At the very front of the pipette hangs the drop of realisation. A drop of water, ready to fall onto a dark blue piece of fabric. It is the inside of a functional shirt. Splash! Ten seconds after the drop has seeped into the fabric, it has disappeared. There is no dark stain on the inside, and the back of your finger can barely feel any moisture. Turn the fabric over, and lo and behold: a large, dark stain reveals where the cool water has disappeared to.
Dry on the inside, wet on the outside - modern functional shirts deal with the sweat that we shed in the saddle in a similar way to the dripping in the laboratory: so-called "two-surface" knitted fabrics are coarser on the inside than on the outside. This creates a capillary effect, a suction from the inside to the outside, and - poof! - the biker is at a comfortable temperature instead of cooking in their own juices and then freezing. It's tricks like this that make it easy to convince bikers to wrap themselves up close in special clothing. Evaporative cooling at full throttle, dry heat at idle speed - moisture management regulated in this way makes a noticeable contribution to keeping body temperature constant, performance high and colds at bay.
The active principles of functional clothing have been known for decades, but development has not stood still. The most visible progress in recent years is practically seamless clothing made from high-tech knitting machines, highly elastic and close-fitting as if painted on. Wrinkle-free full contact is designed to perfectly air-condition the biker body. A common problem resulting from the intimate interaction between plastic and body is the strong odour of decomposition when bacteria break down the sweat.
You can find the entire test report on these eight functional vests with all the measurement data and grades as a PDF in the download area below:
- Assos LS skinFoil_early Winter
- Craft Active Intensity CN LS
- Gore Base Layer LS Thermo
- Löffler Transtex Light long sleeve
- Odlo Performance Warm Top
- Q 36.5 Base Layer 3
- Vaude Base LS Shirt (M/W)
- Uyn Evolution LS
You can find the complete comparison test including all technical data, measured values and the overview of grades in BIKE 12/2018. You can read the entire digital edition in the BIKE app (iTunes and Google Play) or the print edition in the DK shop reorder - while stocks last:
