Summer is finally in full swing, and you may have been unfortunate enough to be in the position where your gear has turned into a sauna, even when you’ve been blatting along at 70mph. Obviously, if it’s mega hot there’s only so much you can do to stay cool, but your body does a good job of regulating its temperature when you’ve got some ventilation.
It could be argued by the budget conscious rider that a dedicated, fully ventilated jacket in the UK is overkill, but the past few weeks have shown that they could be a worthwhile investment. It is worth mentioning that these jackets often come with liners that make them more than usable when it’s a bit cooler, more in line with the usual UK summer! Some of the best examples also incorporate all the tech that you find in top-of-the-line garments. You’d be wrong to think that all ventilated jackets are useless when it comes to a bit of rain too!
If you’re looking for the latest and greatest, then Dainese are the place to look with the newly released and highly desirable Bora and Saetta jackets.
The Bora is the more classic fully ventilated jacket, it has mesh on almost the entire front and insides of the arms, but it has great armour on the shoulders and elbows like Dainese’s usual fare. It also comes in a range of fetching colours. The one thing to bear in mind is its lack of waterproofing; this is a full-on summer jacket. This shouldn’t put you off if you usually carry a backpack or tankbag with you, waterproof oversuits are a good compromise between keeping cool when its dry, and keeping the water out if you’re caught in a downpour. Having used a mesh Dainese jacket previously at the height of summer in Spain; the lighter, textile jacket with mesh is much, much more comfortable at speed and at a standstill, especially in comparison to a conventional leather jacket. The Bora is also capable of taking chest and back armour.
Coming in between the two are jackets like the Dainese Estrema. This incorporates a similar design to the Bora; extensive mesh sections that give great airflow and great armour, but this goes one step further in its seamless metal shoulder sliders for that sporty look. Crucially however, this jacket includes a windproof liner that allows you to use the jacket on dry days in spring and autumn with little issue. It actually makes quite a decent sport-touring jacket as you retain the protection of a sporty jacket while giving some significant flexibility in coping with the weather, especially when you head south.
Suffice to say, jackets are only part of the story of keeping cool on a bike, however they probably make the biggest difference when looking at individual pieces of gear.
Helmets aren’t something that are easy to have several choices of throughout the year so it’s important to get a helmet that has decent ventilation. The Shoei GT-Air 2 is a very good example of this, at speed you can feel the air whizzing through the hair on top of your head, as well as a breeze on your face from the chin vent. There’s also the option flip-front or open-face helmets, however a lack of a chin bar while riding along compromises safety levels significantly.
A paler colour pair of aramid fibre jeans is a garment that can be worn year-round when it’s dry, although darker colours are relatively bearable when it gets toasty, and they show up dirt much less! The alternative is a vented version of traditional textile gear, in which you can get the benefit of waterproofing.
Gloves are less tricky to deal with; while it’s nice to have ventilation on your hands when it’s hot, just as long as you don’t have too much insulation and the rest of your body is relatively cool then most race and sporty gloves will do the trick as they’re often quite thin.
Bike Stop naturally stocks motorcycle gear from a wide range of some of the best manufacturers out there, check out our website or visit the shop in Stevenage to see what's on offer.
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