I commuted to work today and it is hot down here in FL. REAL hot. The ride itself was fine, but I could no stop sweating for a while even doing a cool down pace towards the end.

Anyway, here is what I do so far and any more tips would be great :

I wear a small shirt like a wifebeater for the AM ride. Shorts with lining and no undies. No socks as well. In backpack I have change of clothes and a towel. get to work..cool down.towel off..axe body spray and put on fresh undies/socks..work clothes.

We have no showers here. I am thinking if this is something I should do during the summer..lol.

Shouldn't be a real problem. Take a shower before you leave (counterintuitive, but bear with me). That'll clean your skin, so you remove most of the bacterial colonies that chow down on sweat, as well as embedded dirt and dead skin cells.

Check your email when you get to work while you cool off and stop sweating. I like unscented baby wipes, but anything that'll take off dried sweat will work Wipe down, dress in clean clothes, and you're ready for the day.

(Waiting for showers in new building to open here -- maybe next month?)

Nice..I like the baby wipes idea a lot. Is your preride shower a cold one as well?

I take a shower in the AM before I leave home and the rest is about like you do. I have been doing it for years, no problems.

Yup, I am dealing with the same heat....

My approach is get to work early enough to clean up and change after I cool down. I usually sweat more once I get there for a few minutes while my body adjusts. As stated above the key is showering before you leave if you don't have showers at work. I'm definitely going to try the unscented baby wipes, that sounds like a great solution.

I read you use a backpack? I do too, but I try to keep it off my back, on a rack, in a basket, etc to keep the sweating down. This helps a lot.

I am going to a messenger bag. I need something with space and more utilitarian. May help with sweating..may not..but it will be a lot bigger but less bulky since backpacks just get stuffed real easy and feel awkward to me.

You know the heat im dealing with..im in Orlando.

edit: Got the scentless babywipes..GREAT call.

Enjoy the baby wipes!

FWIW, panniers keep the load off my back. 78 degrees and 74% humidity this morning, though, it didn't make much difference.

How did my ancestors live in the South before air conditioning?

I agree with the shower before leaving. When I get to work I sit in front of my fan to cool down and wipe sweat away with a towel. When cooled down I hit the hot spots with baking soda.

We've only had about 10 days over 70 degrees since last September, so I'm speaking mostly from memory, but let me suggest ditching the wife-beater in favor of something made of polyester. Drink some ice water as soon as you can after arriving at work (or on the way if you can keep it cool). That will cool your body down from the inside. Try to drink at least 24 ounces, but be careful not to drink it too quickly.

I'm lucky here with that; we rarely get mornings that are over 60 degrees even in the summer, when we have a summer. And I usually have a 10 minute cool down wait for the bus in the morning. I don't care how sweaty I get on the way home. Though some of the dusty gravel roads will likely have me resembling a golem.

Get a rear rack and either get some panniers, strap your back pack on top, or get a basket and throw your back pack in their.

I'm not sure about where you work, but you may be able to store some of your clothes there. I'm not intentionally slower in the summer, I just take my time when its really hot and/or muggy.

Dude, I'm in Orlando too and it has been brutal. We're not even in the dog days yet!

I find drinking ice water will help cool your core so you can cool down faster. I work at one of the two large hospital systems in town and am blessed with the availablility of showers since they have to have doc's on site. The hospital has been relatively supportive of cycling too (bike lockers and racks etc). Lot's of my co-workers are incredulous that I am still doing it. I can't believe it myself sometimes...espicially with a functioning car.

100 degree commutes in Texas, too.

I keep some pants in my office at university and put undies and a shirt in my backpack. The pre-ride shower is a good idea.

Once there, I wipe off the sweat with a paper towel, then wet another one with rubbing alcohol and have what I call a "monk's bath" (this is what the Orthodox monks at Holy Archangels in Texas do). This is cooling and it kills the bacteria.

I keep deodorant, Old Spice spray, and shower-to-shower powder in a drawer and apply as necessary to the still damp or smelly bits.

I also have some Olay face cleansing wipes to deal with the sweaty face and brow.

The key, however, is a fan, which I turn on high and sit close to for 20 minutes until somewhat cool and dry. Then I get dressed again and can go teach the great books.

Yep, what everyone said. Shower in the morning before your ride, and after you arrive, wait 20 minutes for you to stop sweating, and wipe off with baby wipes. I keep a duffel bag in my office with a couple pairs of pants, socks, & shoes, and have wipes, deodorant, belts, etc. I bring a clean shirt with me on my way in.

Never had an issue with stinky sweat in the office.

