DeFeet tanks are great. The mesh fabric lets the breeze through if you unzip your jersey. Cheap ($15). Lightweight. Lasts forever. Wear 2 if you want some warmth.

So are performance fabrics always compression tops, or base layers, or the other way around??? I'm a little confused. My UnderArmour is a compression top. It's pretty thin, but I bought it in the winter for an extra layer. I later got the notion to try it in the Summer. How does one tell whether the fabric is performance or base? I'm a fan of any decent product in the $15 range, but Target clothes aren't exactly known for their cyclist specific labels. I have a Target next door. What is their copy called?

This is a myth perpetuated by the people that want you to purchase their clothing. Wicking moisture away from your skin make you hotter! It is the evaporative process that provides cooling. Remove that process and you will tend to get hotter. The only time you want to wick away moisture is when it's cold!

All good base layers are the compression type (skin-tight and non-binding). Some are wicking-only to improve your temperature range in mixed conditions. Some are thermal to keep you warm in cool weather.

You don't have to buy one of those so called performance fabric to experience it. Just try regular dress shirt made of handkerchief material(the one you may already have in your drawer) in the hot day. You feel it cooler where it touches the sweat. And in the hot day, you can't separate sweating from its evaporation.

Material such as Underarmour works better because it makes more contact with the skin, while with dress shirt, excess sweat that didn't touch the fabric will drip down the body, doesnt' help by taking the body heat away.

If you don't believe it, you probably don't neet to try it.

Yes evaporation does cool you down but it only occurs if the moisture comes into contact with air in order to evaporate. So unless you're riding with no shirt on, you must have to have a way of pulling the moisture off your skin to where it can evaporate. Here's an extreme example...say a person is wearing a rubber shirt as apposed to a person wearing a moisture transfer fabric. Which person is going to have a better chance at sweat evaporation. I do agree with you that it is more important to wick when it's cold but, That wicking is also to promote evaporation. In the cold weather case, the evaporation is important to keep you dry not cool. Being wet when cold leads to chill. wicking clothing does not descriminate when it's warm or cold. It wick to allow evaporation whether it be to cool or to dry. (Just my two cents as both a cyclist in the summer and a skier in the winter I've experience both extremes.)
Performance fabrics are not always compression. I have a couple of wicking loose t-shirts for hiking as well as a couple pair of wicking boxers. Base layers aren't always compression either. It actually depends on the use. For activities that are more...well...active, a skin tight layer is more useful because it provides more skin contact to maximize moisture transfer. It also gives a little muscle support(not sure if it will increase performance though). for other activities, the clothing can be semi-fitted to loose. For backpacking/hiking, base layers can be loose for comfort(subjective) and can double as outerwear in camp like for PJ's or just a regular shirt. And also like I mentioned earlier, there are regular clothing pieces that are performance fabrics.The Taget copy that I have is part of the Champion C3 line. Most performance fabrics are polyester or some polyeser lycra blend. Performance fabrics come in all kinds of names but they all usually boil down to some polyester content. Base layers are usually performance fabrics and are worn under outerwear, but there is outerwear that are made of performance fabrics. In actuallity, there isn't a difference. Base layers are called such because they are worn under something. You can take a wicking t-shirt and wear it under a jacket and as long as it's the first layer next to your skin, you can call it a base layer. The destinction between what is a base layer and what is not creates too many headaches. It's all performance wicking clothing to me. As long as you use it for it's intended use it should be fine. Your underarmour compression top may work just fine in the summer if it's not too thick. The only difference, I believe, between the underarmour heatgear and coldgear line is the length of the sleeves as odd as that sounds. I hope I didn't confuse you further.

Nope,you missed it on all counts.

Underarmour works to wick away moisture because of the material construction. It doesn't retain moisture. Cotton retains moisture. If you wear Underarmour only, then I would agree it would be fine for helping to keep you cool. But if you wear it as a layer under another garment then you create a vapor pressure barrier (although a mild one) that works to reduce the evaporation of sweat. It's not a matter of opinion or belief, it's scientific fact.

When it is close to 100% humidity here in the north east, the air is just about saturated with water. So I don't see how any garment, or one with a base layer underneath, will assist the athlete in unloading sweat. Assuming that the close fitting jersey is made with similar polyesther hydrophobic materials as the base layer, why would two layers of these materials be better than one?

