LD Comfort Beat the Heat

[LoFlow]

Originally Posted by steve112z

If you have a question about the size you might wear, BE CAREFUL.

Well yeah. That's just good advice for ordering any garment over the internet. I just matched my measurements to there sizing chart. Maybe I was lucky but the process worked for me.

I'm with NWBoarder here. I've worn my tights/long sleeve combo for the past 5 years thru rain, cold, heat, dirt and street riding and it's performed as advertised.

And for your comment " There are more company's that make these, if not better quality." Instead of just flaming this one because it's not like your 25 year business model. Share with us the positives (or negatives) of these other company's products so we all can learn and have another choice if we feel the need.

[RydRy]

who is the other company that makes better?

[MZ5]

Originally Posted by Vulfy

This is why I absolutely love this forum, I always find stuff that I had no clue even existed.

This is now definitely on a list of things to get for summer commuting. I do have a question though, if the outer layer is wet, does it wet insides of your gear (jacket / pants)?

I'm planning to wear a leather suit, and don't know how well it will take up to being wet from inside. I figure that in a leather suit I'll be sweating like a pig anyhow. Still, does anybody wear leathers with this undergarment? I plan to get the shorts, long sleeve, and sleeves for just commuting.

I commute in the general Phoenix area on a sport bike, and I wear a heavy leather jacket (textile pants, though). I wear my long-sleeve LD Comfort shirt absolutely soaking under it when I ride home. My jacket is perforated, and flows a LOT of air. Yes, the leather gets damp inside. Not _wet_ really, but certainly damp. I have not had any trouble as a result of this, but I've only done it for one year thus far. I do clean and condition my jacket with Lexol's cleaner and then their conditioner/preservative/stuff.

The LD Comfort shirt keeps me very comfortable so long as I'm moving, and while it's not bone dry by the end of my ~~40 mile commute on freeways and highways, it's nearly there and I'm definitely a lot warmer than when I started out.

[steve112z]

Originally Posted by RydRy

who is the other company that makes better?

Check the post and they are $29.95

[JRWooden]

I'm heading to the tropics for a July trip ... yeah if I had picked the dates I might have chosen differently but ...
Anyway I'm looking for advice!

It will be HOT ~100F and HUMID 90%+ humidity,
and we will encounter a fair amount of stop and go and moderate speed travel ....

What are peoples experience in this kind of weather?


My current summer jacket is a Olympia Bushwacker which as mesh front, mesh on inner arms, and partial mesh on the back. While I understand the concept that a textile/non-mesh jacket allows you to control air flow and prolong the "cooling power" of evaporative cooling ... I'm not going to be blasting down the highway at 80mph I'll be lucky to average 55mph ... also given that the humidity will be high this to limit the rate of evaporation somewhat..
I'll have ready access to water with which to recharge my clothing and I don't mind stopping say every hour?
Is mesh still a crappy idea?

Thanks folks!

[honda_silver]

[QUOTE=JRWooden;18995837My current summer jacket is a Olympia Bushwacker which as mesh front, mesh on inner arms, and partial mesh on the back. While I understand the concept that a textile/non-mesh jacket allows you to control air flow and prolong the "cooling power" of evaporative cooling[/QUOTE]

I have ridden in high temperature with high humidity before/during/after rain in Texas summer heat.

I find I am more comfortable in the high humidity with both the LDComfort long sleeves and long pants.
I could feel the humidity difference on my exposed skin, when I had the LDComfort short sleeve and short pants . Now I just ride long sleeves/pants in high high humidity.

I have Motoport Kevlar Mesh pants and jackets.
I ride a Honda Silverwing (good front fairing) and Clearview X-Large windshield which helps reduce
the direct airflow. My arms are are mostly exposed and dry quicker then the rest behind the fairing
and windshield.

The LDComfort still works very well, just it will dry out quicker.
You just have to recharge (add more water) more frequently.

[JRWooden]

Originally Posted by honda_silver

I have ridden in high temperature with high humidity before/during/after rain in Texas summer heat.

I find I am more comfortable in the high humidity with both the LDComfort long sleeves and long pants.
I could feel the humidity difference on my exposed skin, when I had the LDComfort short sleeve and short pants . Now I just ride long sleeves/pants in high high humidity.

I have Motoport Kevlar Mesh pants and jackets.
I ride a Honda Silverwing (good front fairing) and Clearview X-Large windshield which helps reduce
the direct airflow. My arms are are mostly exposed and dry quicker then the rest behind the fairing
and windshield.

