the vest and down the pants. 

[roboto65]

http://www.texascoolvest.com/
A little pricey but works great and does as it says we had them at Magna Owners of Texas meet and greet this year to try and all I can say  is it does what they say interesting product!!!

[john]

i have one from "colorado cool wear'  ...   crystals
works o k ... fifty bucks     
 heavy after a good soaking     ???

[Mickey Runie]

I take my shirt off and let Mother nature keep me cool.  I take on a half-gallon or so of cool beverage with each gas stop to refill the sweat glands.  But I have to contend with a lot of people calling me a squid (or something like that). 
 


I sure wish we were going to Sturgis again this year.  Maybe next year.

[Mr.BubblesVRCCDS0008]

  Thes aren't cheap but look like they might be worth it. Thinking about getting one for the wife.   www.hogcooler.com

[Molasses]

Our first trip out west on the Valk, Sweet Tooth started telling me she wasn't feeling too good somewhere between Belle Fouche and Hullett on the way to Devil's Tower.  It was over 100 degrees and after the fact we both realized she was in the early stages of heat exhaustion.  She spent a long, long time in the visitors' center and ladies' room while I wandered around from one patch of shade to another and stared up at that big rock.

The next year, she maybe went a little overboard getting ready for the heat.  We both ended up with Joe Rocket Sahara vests and she had a Camelbak so she could keep sipping water all the time.  It was hot again across N. Dakota and Montana right up until climbing to cross into Idaho and got hot again as soon as we came down again until we were almost to Snoqualmie Pass.


My vest is easy to see in the pic and the hose and mouthpiece for the Camelback is curled up high on her shoulder on the side closest to me.

We weren't miserable or sick from the heat, but it wasn't like air conditioning, either.  Like was pointed out, the vests weigh a ton when they've soaked up water (yup, these're the kind with the "crystals").  It felt like it didn't take very long before they'd get dry enough to not be helping very much, but that might be a relative thing comparing the cooling effect from when the vest has just been put on with water running off it against when it's not running wet or maybe due to the fast drying from wearing mesh over them.  Sweet Tooth was NOT thrilled by the way all her white t-shirts and the bras underneath got dyed blue by the color bleeding out of the vest lining.  And it didn't quit doing that the whole trip, so I heard about it the whole trip.  Plus later whenever she did laundry and found some of her "blued" things in the load.  And whenever she remembers it to this day.    Only other thing that comes to mind is that the vests went in the trailer while we ran around between the Cascades and the coast and they weren't completely dry days later when we pulled them back out to wear again when we hit central/eastern Oregon.

...and I haven't bothered to pull mine on since and it's pretty much 3 years later.

[stude31]

Molasses,

I too have the sahara vest.  I wore it last year for a few times and I don't think it was worth the effort to put it on and get all wet.  I wear a fieldsheer moto morphe jacket that breaks down to a mesh jacket and I think from riding in missouri a year ago when it was 100+, I felt comfortable so I probably won't even get my vest out for the trip to CO next week. 

Honestly I forgot all about it until this post