I have found one benefit to wearing a base layer with jersey under high humidiy and termperature conditions. For rides of about an hour, only the base layer gets wet, allowing me to use the still dry jersey another day. On the other hand I don't believe that there is any cooling advantage, that I can discern, with the added base layer.

Well, now that summer is quickly approaching, time to dig up relevent threads instead of starting new.

Its spring, the temp change between heading to the coffee shop to meet the group and what it is near end of ride is quite a large temp difference. So I'm gonna pick up a couple summer base layers and give it a shot. All my currrent base layers are long sleeve for winter conditions.

Whats a good summer sleevless or short sleeve brand? underarmor I hate paying the inflated price due to marketing.
Any others? I see De Feet brand is mentioned a few times, maybe i'll see if i can track that down. Im in Canada so sometimes the brand selection is limited.

I have learned the hard way.
I wear a t-shirt underneath my riding jersey, got it from Excel. works great for coolness and a base layer.

Once you get road rash on your hip, side rib area, and shoulder, you will understand the benefits of t-shirt if you ever have a crash.

since summer here means 90-110 degrees F with 85-100 percent humidity, hell no!

when the heat index at 3 AM is over 90 degrees, you aren't wearing any more than you have to.

i'll still use under armour here in the northwest and it works well at wicking. then again, it doesn't get too hot here.

Base layer math: Try it. If it works for you then continue. If not, then don't. Personally, I think it's redundant when wearing a good jersey.

I've ridden many miles both ways, and for me anything above 60F I don't wear a base. Just a freakin' regular short sleeve cycling jersey - 3 back pockets & a zipper! It ain't rocket science.

Below about 60F I wear New Balance "Lightning Dry Extreme" or Adidas "Clima-Cool" base shirts - whichever's on sale. :love: Those are the best I've found. Nike "Dri-Fit" sucks, and I'm not paying the premium prices for Under Armor because it's the new trendy brand right now. :crash:

Personally unless it is cold out, I don't wear under armour (even the "heat gear"). I used to wear it for Lacrosse, but found that it just retained my sweat more, making me feel all wet. Without it I felt like I wasn't as wet and uncomfortable.

For anything under 60 F, I wear under armour.... but that is for warmth.

BUT, I am thinking of trying either Crafts, or D-Feets tank top. These look to have a more pourus material. I am also considering wearing a coolmax hat, or bandanna this summer to see how I like it..... I think it really just depends on the individual.

I love the DeFeet tank for mild spring weather, but last year I found that if I wore it in anything above 18C, I just felt too hot.

always. keeps me cool, and gives me another layer to scrape off if i crash.

fortunately a friend in the sports industry gave me 3 of these

http://www.awcycles.co.uk/smsimg/164...perleggera.jpg

Check out MEC.ca, $31 for the short sleeve. Just ordered another one sleeve last week.

I do have one underarmour for hot days. have worn it under jersey's . Supposed to help with the wicking. I don't buy it. an extra layer is an extra layer. wicking jersey's work just fine.

I started wearing a sleeveless base layer in warm weather after I tore the seam on a close fitting jersey that I purchased in Rome when on vacation. The jersey was soaked with sweat and basically stuck to my skin when I tried to remove it ripping the seam. You have to be careful with those special fabrics and the Italian sizes.

The base layer wicks sweat from your body and holds it to evaporate throught the jersey fabric which stays relatively dry. This allows for some insulation in mixed condition riding since the wind does not directly come in contact with the wet base layer. In very hot weather the wet base layer provides a cooling effect.

I wear a Nike DriFit under my jersey. I have found that it pulls sweat away faster than an jersey alone. Why, you say? I think because the DriFit is so tight it can absorb the sweat easier and transfer it to the jersey which evaporates.

A jersey alone is not sufficient to do this because it is much looser than a DriFit or UnderArmor.

Proof? At the end of my rides my DriFit is almost dry and my jersey is slightly damp. Also I don't have that 'sweat dripping down my chest and back feeling' throughout a ride.

Also is is just a touch extra protection on my upper body if I crash. There is one more layer of lycra/material to tear before the pavement gets to my skin. I know its minimal, but I would rather have that than just a jersey.

Something like this is purely preferential - just like chamois padding or saddle choice.