TomD77

I've got hair but I spend so much time outside that it gets cut short when the temps get into the 90's. It's solid military over here anyway, I fit right in. ;-)

The skullcap is a Halo, colored white, sweat wicking, has a tail that trails back for evaporation area and has a band built in that diverts sweat from the eye area to the sides. Just got it in an effort to try to get this sweating under some sort of control. From a cooling standpoint, the best solution I've found is the Halo but no helmet. The Halo will evaporate or disperse the sweat when my old helmet isn't blocking the airflow.

rubic

I wear a white Giro Atmos helmet with a Headsweats skull cap. This set up keeps me cool for the most part. On a hot day when I stop for any length of time at a red light, (yes, I stop at red lights, but I digress) I feel like I am in a broiler and I sweat like the dickens. Once I start moving, I cool down quickly. This is in Southern California which does not have the Florida style humidity so I do have an advantage.

The other reason I wear a skull cap is to avoid a sunburn on my scalp since I wear my remaining hair short. Several years ago in the High Sierras, I wore only a visor and the resultant scalp sunburn tought me to always cover my head while out in the sun.

zonatandem

A good helmet, proper venting and white in color with cycling cap underneath is what I prefer for riding in Arizona's 100+ degree heat.
"Warmest" I've commuted in was 117 degrees with 2% humidity . . . not much fun!
Pedal on!

lhbernhardt

Reminds me of when I lived in Oakland, CA in the early 70's when I first started cycling. I'd go over the East Bay Hills to Concord and Danville, where the temperatures would be up in the 90's or higher. We wore wool jersies in those days, and I'd stop at a gas station, take off the jersey, dowse it under cold running tap water, and put it back on. It would be dry again in about five or ten minutes of riding!

Nobody wore helmets in those days, either, but you definitely wanted a cloth cycling cap on your head in that heat. I always wore mine backwards, even over a leather hairnet*. That was the style for racers!

* For those new to cycling, "leather hairnet" refers to the old style helmets racers used to wear before hard-shell helmets came along. These were just padded strips of leather that really didn't do a whole lot to protect your head from impacts. Back then we thought leather hairnets looked cool and hard helmets looked geeky. Now hard helmets look cool and leather hairnets look archaic and dumb. Style...

L.

HiYoSilver

If you are considering helmets, you would be advised to review the following:

RESEARCH
https://researchbank.rmit.edu.au/view/rmit:10569
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science...77705810002626

SAFETY
https://www.helmets.org/helmet11.htm#orbea

My new helmet
https://www.orbea.com/us-us/cascos/modelos/odin/#


I used to have a Giro but hated the wind noise and the helmet adjustments. It was just fairly cheap years ago. When looking for a new helmet I tried on all the road helmets and the orbea was the only one that felt natural on my head. Best surprise is wind noise had
disappeared and fitting as well as on/off is such a breeze that I don't mind wearing a helmet at all.

From my experience, I'ld recommend:
1- testing at least on two different days for fit
2- dropping the beanie hat, that can't make you cool
3- get lots of vents
4- ask experience of others who ride in the same conditions and speeds as you do, but
put testing above their advice. It's your body and you need to listen to your gut about
what will work best for you.

Good luck and have fun.

tony2v

I use to wear the Atmos, but upgraded to the Ionos two years ago. The Ionos is even cooler than the Atmos, it even comes with a front plug for cold weather. I've even gotten brain freeze riding on cold days (yes does get cold here in San Diego) w/o the plug. Just got a new white/silver Ionos, then a week later Giro released the Aeon........damn!

CraigB

I had an inexpensive Giro several years back that I thought was OK until I replaced it with a Bell Sweep a couple of seasons ago. The difference in weight and ventilation was profound. It felt so nice, I was almost giddy, like a kid going on his first bike ride. I don't mean to suggest Bells are any better than Giros, only that everyone's weight and venting technology has come a long way just in the last 5 or 6 years, especially if you're willing to pay for it. In my experience that means starting about $90-$100 street price, maybe a little less if you're lucky and find something on sale.

One other cooling tip that's always worked nearly as well for me as water on the head - douse your thighs with cold water while riding.

TomD77

Thanks for that! Hard data beats anecdotes every day. Turns out that a helmet can match a bare head in terms of cooling, but not just any helmet. Most helmets beat bare heads in terms of drag coefficient too.

John_V 

I ran upon this interesting product the other day called Buffs. I had no idea what it was as it is something that is normally sold in England. I actually found them at Dick's Sporting Goods and they seem to be something that can be used to help with the heat and/or cold weather. A co-worker of mine is from England and she says they work great. I may have to drop the $20.00 on it and see for myself.

Here is the link to some demo videos for those who are interested. Buff Demo

esldude

I tell you, if you haven't ridden in the high humidity of the southern US, well it is just different. Mid to high 90's and high humidity, well things work differently. You don't get much help from evaporative cooling. Sometimes, rarely, when we get upper 90's and low humidity it feels downright cool. Spoke to a fellow from Arizona last week, and mentioned he must be used to the heat. He said with the humidity it was generally worse in Alabama.

I find most of the $100 plus Bell helmets have better than average ventilation, though I have little to no experience with lots of high dollar helmets. I use some Specialized helmets until it gets hot, and then switch to the Bell.

stonefree

The humidity here today, I think was about 55%, which is very reasonable for this area, except that we're in a very historically unique extreme dry spring so we had one inch of rain yesterday and it was a very big deal, first in 5 months. The ground is dry and cracked everywhere. Anyway, as usual I'm way behind everyone in the helmet area, since I'm just discovering the joys of upgrading to a cheap Giro recently from a really cheap Bell that's gotta be over 5 years old and way past it's prime. I've worn a military style haircut for about the past decade or so cause anything else looks stupid on me, so I'm cool as long as I'm moving forward on my bike, but I was still soaked to the bone from head to toe when I got home from my daily 20 miler. All you guy's posts are very inspiring to my 64 year old self and I thank all of you for them.

John_V 

Amen to that!

LAriverRat

Just take a drill and a file to you helmet and make your own vents. Drillium!

esldude

Maybe someone should adapt generator hubs used for lighting, and have a plug in helmet with a fan. Run your light at night when cool, run your helmet in the daytime when hot.

Or develop a thin, breathable, solar cell cycling outfit that can power some cooling gizmos.

Or, well, some kind of coool magic.

BluesDawg

Or maybe just HTFU

Don in Austin

I was riding home the other evening dead tired. It was about 7:30 and that morning I had set the alarm at 5:00 AM to ride the 15 miles in to work. Coming in you drop 500 ft and its relatively cool. I leave the house basically hungry -- just consume maybe a handful; of dried cereal, a V8 juice and a big tumbler of iced coffee. Now, maybe not by some standards, but by MY standards I haul ass on the way in -- love it.

Going home is another story. It was still about 100* and humid, it had been a trying day at work, and I was beat. I passed a little old lady watering her yard with a hand-held sprinkler. A light bulb went off in my head and I turned back and asked her "Could you do me a favor? Aim that on me?" Felt great for the next 10 minutes and then I was dragging ass again.

Don in Austin

Monoborracho

Today I did the Lubbock Ironman 70.3 Aquabike. It was about 102 when I finished right at noon. Last week I cut my hair to next to nothing. Much, much cooler than even a little hair. I debated on an aero helmet but instead wore my Giro high dollar something. Also a skull cap. Just a touch of sweat in my eye when climbing one hill with the wind in my back.

I have several helmets, including matching Specialized helmets for the tandem that Mrs. Mono likes. IMHO you get what you pay for in helmets, just like shoes, gears, shifters, wetsuits, etc.