Dying of heat!

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Well, I started this thread, and I'll continue it now, including the tangents.

I bought and received a pair of the Baker Built wings. I've put them on the bike, but haven't had a chance to try them out - I will report back with the results once I do.

As for jackets, I too have a Kevlar Joe Rocket jacket. I bought it back when I had my GSXR750. It's got armored shoulders, elbows and back inserts and it's waterproof, but more importantly, it's modular. It's got a waterproof windproof liner that you can snap into it, and wearing just the jacket with the liner, I've ridden comfortably with just a T-shirt when it was 40 degrees out (and this was on my GSXR, which has no fairing to speak of, and you get the full blast of the wind). My hands froze inside my gloves, and I'd end up shoving them down in the engine to keep them warm, but I was warm in the jacket.

For warmer weather, the insert comes out, for warmer still weather, it has all kinds of vents and such that zip open all over. And for god-awful-hot weather, the lower half of the jacket zips away entirely, leaving just the armor and a thin mesh that lets wind right through. Like you're wearing no jacket at all, but you keep the armor. And, it has a built in back-pack you can use to stuff the liner and jacket parts into should you need a change while you're out riding. Of course, now with the Goldwing, I just stuff it into a saddle bag.

I can't recommend it highly enough. It was around $300 if I remember correctly.

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Thought I would come back and post my thoughts on the Evaporative Cooling Vest (ECV). I have tried it four times now in a few different ways. First of all I would like to say I was very happy with the response from Mixed Media-Sound Rider. I ordered my vest Sunday night (12 June) and it was delivered on Wednesday the 15.


The manufacturer says it works best if used with a mesh vest. After trying it with and without some kind of mesh material, I do believe this to be true! On Thursday I soaked the vest down just before I left work. The water was hot (thats the only way it comes this time of year) but I let it hang in front of the AC vent for a couple of minutes. Then I put it on and headed down the road. The first 5 miles I ride are still on the base and the speed limit is only 40mph. At 40 mph I was very happy and impressed with the way it kept me cool! When I got to I-95 and hit 70mph the cooling effect rapidly diminished to almost nothing. 25 miles later when I hit town, the vest was almost completely dry and useless. It was only 108f that day. After thinking about it a little while, I figured out why the manufacturer suggested a mesh jacket. A mesh jacket would block most of the air blowing directly onto the vest, reducing the amount of hot air flowing through the vest and cool the air that did pass through more efficiently.Less flow through the vest would also slow the rateit dried out at.

I don't own a mesh vest so I went to Factory-To-You and bought a couple of cheap mesh shirts. I bought one shirt that has more holes than material and one with considerably less holes than material (like a sports jersey). I work a 4 10hr/day week here so I don't work on Friday unless we have a high priority test. Sincethe Iraq thing started,I haven't had too many Fridays off, butIgot that Friday off!:clapper: Soon Monday and Tuesday I wore the vest with the shirtand all the holes. Much better! I still got the excellent cooling at 40mph and the vest lasted most of the way home. The cooling effect still fell off quite a bit at 70mph but worked some. Monday and Tuesday the temp was about 111f. Today I tried the other shirt. It worked the best yet! Same excellent cooling at 40mph and even at 70mph (short burst up to 86) I still had fair cooling. The vest was still wet when I got home about 50 minutes after leaving work. The temp today was 112f, 116 on theheat index. There was a light wind blowing in town and I even got a little relief while sitting at stop lights.:skipping:


So far I think it's money well spent! The only concern I have is how long it will last. The vest seems to be well made and should last a long time. I'll need to wash it fairly often I think because the water out at work is not potable. High levels of arsenic and other things you wouldn't want to drink! All our drinking water out there is trucked in or processed through reverse osmosis and we try to use it only for drinking.

Sorry this got so long! :waving:

Bob :11grey:

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csanders67217 wrote:

Thanks Hobie1. :waving:

I have been looking at the JCW deflectors and they appear to be fairly nice. Of course you never know by looking at a picture. Once you get them, they may be a pile of $#!*. Does anyone have these deflectors from JCW and what is your opinion of them. I'd rather spend a little more money for a quality product than try and go a little cheaper and get junk.

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Hey csanders:waving: The picture of the JCW deflectors for the 1200 look exactly like the ones I got from wing things, theyare $6 cheaper at wing things, not sure about shipping differences.

I am really happy with mine. they look ok and work great.