The Key to Keeping Cool?

It's hot today where I live.  I decided that it'd be a perfect day to test out some Qore Performance sleeves and shorts to see if I could still have a reasonably comfortable motorcycle ride in my ATGATT getup.  The TL;DR is yes, for a while.  Read on if you want to know more.  And in full disclosure, I'm friends with one of the guys who started the company, so I'm probably a little bit biased here.  Also note that the Qore system was not designed specifically for motorcyclists, I just thought that it could be useful.

First, let me describe what I did.  I suited up, road through Great Falls and Sterling Virginia and back in the afternoon of one of the hottest days this summer.  All in all, I was out about 90 minutes, excluding my stop at the grocery store on the way home.

Gear:

- Jacket: Mesh Joe Rocket.  Very free flowing when the liner is taken out, which it obviously was for a ride on a day like today.
- Pants: Inexpensive pair of Bilt riding pants with no venting (nor insulated).
- Gloves: Inexpensive mesh Bilt gloves
- Boots: Inexpensive Bilt boots (there is a pattern here - someday I will upgrade all of this Bilt gear).
- Helmet: Yes.
- Qore sleeves and shorts.  Here is what I looked like before putting on a t-shirt and my jacket and pants:

Pros of Qore:

• Absolutely cools you while you ride.  Noticeable coolness except on your head. 
• Well-made gear.

Cons of Qore:

• As I noted, the system was not designed for motorcycling in terms of the placement of the gel packs.  I think that this impacts the shorts mostly.  The cooling gel pockets should be moved to accommodate a seated position if it is to be sold to riders.
• Effectiveness Time: As noted above, I rode about 90 minutes.  After about 45, I could feel no measurable cooling.  The gel packs on my arms were still in place, but almost at body temp.  The gel packs on the shorts were still somewhat cool, but just barely.  My guess is that the mesh nature of my jacket causes a lot of heat transfer on the side of the gel packs not to my body, removing much of the coolness benefit that I could be receiving.

Conclusion:

Get something like the Entrosys A/C system if you want long term cooling on your motorcycle, but for shorter trips like commuting, the Qore system might be a good option for you.  I'm not going to let hot weather be an excuse for me to get out and ride, especially if its a crazy sunny day.  You can buy an additional set of gel packs and store in an insulated bag they provide to recharge partway through a longer ride.  Or, at a restaurant, ask for an extra glass of almost full ice water and recharge your gel packs that way.

One Step Beyond:

Here are some thoughts on improving the product:

• Directional gel pads: insulate one side and leave the other uninsulated.  The side facing the user would be uninsulated.  This maximizes heat transfer between the intended side while minimizing it to the other.  By varying the amount of insulation on the side facing the user, you could tune how long the gel packs would likely be effective for.  Do you want a lot of cooling or just a little?
• One time endothermic reaction gel pads: opposite of heating pads.  Ideally, these would last 4 hours or so.
• Electrify the system: introduce solid-state thermoelectric plates/pads that pug in to the bikes 12V system.  In the summer, put the cool side toward the user.  In the winter, do the opposite (though resistive heating would probably be more efficient).  Imagine an ADV ride up a high mountain - cooling in the morning, heating in the afternoon!