Modern Vespa

My black armored jacket gets mighty toasty on hot days - though it is mesh some days I roast.

Got me wondering if a lighter color jacket would be cooler.

Thoughts?

I have worn perforated black leather and faded red mesh jackets and both seemed cool as long as I'm moving. That said, my next jacket will be light-colored for this SD heat. Love that mesh!

Breathability while moving will help any color jacket in the direct sun. I wear a light gray Klim Marrakesh and love it. Not mesh, but plenty of airflow. Lots of reviews out there. I wear it in 90f or 40f. In colder weather I layer under it.

The color of your clothes does not significantly affect body temperature but darker colors do absorb more UV rays than lighter colors.

Put your hand on a white car & then a black car that have been sitting in the sun. See how long your hand stays on the black car vs the white one.

Yes lighter colors are cooler.
While you're at it....why not go safer too, with a hi viz mesh, like this First Gear Tex Mesh.

O.S.

although I feel lighter colours are cooler in summer (definitely noticeable with t-shirts) I suspect with a mesh the difference will be not as great. if you're stuck in traffic on a warm sunny day then ya gonna melt no matter what.

this probably also applies to helmets etc ...

Summer has arrived in North Florida.

Yesterday I rode 15 miles with a friend to lunch at Chowder Teds, wearing a silver mesh jacket and black jeans.

The temperature was 89F.

At stops, the black pants were burning hot while the silver mesh jacket was noticeably cooler to the touch.

That is why I bought the silver instead of the black jacket.

Bill

nope

I too love my Marrakesh and have two colors the olive and grey! My Triumph waxed jacket is a roaster compared to these.

This is mine year around. BOHN hi-viz mesh. Summer just t-shirt under it. It actually felt cool the other day at about 87 in full sun. Fall & Spring with a fleece under it. In the winter it provides the armor for under my winter jacket.

The Bohn stuff looks interesting but it doesn't seem the fabric is intended to protect your skin. Am I right?

I will only wear white helmets - to reflect the heat and for improved visibility.
I also have small white reflective strips on the helmet for night riding.

Our cricket team switched to black branding from their traditional beige (the mere glimpse of a beige shirt in the 80s would strike fear into the hearts of any red blooded aussie or south african). They used a black material that reflected the non visible infrared and ultraviolet to reduce the heat but still have that black look that made everyone think they were our fearsome rugby players keeping busy in the off season.

About half the light from the sun is in the ultraviolet and infrared parts of the spectrum.

So yeah. Mostly.

Clear equipment also has the advantage of visibility.

Or maybe you'd rather hide in dense foliage like member giallo

James Dean always wore black jackets and he was always cool.
Never saw him wear beige.

^^ This.

There are coatings available to material manufacturers that will refract infrared and reduce temperature 20-30%. The figures I am providing are based on studies of the foot inside a black leather LE or military boot.

The effectiveness of the coatings was less significant when changing the boot color to brown, and dropped off more as the colors became lighter.

I would assume a similar effect would happen with a leather jacket. The numbers might change when compared to black mesh jackets that provide other means for heat to escape.

My grandmother always said, "you can lead a horse to water....but he'll still try to wear a black helmet!"

O.S.

I tend to wonder if the main heat source in a helmet is the head itself, insulated like a tea cozy by an inch of foam.

Correct. Just a "holder" for the armor. I think their main business is likely for off-road riders who are going slower and no asphalt.

They do have some "flannels/jackets" with kevlar, but they are all black or dark gray. I only wear hi-viz.

For me, I figure I am still 99% more protected than the typical scooter riders around my town...in t-shirt, shorts, flip-flops, and no helmet.

I also got their armored shorts...basically spandex underwear...that fit well under my standard (non-kevlarish) jeans. They are OK for wearing all day, but the butt pad does cause some heat to be generated when sitting at an office chair all day.

My warm weather jacket is white/silver and mesh and I think it is cooler than my black mesh jacket. My helmet is white also hopefully cooler and certainly more visible. Living now in AZ though the heat can be an issue. So I spent some time looking into options and what came up a lot were cooling vests. It is a vest that is soaked in water and warn close to the skin over a t-shirt and under a mesh jacket and the wind blowing on it evaporates the water and does cool you. Just like sweating. When I first looked into it I posted on this blog and got a lot of good feed back, so I found one, not too expensive, and bought it and it does make a difference. The only issue is the water does drip down onto your pants so it does look like you wetted yourself when you get off the scooter. I only used it a couple of times but will likely use it again this summer.

In Arizona, I would think this would work quite well as it is so dry there. Both you don't need it in Florida where I'm from as your shirt is soaked from sweat by the first stop light.

that is the key, dry heat. When I first came to AZ from Chicago I thought dry heat did not matter but it is actually huge. In Chicago in the summer it gets hot and humid, my daughter lived in Wash DC for a couple of years and also very humid. Here in AZ with the dry heat until it gets very close to 100 it is very easy to tolerate, the humidity makes a huge difference and you are correct even on the cooling vest instructions they say you need dry heat for it to work.

I think it's funny when a topic on MV leads me down the rabbit hole. This morning it started a one hour chase. My profile picture shows my black mesh shirt and pants. I've now ordered light gray pants. The shirt is only available in black. But I'm considering a white t shirt or white mesh shirt to wear over.

That only took an hour or so.

My mesh jacket is green. I'm actually kinda annoyed with it because it's only slightly cooler than my unvented Klim canvas jacket and just as heavy. (The color is fine, the way the airflow works isn't.)

My favorite (now dead) jacket was a McQueen special edition green waxed canvas with 6 zippered vents: mid-arms, chest, and back. I can't seem to find a jacket like that one again.

Curious if anyone wears the Rev'it Eclipse (mesh with armor). It is lightweight comes in a silver and also olive green.

My mesh isn't the Eclipse, but it's a Rev'It...the Tracer Air Overshirt.
I got stuck out in 90F sunshine for 2.5 hours longer than I planned for or wanted today, so to avoid sunburn I wore the jacket. It gave me a chance to narrow down my dislike, which might just be mesh jackets in general...if so, it puts my opinion in context, maybe even the "ignore" category. 😊

I don't like things that try to cling to my skin. If I'm hot, the liner clings to my skin and doesn't move with the jacket shell and it just...feels weird. Do not like.

Recently FortNine took up summer capable jackets. I wouldn't mind trying some of them.

A New Kind of Motorcycle Jacket – Best of 2022

Meant to add: light colors or not, the cut and design of the clothing plays a big part.

l've cut and pasted this from a post I made in another thread here a while back:

Here's a link to the new Honister shirt/jacket/whatever from Knox: https://www.urbanrider.co.uk/knox-honister-armoured-shirt-black.html

It's new and it sounds amazing. It's a "shirt" with Level 2 armor and a AAA abrasion rating. Comparing it to racing leathers seems ridiculous, but still, it's got to be pretty good. You can wear it under any old jacket you want, a blue blazer or a bath robe if you so desire, and you're very well protected. And on hot days, you can wear it alone and stay cool with all that nice mesh. Except it's BLACK! WHY?

It's a mesh jacket, meant to be worn on it's own in hot weather. Hot weather at night, maybe. Hot weather with lots of clouds, possibly. Hot weather in places where the sun never really gets high in the sky, even in July? Okay, if you say so. But hot weather under a cloudless sky waiting for a flagman at a road construction site near Sacramento, California? I got parboiled doing that once in a black jacket and almost passed out. At least give us one other option...

Even if you don't care about this thread (but you do) watch this video. Its funny!