Colorado Kid

Parts of the South West (And West) are undergoing a massive heat wave. Is anyone in that affected area still riding and if so, how do you cope with the high heat?

FullGas

heat index here was 109F a couple of days ago...

my only concession to the temp was to pick a route that has a little more shade than some others.

I don't mind hot weather, even wore a black jersey...

ThermionicScott 

Oh, you mean "summer"?

phughes

It has been in the high 90's here for the past few weeks. On the road it has been over 100F because of the heat radiating off the asphalt almost every day, with high humidity. I just ride. It was 107F the other day when I rode home. Drink water, lots of it. It will be like this almost all Summer. If I chose to not ride when it was hot, I would never get to ride. Take it easy if you aren't used to it, and drink lots of water...I know I said that, but, drink lots of water.

This was at 11:30AM with 73% humidity.



This was later in the day on the way home.

AusTexMurf

Just riding and drinking lots of water.
Summer in Texas.

andyprough

Takes me a week or two to get used to the high Texas heat each summer. My first ride in mid nineties heat last week was brutal, but I'm pretty close to fully adjusted now.

drlogik 

I live in Phoenix and it hit 117 here today. I went for a short 10 miler at 4pm just for kicks. I darn near phoned home for the wife to pick me up but I kept going. When I got home I took a thermometer to the pavement in front of my house. 140 degrees at pavement level (about 2 feet off the pavement).

I hydrate ALL day long. I drink half a bottle every 30 minutes or so. In an 8 hour day I'll drink 6 to 8 bottles of water. I pick up the pace around 2 pm and drink a full bottle about every 30 minutes. By 4 or 5 pm when I get home I go on my ride. I'm usually good but 117 is just nuts hot.

Now I know what some of you may be thinking, "Oh, but that's a dry heat". Well, it is! It was 6% humidity today and it SUCKS the water out of you so fast. However, I spent decades living in the south so I know what hot and sticky is. Try 101 degrees and 99% humidity in North Carolina or South Carolina. That's bad, really bad. There's no escaping the stifling heat of the south.

However, try riding in a temperature zone of 130 to 140 degrees out for size. The ambient temperature at body level is 117. Dry or not, it's crazy hot. And the sun, well, there's just no explaining to anyone not from here how hot the sun is in summer in the Sonoran Desert.

KD5NRH

Had a guy at a previous employer who was really disappointed that his bike commute setup from New Mexico didn't work as well here; he had a half gallon high pressure mister setup rigged to the fork with the nozzle pointed straight up on his stem. I guess there, the mist flashed off pretty quickly, but here it just made him wetter without much cooling.

mcours2006

That's absolutely insane! You could slow cook a roast at that temp!

Up here in Southern Ontario we don't have that, thankfully. We might get a day or two in the 90's. That's about it. Hey, but we do have ice and snow and extreme cold, so you know, we're not wusses here.:-D

jrickards

I was at the camp (cottage) this weekend and didn't ride but it hit 32C/90F on both days of the weekend here in Sudbury. I was soaking wet, oh, wait, that's cause I was in the lake, never mind.

imi

I wish ...
We're coming up to the midsummer celebration this weekend in Sweden. Had a couple of good weeks, but back to grey skies and rain

jrickards

What is normal for Sweden at this time? I was hoping to tour through part of Sweden at about this time of year.

tarwheel 

The morning news said that 4 hikers and cyclists died from heat exposure in AZ over the weekend. That is some serious heat, and not just typical summer weather. I hope that it doesn't spread to the Southeast. With our humidity, high heat quickly becomes oppressive.

Intense Heatwave Kills Four, Feeds Southwest Wildfires - NBC News

locolobo13 

I'm taking it one day at a time. Saturday morning I went for a short 15 miler. Basically went downtown and goofed off. Got a cup of coffee at Starbucks, only place open, and sat outside to drink it.

When I started the temps were in the 70s F. By the time I got home around 8:30 AM it was in the 80s. C'mon! 80ish ain't that bad.

Commuting? Rode in this morning. Starting temp around 89°F. Supposed to be 115ish this afternoon. I usually ride the long way home. If I feel too hot I'll cut it short.

After saying all that. First rule. Hydrate! About an hour before leaving work I'll start drinking cold water.

Second rule. Pay attention to what your body is telling you. If you start feeling dizzy, woozy, having a hard time thinking, then CUT YOUR RIDE SHORT. Get someplace cool if you can't get home. Drink a cold one, or two.

Some people think of this season as the equivalent of winters where they have winters. Cut your mileage, some stop outdoor activities altogether. Me? I just take it easy. How do I feel today, right now.

