SR Tested: RS Taichi Cool Ride High-Neck Stretch Shirt

This is where RS Taichi's Cool Ride high-neck stretch shirt comes in. Made from an extremely fine woven fiber similar to spandex but with better moisture-wicking properties, the Cool Ride shirt keeps you cool by actually clinging to your skin. While cotton absorbs moisture well, it has poor evaporative properties; nylon liners such as those commonly found in various riding gear have good evaporative qualities, but are a little lacking in the absorbency department. The Cool Ride shirt's material has both excellent absorbency and wicking properties, allowing it to help your body cool off quicker. Because the material clings to your skin, it puts more surface area to work at evaporating the sweat away from your body, even under a heavy riding jacket.

Although we've been very impressed with the vast majority of RS Taichi products, we were still a little skeptical that this spandex-style shirt could really make that much of a difference. The material's feel is soft and comfortable, and like spandex, it's very stretchable; because the shirt is long sleeve, a little care is required to get your arms all the way through. Once the shirt is fully on however, we could immediately begin to feel a very slight cooling effect. Another plus is that the nylon liner in the jacket we wore slid easily against the Cool Ride material, allowing easy movement inside the jacket without the sticky and clammy feeling that results when sweat builds up inside.

The leather jacket we wore had some perforation for ventilation, but it was nothing like a mesh textile jacket or something similar. Yet the difference in feel on a 95 degree day was very noticeable the moment we got underway. Instead of feeling like you were in your own personal sauna, a distinct cooling effect could be felt on numerous areas of the torso, even in spots where there was no perforated leather. And instead of feeling wet and clammy in spots where perspiration would often build up after 30 minutes or so of riding, we were basically dry and comfortable. Granted, it wasn't as if we were suddenly whisked into a refrigerator or anything like that; but the difference in comfort was definitely noticeable.

Although we'll still be wearing our usual inner suit underneath our leathers (such as RS Taichi's excellent Mawus inner suit) due to its better durability under hard usage, the Cool Ride high neck stretch shirt has become an indispensable piece of kit for our street/commuting time in hot climates.

Details
Retail: $78.95
Colors: black, red, white
Sizes: S - XXL
RS Taichi
www.rs-taichi.com