The LDComfort still works very well, just it will dry out quicker.
You just have to recharge (add more water) more frequently.

Thanks!
Probably stopping every hour or two is a good idea to recharge ME as well

I've heard mixed reviews on the cooling vests, but likely will try one along with the "sleeves" from LDComfort.
The local CycleGear store has them on sale, and has 30-day money back satisfaction guarantee...

[Hikertrash]

Originally Posted by steve112z

If you have a question about the size you might wear, BE CAREFUL. They have a exchange policy - If you opem the package for any reason and need to exchange they jack you a 15% fee...And the shorts never touched my skin. Their exchange policy - having my own business for 25 yrs - customers aren't treated that way. Unless you want NO return customers. And this is one! There are more company's that make these, if not better quality.

Wow,

Now it's a 25% restocking fee. Taking measurements don't always guarantee correct fit. Very few online retailers charge a restocking fee these days and those that do, I avoid doing business with them.

[ssevy]

I bought the tights and the long sleeve shirt, and have done some 300+ mile days in mild weather, which previously would have had my butt in agony. This past weekend I did some hot weather riding, and I added an Alaska Sheepskin pad, after hearing how great they are. Well, the LD tights, with my Motoport stretch Kevlar over the top apparently keep me too warm on the sheepskin, as my old nemesis monkey butt returned in full force. About halfway through day 1 I finally took the sheepskin off, and while it felt better, once the monkey butt had started, it wasn't about to clear up while still riding the bike. I think the LD tights would have been okay on their own, but the sheepskin was just too restrictive of airflow.
I didn't take my LD long sleeve shirt with me, and I experimented with several different synthetic short sleeved shirts, soaking them in a sink and then wearing them wet inside my stretch Kevlar jacket, with only the arm vents zipped open. All of the ones I tried dried out within about 45-60 minutes, and I was sorry that I had not taken the LD long sleeved top along to compare. I'll do that on the next hot ride.
Soaking the front of my thighs in the tights didn't seem to do much cooling, but I am used to wearing Bohn Armor tights prior to getting my Motoport overpants, so I can tolerate some heat in my legs, as long as I can keep my torso and core cool on top.
While I need to do some more experimenting, I am convinced that the soaking/evaporative cooling trick really works.

[ssevy]

I just picked up a pair of Under Armor heatgear briefs (boxer/briefs?), and while I didn't ride the bike with them, they kept me dry in very hot weather just working around the house. I had purchased some Ex Officio boxer/briefs earlier, based upon the many positive reviews here, and they did not move the sweat, but kept me pretty wet in the crotch. I just received two pairs of the LD shorts, and will give them a go. My buddy and I have a two week trip coming up at the end of July, and I need to get my monkey butt issues resolved before then. I decided the tights were too warm, and because my stretch kevlar pants don't pass much air due to the armor, I'm hoping the shorts will be a better solution. I'll post an update once I have a chance to do some riding with the LD shorts, and with the UA as well.

[JRWooden]

Originally Posted by JRWooden

Thanks!

I've heard mixed reviews on the cooling vests, but likely will try one along with the "sleeves" from LDComfort.
The local CycleGear store has the vest on sale, and has 30-day money back satisfaction guarantee...

I tried out my cooling "kit" this week.
I rode to Myrtle Beach SC - weather was in the mid-90's with high humidity and strong sunshine.
I rode down without using the gear to get a baseline. The drive was not too bad until I got stuck in traffic... then it sucked. Even though I drank a fair amount of water on the way down, I arrived a bit dehydrated.

On the trip back I deployed both the CycleGear cooling vest and the LDC sleeves.

http://www.cyclegear.com/eng/product...est/web1001053
http://ldcomfort.com/store/comfort-cool-sleeve.html

The vest (on sale now $35 ) hold a LOT of water - I put it in a zip-lock bag and added almost an entire quart of water the first time I wet it and still did not need to wring it out. As the instructions say ... it does take a couple minutes for the water to be absorbed. Getting the sleeves wet is a bit trickier... I followed the advice of putting the sleeves on, holding my arm up and pouring water down my arm... but the water tends to just run off the completely dry sleeves and not be absorbed (almost like water running off a tent) ... not to mention I looked a bit goofy doing this in the convenience store parking lot...

