Sleeves

A rather interesting discussion is taking place in the touring forum at bikeforums right now. Initially it started as a way of avoiding sunburn on long tours, but then branched into the area of staying cool on blisteringly hot days. As someone who experiences more than my share of those, I am always interested in suggestions here. One that seemed to be coming up frequently is the suggestion of wearing a long-sleeved jersey while riding.

The idea behind it seems to be that keeping the sun off the body is a way of keeping cool. It seems to be practiced fairly widely, enough that I might consider it myself. What I would be interested in is whether it works as well in overly humid climates where the bulk of the heat does not actually come directly from the sun, but from the humidity of the surrounding air.

On the other hand, in 2004 I was organising/leading a century ride in October on a warm day. Having been sunburned the previous day, I was forced into wearing arm warmers for virtually the duration of the ride, including the midday climb of Mt Tamborine. I remember completing the ride (around 180km in total) and recalling that wearing arm warmers didn't seem to make the heat all that unbearable (even if I wasn't keen to try it again).

Another suggestion argued that cotton business shirts, while having a certain "dork" factor (as if that's a bad thing) were even better. For some reason I have a strange urge to try that one out on a commute. I wonder what my employer would think if I showed up after riding in my work clothes.