I have been eyeing DeSoto's cool wings lately. I rode for about two hours around the lake on Thursday and I got a little pink even with my super duper sunscreen, so I decided to look around locally for the arm coolers for my 50 mile ride on Sunday. No one had them, I mean really, we are in north texas, if any place should have them, we should. Anyway, I found these pearl izumi sun sleeves, so I picked up a pair.
When we took off this morning, it was around 85...3.5 hours and 50 miles later, it was 97 with a heat index of 104. I wore the sun sleeves the whole time. I can't say that they made my arms any cooler, but they didn't make them any warmer. The last half of the ride, I started soaking them in icy water and that felt really, really good. But the most important thing is that after 3.5+ hours in the HOT Texas sun, my arms were not even slightly pink!
So, I can't say that these sleeves made me any cooler (but in fairness, they didn't advertise that they would cool you) but they did the most important thing and protected my arms from the sun.
I have ordered the de soto cool wings from TE...I can't wait to compare the two. If the cool wings are signifigantly cooler than the pearl izumi's, I will probably order the de soto arm coolers as well.