I ended up pouring water down the sleeves from the shoulder end with the hem flipped down to act as a bit of a dam..
Once the sleeves were somewhat wet the absorbed water pretty well.

I was wearing a thin Underarmor "heatgear" short-sleeve shirt put the vest on over that, then my Olympia Bushwacker jacket and hit-air vest (yeah... it's all most TMGATT - Too MUCH Gear All The Time) ... anyway it worked pretty well.
As long as I was moving at all there was cooling even in the high humidity, and when I stopped as long as it was not for too long there was some "cooling inertia" that kept me from breaking into a sweat.

The vest felt kinda like wearing a "barely damp" swim suit in a lightly air-conditioned room, but it was not uncomfortable. Like others have commented I think if I was headed to work or other serious appointment I would take along a second shirt to switch into on arrival. The vest was good for about 1.5 hours, the sleeves - holding less water lasted maybe an hour or so... I made no attempt to restrict air-flow beyond my standard gear compliment which would have made the "water-charge" last longer. Since I was no longer sweating my required water consumption dropped considerably, and I arrived home fully hydrated. I think it will work OK. In the future I may just take the sleeves off and soak them with the vest and then put them back on rather than trying to mess around with re-wetting them while wearing them.

I also bought a cyclegear heatgear skull cap - http://www.cyclegear.com/eng/product...ner/web1010136
it seemed to work but for some very odd reason it gave me a serious headache after wearing it for about an hour...
Almost as soon as I took it off the headache was gone - it was like it was pressing on the acupuncture location for "give this guy a splitting headache". The cap is a bit short and only comes down to the middle of my ears which is not a good "termination" point IMHO,

... so I'm still looking for something to help keep my helmet padding from absorbing so much sweat - suggestions appreciated!

PS: I have no affiliation with either LDC or Cyclegear.

[JRWooden]

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

http://www.gizmag.com/kuchofuku-air-...d-pants/23335/

[NWBoarder]

Originally Posted by JRWooden

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

http://www.gizmag.com/kuchofuku-air-...d-pants/23335/

LOL, I wouldn't want to land on that fan..!

I just got back from riding the Oregon Back Country Discover Route, over 1000 miles through eastern OR, on dirt roads, in 90 deg heat, on 500 lb bikes. Needless to say we were hot!

I was wearing my LDComfort shirt and shorts for the full seven days. I washed them once in a river and once in a machine. When we stopped for gas I would pour water down my sleeves, and through the arm vents and then shake my arms around to spread the water. This worked very well to keep my core cool with the evaporative effect while riding. After the river wash/swim, I was quite comfortable and did not feel the unpleasant soggy feeling once back on the bike, just the cool micro climate inside my Klim suit.

I also tried to keep my thin Touratech neck gater (buff) wet, which helped to keep me cool, and keep the sun off my neck. The buff is a different material and dried out quickly, it was also handy to keep mosquitoes away.

I am very happy with my LDComfort gear for 'rear end' comfort and keeping cool.

[mariowink]

Originally Posted by JRWooden;19139501
I also bought a cyclegear heatgear skull cap - [URL

http://www.cyclegear.com/eng/product/Helmet_Liner/web1010136[/URL]
it seemed to work but for some very odd reason it gave me a serious headache after wearing it for about an hour...
Almost as soon as I took it off the headache was gone - it was like it was pressing on the acupuncture location for "give this guy a splitting headache". The cap is a bit short and only comes down to the middle of my ears which is not a good "termination" point IMHO,

... so I'm still looking for something to help keep my helmet padding from absorbing so much sweat - suggestions appreciated!

PS: I have no affiliation with either LDC or Cyclegear.

The LDComfort helmet liner covers the ears with no seams if you get the longer one. We have a shorter one but I don't wear it.

Also a note on cooling: Once you wet the sleeves of the LDComfort long sleeve shirt (or the separate cooling sleeves) the inside layer next to the skin will be dry and the moisture/water moves to the outside layer of fabric. This is an important feature and designed to keep you from getting that clammy feeling. When you funnel air up the sleeves for cooling allow that cold air to fill the body of your jacket and ride in a bubble of cool air. If you open your vents you will let all that precious cold air escape; kind of like opening the back windows on your car with the air conditioner running. (ô¿~) Mario

[ssevy]

I've worn the shorts for two 300mile days. Still have monkey butt, and the Boudreaux's Butt Paste isn't working at all.