![]() When this happens the body loses its ability to cool down. Those wet patches that develop are evidence of moisture absorption. We’ve all played sport in a cotton T-shirt. This renders the membrane ineffective because the sweat won’t reach it. When this happens, the fabric loses its breathability, and so wicking cannot occur. The long yarn fibres of cotton absorb moisture. They rapidly lose their breathability when they become wet. And that’s because the long-yarn fibres in cotton absorb moisture. But when you begin to sweat, and bear in mind that we all sweat all the time, cotton is not up to the job. In fact, in its dry state, cotton breathes fairly well. ![]() Now, for a short journey when it’s not too warm and not too cold, there’s no real problem. The mistake that most people make is to wear cotton garments beneath their suit. And so, in order to get the best out of the membrane in your motorcycle clothing, you also have to make sure that whatever layers you wear do not hamper breathability. If all you wanted was to stay dry, you could, of course, simply line a jacket with a plastic sheet it would actually be totally waterproof, but because your sweat would be trapped inside the garment you would merely get wet from the inside. The tiny holes allow sweat to pass to the outside, but those holes are too small to allow the large water droplets from finding their way in. The secret to any technical outfit is its membrane. These holes are too small to allow large water droplets to pass to the inner side of the garment, but are large enough to allow your sweat, once it has been transformed into vapour, to escape to the outside. The membrane in any waterproof garment comprises millions of tiny holes. Wearing the correct motorcycle base layers is all about breathability. You’re wasting money if you spend a huge amount on a suit, then wear cotton base layers beneath it. So you spend a couple of grand on the top of the line Rukka suit, for example, and you then turn into something far less capable by wearing the incorrect layers beneath it. The problem is that you will diminish any suit’s ability to do this if you do not wear the correct layers. Safety will always be part of the equation, but a lot of people will have chosen their suit on the basis that they believe that it is going to keep the dry when it rains, warm when it’s cold and cool when it’s hot. We get a lot of customers here in the shop in Guildford who will think nothing of spending a grand, or even two grand, on a suit because they have read rave reviews about it. ![]() Most bikers erroneously think that layering will only bring them benefits if they’re riding huge distances in extreme conditions.īut the fact is that modern, technical clothing only works properly, the way it should, if you wear the right base layers. Now just about ever motorcyclist has heard about layering, and about base layers and mid layers, but layers are not widely understood, and few truly appreciate the benefits of effective layering.
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