Unboxing
So we bought some, four of them in fact for Trudi and myself and a couple of customers on the ride. The vest is a nylon material white in colour on the outside and light grey inside. With a zip up the middle and stretch panels on each side it’s easy to put on and the arm openings are not restrictive in anyway. To “activate” the vest there is a pop open flap on the the front that allows you pour water into the vest. Internally there are three cavities that are inter connected and contain an open weave fabric that soaks up the water. It important to distribute the water internally once you fill it and I found the best way of doing this was to dump all 500ml in, seal it up then tip the vest upside down by hanging onto the bottom of it, wait 10 seconds or so until the water flows down and distributes across both sides evenly then tip the vest right side up again to let it flow back down the other side and back cavity.
How’s It Work?
What voodoo magic is going here to keep you cool? Natural evaporation. Just like our bodies are designed to sweat this reserve of water slowly releases against our body and the airflow helps draw heat out of our body. The airflow is critical. Just like a coolgardie safe used to keep meat cool with water soaked hessian surrounding a box so too does this vest. Pretty ironic that those old principles still work!
Does It Work?
Yep. I reckon it does. Did I still get hot? Yes I did once the temperatures got above 37 degrees that seemed to be my trigger point of comfort. I believe that you often don’t truly appreciate how effective something is until you use it away from it’s intended purpose. And so it was that on one morning leaving Daly Waters the temperature was 21 degrees which would normally be awesome for riding but I actually had a chill on! I could absolutely feel coldness against my torso Interestingly on one day I wore a dri-fit style sports shirt under the vest and I didn’t feel as cool. The nylon material seemed to wick the moisture away before it could do anything useful. Wearing a cotton shirt seemed to be more effective because it absorbed the moisture and drew heat away from your body by evaporation. One of our riders did have a fault with his vest a few days in where it sprung a leak in the back and kept losing its water. Hopefully warranty should sort that.
Conclusion
Is it worth $249 to keep you cool? Ask yourself that question next time you are in stinking hot conditions riding all day and I’m sure you’ll say “hell yeah!” If you do a lot of riding in hot conditions this is definitely a worthwhile addition to your riding kit.