Shower to shower powder idea is pretty great as well. Awesome input folks...thanks, I have formulated and refined my commute plans do to it.

I commute to summer school, it is not very far but I always leave late so I have to rush and I do it with a backpack as well. I get pretty sweaty.

What I usually do is when I get home I fill my water bottle and pop it in the freezer, then when I go to sleep I take it out and put it in the fridge. That way once I get to school it has thawed enough to get some water but there is still ice in it. You may need to leave it in the freezer overnight depending on heat/commuting distance but you will have to test it out a few days to see. As Andy said, do not drink too quickly (brain freeze).

Since a lot of heat escapes from your head if you wear a helmet lose it as soon as you get off your bike. If you wear anything else on your head (hat, bandana, etc) then you may not want to wear those at all (usually the heat held in is worse than the heat from the sun).

When you get to work rinse your head and face at the sink, just keep wetting your hands and wiping your face and head with them, but do not dry your head! If it is dripping you can wipe it but do not dry it completely. The evaporation of the water will help keep your head cool. I dry my face because I do not have time for it to dry off before class and do not want to go with my face all wet so I do not know if leaving it wet will help cool you a lot.

Spray bottle is good as well. You can fill it with water and mist your body when you get to work. There are some decent glass/metal bottles on eBay so you do not have to worry about them getting crushed. Best of all is that you can buy a small package of baking soda and mix it in and it will cool you down and be a scentless deodorant.

If you decide to mix in baking soda here are some tips:
- Pour a little into your hands and rub your hands together, if it feels slimy then it is good
- Use a teaspoon so when you make the next batch you can adjust the mixture to have more or less baking soda
- If it causes itchiness you might have put too much baking soda or it just does not go well with your skin. Give it a break and start creaming the affected areas until the issues go away, then mix more water in (if it is really itchy mix a lot of water in) and try it again. If it still causes skin issues then do not mix in baking soda anymore (although you can still use baking soda spray as a replacement for Febreeze for shoes, clothes, etc).

--edit--
Oh yeah, trim the hair under your arms and around genitalia as well. Hair will retain sweat and sweat feeds the bacteria that excretes the stink. Those are the important areas since those areas sweat a lot.

Ive ridden in 105f weather for a few days now. I usually like to take off my helmet during red lights and always look for shade to ride under lol

You probably won't believe me, but merino wool is a big part of your answer.

You can't drop something like that as a single sentence and walk away, SF!

I'm not riding in summer heat, I commute through hell everyday with a heat index around 109, and the temp right around 100.

Another Floridian commuter here. I leave early enough to allow myself 45-30 minutes of cool down before i have to start work. This also makes the commute a bit cooler as it'searlier (usually out of the house by 7:15 to start work at 9, 8 mile commute)

I'll sit at my desk with my fan on and go over emails, browse the web, talk with co-workers for about 10 minutes. I'll also down a bottle of water in the time to help replenish fluids and cool down a bit quicker.

I'll either bring in a full change of clothes on my bike rack or ill sometimes bring in a weeks worth of clothes on the weekend. I also bring an extra shirt for the ride home.

We have an annex to our building that no one occupies so ill use the bathroom over there to change and wash up in the sink. So far this has worked for me the past 3 months.

Maybe in Seattle! I've found even a good merino wool jersey makes me overheat when the temperature exceeds about 80(F).

Yesterday was the hottest day of the year so far. Heat index was 105, and I would imagine the blacktop was at least 115 degrees for my return home. I thought I had sufficiently hydrated---I wore my Camelbak and sipped water every five minutes or so on the ride in and back. I drank water all day long at work, at least a half gallon. I was tired when I got home, but felt OK otherwise.

I knew something was up when I hit the snooze alarm a half dozen times this morning, missing my gym workout. I ate breakfast, showered, and went to work. After working for an hour, my calves started cramping up, and I developed a blinding headache. I ended up going home and sleeping most of the day. Heat exhaustion?

Forgot to add that a huge game changer for me was shaving my armpits. I still sweat a lot in the heat since it is very intense, but that makes a huge difference for sure.

Schwinnrider..that is crazy man..becareful but it sounds like you deyhrdated over night. You need to drink water before bed and right when you get up as well.

It really is quite hot right now..just crazy, but I am making do. I feel like if you can do it in this heat, you can do it anytime.

I ride slower in the mornings, just take my time to keep the sweat to minimum to start with. Put a water bottle in the freezer the night before. Having something cold to drink along the way helps a little. I keep a towel at work and dry off when I get there while drinking ice water. I towel my hair and everything until I quit sweating. Then I change clothes.

So far that's working with 78 deg mornings, but we probably have less humidity than you guys in FL.