Maximum temperature you're happy to cycle in

[Alan O]

"The harder you work the more you will sweat..."

That's certainly true, but it's also true that the more relative wind you face (eg by going faster) the better the sweating will work in cooling you down. It's not the sweating itself that causes heatstroke and related conditions*, but the failure of the sweat to lower your body temperature sufficiently.

I expect that in any individual situation there's an optimal speed for maximum cooling, which best balances the heat generated by your muscles and the cooling effects of sweating, but I've no idea how to gauge that other than by how you feel.

[*it can cause dehydration, obviously, but that's relatively easy to overcome]

 

[Kosong]

mid 30s is fine for me, but i lived in Malaysia for a while so im well acclimatised. In fact, i prefer the heat - it makes me get up earlier, and the implied sunshine certainly puts a spring in my step. I'm more into touring rather than racing/sport cycling though, so my day in the saddle is usually pretty flexible. How long i cycle depends on my hydration the day before, how well i slept, and more importantly what way the sun is facing.

I'm certainly not that fast on my bike though, average 10-11mph loaded unless there are hills and climbs, then it drops significantly as I'm a shite climber (asthma!). if the weather is like this for my pending bike ride to Germany I'll be in heaven but I know its not most peoples cup of tea. In sri lanka last summer i hired a bike for a few days and did some 40 mile days, during the hottest part of the day...was absolutely fine on day 1 but day 2 i just hadnt eaten enough over the 2 days and lost energy. that was horrible crashing like that in 40+c heat. This is the main thing I struggle with as heat completely stops my appetite and food becomes something i have to make myself do during daylight hours, else i just wouldn't eat at all from 10am - 7pm or so.

My 3 water cages on my touring bike take a thrashing during this sort of weather!

 

[lazybloke]

I ventured into a box of Lindor truffles today - a father's day gift from last month.
They're not kidding about the smooth melting filling.

Don't take them cycling!

 

[Reynard]

I ventured into a box of Lindor truffles today - a father's day gift from last month.
They're not kidding about the smooth melting filling.

Don't take them cycling!

The dark ones are lush.

 

[Jenkins]

All this talk about the heat - it was only 4 months ago we were moaning about the "Beast from the East"

 

[jefmcg]

All this talk about the heat - it was only 4 months ago we were moaning about the "Beast from the East"

Welcome to Britain. Where are you from originally?

 

[Jenkins]

Welcome to Britain. Where are you from originally?

Here!

 

[jefmcg]

Here!

Twas a joke, but have you never noticed that Brits complain about the weather too cold and then one degree warmer complaining that it's too hot? The changeover number is around 20 or 21. I am not sure "what a nice day" is a sentence in British English.

 

[Ian H]

Having just ridden my 600k event as an organiser's check ride... oof! That was hot. I was balancing time against heat-stroke most of the way round.

 

[Jenkins]

Twas a joke, but have you never noticed that Brits complain about the weather too cold and then one degree warmer complaining that it's too hot? The changeover number is around 20 or 21. I am not sure "what a nice day" is a sentence in British English.

You must have been here long enough to realise that moaning about the weather (too hot/cold/wet/dry, etc) is our national pasttime. If it was an Olympic sport, we'd sweep the medals

 

[jefmcg]

You must have been here long enough to realise that moaning about the weather (too hot/cold/wet/dry, etc) is our national pasttime. If it was an Olympic sport, we'd sweep the medals

Exactly. Hence my assuming you were new to the country as you seemed to be surprised by it.

I now return you to your regular program of complaining about the weather.

 

[Jenkins]

I'm not surprised about the moaning - I do enough of it myself, especially regarding the wind. It was the realisation that it was only the start of March that we had that really cold spell and here we are only 4 months later well into a prolonged warm spell (for most of the country).

 

[ColinJ]

Having just ridden my 600k event as an organiser's check ride... oof! That was hot. I was balancing time against heat-stroke most of the way round.

Wow, that's about triple what I could cope with at the best of times, let alone in this heat!

 

[Ian H]

I sent the Exeter riders off this morning at 6. Steve Abraham started the Leighton Buzzard lot at 7. Good luck to them.

 

[steverob]

I'll admit I'm not someone who deals with the heat all that well; I actually don't mind being cold. However I wasn't sure until today how hot was TOO hot for me - I was watching the temperature reading on my Garmin and noting when I was struggling with the heat and when I was fine, just to see what I could find about my own thresholds.

It turns out that I start to get uncomfortable at 25C, but am still quite happy to ride in that. As it approaches 30C however, that's when it actually starts to affect me and if I'd had the choice, I would probably have stopped once it got over 30 (or say if it was already there while I was at home, I wouldn't start a ride). Thankfully because of my early start (a rarity for me as I love a weekend lie-in!), it only reached those sorts of temperatures just as I was nearing the end of my ride - I was that close to home by then that there was no real point in stopping.

This was on a 70 mile ride where the vast majority of it was quite flat (so no really tough bits) and I had two bottles of water (one from the freezer at home, one purchased halfway round) and one of orange squash, so I was quite well hydrated, but still it got to be a struggle at points.