Good luck to those braving the heat

imi

June, July and August are the summer months... But the weather is really anybody's guess. Bring your sun lotion AND rain gear!
A "good" year can be gorgeous sunny weather, balmy evenings for the most part with just occasional rainy days.
Last year was great, the year before that was horrible. This year we had a great May, not so good at the moment. It really can go either way and change overnight.

Hope this doesn't put you off, Sweden is a lovely place to tour. You can wild camp legally anywhere outside of built up areas, lots of organised campsites... Forests and Lakes, low density and responsible traffic. English is basically a second language here. Lotsa mosquitoes, but no malaria!

jrickards

No, I'm not put off, I'm looking forward to the opportunity. We have mosquitoes too plus what we call blackflies (in May to mid-June) and Deerflies and Horseflies. Deerflies are smaller versions of horseflies and "bite" you, actually, slice you, when you're dry whereas horseflies like you when you're wet and emerging from the water.

It is actually a bucketlist tour I'm hoping to do because of the length of it and it is still in the planning stage. However, I would be landing in Sweden from Denmark and heading up to Stockholm. I don't know if I should land in Helsingborg, traveling north to Jonkoping, following the lake then northeast to Stockholm or landing in Malmo and following the east coast to Stockholm. From Stockholm, I will be traveling west on the southside of the main highway so I think I will be heading southwest to Katrineholm on to Akersun and Hova, southwest to Uddevalla, then northwest to Oslo. Any knowledge of the areas that you'd like to share would be greatly appreciated.

RubeRad

Went on a mtb ride with the wife on Sat, it was I think max 103 that day, and not much shade on this route. We were tired and the wife started making bad decisions (like upshifting instead of downshifting when approaching a hill), so we figured we should cut the ride short and turn around. We drank our water up because we knew of a place we could refill and sit in the shade for a few minutes. Ended up with about 13 trail miles.

As for commuting, before 7am it's never uncomfortably hot -- although today when I got in at 6:30 it was already warm (like 75 outside maybe? and climbing fast). Riding home, for me it's only 5.5mi, mostly downhill, no matter how hot it is, it's better on the bike just because of the breeze from moving.

Lot's Knife

Also commuting every day in the Sonoran Desert. Not so bad as long as you keep moving. Only when I arrive at work does it feel miserable. Most of the deaths here are of out-of-towners who underestimate it.

silvercannon10

i spent a summer in phoenix plus ive been down there a lot. I just tell people its like opening your oven and sticking you head in. when your tires are sinking in the asphalt u know its hot!.. personally i hate the heat.

silvercannon10

The thing i hate where im at lately is, it seems like we have unusually cold weather all through may...and then towards the end of may its just like some one flips a switch and we have record heat. Your body never has a chance to adjust to the heat.
Im not a morining person i try to ride in the evening and around here we have a lot of mountain roads/bike trails that once you gain some altitude you start to drop in temps a bit. plus my job im outside a lot so u get used to the heat some what.

as long as the temp is below a 100 on flat ground im fine...its climbing and the sun beating down on your head and you think your going to die that bothers me.

Cyclon

To avoid biking in the hotter times of the day, I offset my work hours by coming in later in the morning and leaving later in the evening when the sun has started setting.

1242Vintage

I don't quite have the extreme temps here in No. California but when they do climb above 100 I have a nice swimming hole about three quarters the way along my commute. My swim is a few miles from the end of my commute, just long enough for me to dry out.

Of course our heat usually comes with low humidity. Don't know how you guys deal with both heat and humidity. Sounds rough.

canklecat

Heat index has been above 100F most of this month, mostly because of the unusually high humidity. I just ride a little slower, and focus on cadence and energy expended, not speed. In actual practice I'm riding only 1/2 mph or 1 mph slower than my usual average. But that slight reduction in effort makes all the difference on afternoon rides.

Other than that, the main difference I've noticed is in clothing. I finally needed to get some padded cycling shorts to minimize the chafing from swampbutt. And I wear either a cycling jersey or a wicking base layer under my cotton collared shirts -- it's actually drier and more comfortable. And a bandanna under my helmet because for the first time in my life my dried sweat is leaving a white salty residue on stuff. Never had that problem when I was younger.

PatrickGSR94

pfffttt Memphis had the heat index hit 117 the Thursday before Father's Day, around 1:30 pm. I rode home from work that day, and my bike computer was at 96 or above the whole time. It's not as bad when moving. Thankfully my long commute only has a couple of stops. Lucky for me when it's hot and humid, that generally means a south or southwest wind, which is tail wind for me in the afternoon.

the sci guy 

suck it up. bring water. sunscreen up. wear upf shirt/jersey. don't overpace yourself like an idiot. ride.