Originally Posted by
acantor
Although I have never cycled in extreme desert conditions, I have ridden on very hot days (90 F/32 C) in hilly areas.
These trips were very challenging physically. I have suffered from heat exhaustion, dehydration, and sunburn from cycling in the heat. These are serious conditions. A person can die from heat exhaustion and/or dehydration.
If you decide to do it...
1. Cover up... protect your your arms, legs, and the back of your neck from the sun. Apply sunblock every hour.
2. Carry as much water as you can, know where you can get more, and drink constantly. Downing a litre of water per hour is easy in the heat.
3. I don't recommend cycling at night. Car and truck drivers have enough difficulty sharing roads with cyclists when visibility is good. You don't want to surprise them; they don't expect cyclists riding at 3 a.m. miles and miles from anywhere. Instead, start riding at the crack of dawn, and stop for the day before the asphalt melts your tires. That may mean quitting at 11 a.m.
4. Gain experience by taking shorter trips over many months.
With the many ultrabright rear and front lights available, they won't fail to see you if you use them. The problem is that drunks and sleepy drivers may then fixate on the light and steer right into you, or so they say. Of course, the argument is that somehow they don't steer right into reflectorized mailboxes...
Some people may be different, but I have found when it gets much over 100 F, I can't drink fluids fast enough to replenish those lost by sweating, so apparently I sweat like crazy. I have to take breaks, hopefully in a place with A/C and ice available, or a swimming hole, and keep drinking water plus electrolytes until I feel somewhat better. Failure to do this will result in a migraine-like, or maybe more like a hangover, headache/ heat exhaustion situation the next day. The more you ride in these conditions, the more your body will adapt to them, though.