Isn't there a more stylish cooling vests?

Cooling vests? yes to keep you cool on very hot days. Lots of choices for evaporative cooling where the garment is "soaked" with water then it magically "dries". It evaporates the water out when it gets hot. Cheapest kind and only works if there is a breeze over the garment.

Next is wearing a pack of ice inside a plastic pouch. These are only good for about 2 hours at best and temperature regulation is much to be desired. Vests with pockets to hold the plastic pouch with ice inside is bit bulky. pretty cheap starting around $40

more high tech vests uses reusable phase change material (goes from solid to liquid) similar to blue ice. Its capacity to keep you at the melting point of this material is 58F. So not as cold as ice but plenty cool to keep you cool. Style for these vests are hohum. I NO LIKE!! And like the ice pouched vests its bit bulky and tad heavy. costs around $200 with the phase change material in 4 pouches.

And for people, where cash is no big deal, there is a vest where it circulates, cooled water through it. http://www.veskimo.com/cooling-vest-...cle-racing.php mere $860. back pack with tank to throw in the ice, pump, Li-ion battery to power the pump... Again its bulky and you now have to have a backpack.

Really!??

I'll settle for the phase change material because it last the longest and not ice cold. But the vest design is so not there. And many of them are for men Large/extra large, or 2XL or 3XL. but what about small and medium size for moi?

Maybe I should just buy the pouch and sew on several pockets to my T-shirt...

Whooey!!

I think chemical phase change vests don’t need an evaporating wind and that might be a big difference they have with polyacrylamide gel-crystal ones...especially if you're not moving a lot. For phase change you also need ice water, a fridge or freezer to recharge it every two hours or so. In assuming you're thinking about using a vest on a bicycle ride, for around a two-hour max ride both crystal and phase change should work as a cooling vest if someone really needed one. I might make a neck band (like on the watersorb site) if I road or hiked a lot in lower humidity heat. I've soaked a bandana in mountain streams and worn it around my neck on hot hard mountain climbs and that worked well. A woman I met during my recent desert trip used polyacrylamide crystals and sun screening fabric to make a shirt that she says helps with working in the heat….so yes…make one to your style!!!

My recent desert ride was in 106-9 weather. To acclimate to a hot weather ride like that I did hot yoga for two weeks before…and I make sure I’m continually hydrated, properly fueled, use lots of sunscreen and wear jerseys, shorts and caps with sun protection fabric ……now, a few years ago on Iowa’s ragbrai whenever a sprinkler or a person was out on the road with a hose spraying people who wanted it… I’d stop and get completely soaked….that helped too :)

It would be good to hear how others who ride in real heat a lot handle it.

My experience with the bandannas is that they actually make it worse. Unlike the evaporative vests, which are very thin - a layer of water-repellent parachute-type fabric inside, a very thin layer of absorbent fiber between, and an outer permeable layer - the bandannas are just full of those beads like you put flowers in. So the outside stays cool, but your neck is actually insulated and hotter than it would be bare.

I use an evaporative vest on the moto and I don't doubt it's saved my life more than once. Before I got it, there were a couple of times when I overheated, got dizzy and indecisive - not good on two wheels in traffic. But I think that's more related to the protective clothing motorcyclists and mountain bikers have to wear (like the picture you linked to). Never had an issue on the road bike, with the wind I generate. I'm a lot more likely to get in trouble running, where there's just really not a lot you can do but be careful, slow down, and be willing to bag an interval session.

Only people I've ever known with the active cooling vests, besides the professional auto racers you read about, are people with MS who need to stay cool for health reasons. Way too much weight for championship motorcycle racing, though I wonder whether endurance racers and rallyists might wear them.

Does anyone have access to a wet bulb globe temperature monitor?

I've been curious for a long time, since the NOAA's heat index only begins at 80°F (27°C), whereas I've been in trouble from the heat more often when the temperature has been in the low 70°s F, or even the high 60°s, but with humidity high enough that sweat evaporation is minimal. I'll actually experience less heat stress if I run in the hottest part of the day when the humidity is lowest, provided the humidity drops below 75% at that time of day - which lately it hasn't been doing.

I might just have to get an inexpensive monitor just to satisfy my curiosity.