is it ok to ride in the cold...

frenchyge

Yep, that's exactly the interesting-but-uninformative article that I was referring to in post #11. Regarding the bolded statement, see my real-world, extreme example in post #11 and let me know if you can imagine a single place on earth where you could find warm air that was equally dry -- except in a laboratory utilizing dessicant dryers to remove the moisture. Plus, as Garage Sale GT correctly pointed out, as that cold air does warm up inside the body it is just ACHING to absorb more moisture, and it will readily suck it from the respiratory tract with each breath. Breathing through the nose will help this by preheating in the sinuses, but as was pointed out early on, if you overdo it such that you're breathing *heavily via mouth* then you increase the risk for the respiratory irritation that the article describes -- whether the air is cold & dry, or just dry.

BTW, Yojimbo if you're still reading this, I'm sorry if I jumped your butt about this before. Earlier that day a teammate of mine had sent me the above link and it had kind of got me spun up about the idiotic stuff that gets reported as news. It had nothing to do with you, I was just a little fiesty on the topic already when you posted.

frenchyge

Clearly all the bad-stuff about breathing coal dust is just scaremongering. I mean, here's a fellow that lived to be 55 without any issue whatsoever.

TheDarkLord

Naturally on Earth - probably not. But what about the air in the airplane at cruising altitude? That is supposed to be extremely dry, no?

frenchyge

Serious? We're still talking about cycling, right?

To answer your question, yes it's probably dry, but also cold.... OMG-you-freeze-to-death-in-a-heartbeat cold. That's why folks are discouraged from stowing away in the baggage compartments or with the landing gear of airplanes.

TheDarkLord

Who asked the question of whether there is any place on Earth with warm air with humidity equivalent to heated cold air??

Obviously, I'm not referring to air outside - it is air inside the passenger compartment. Pilots have posted that the humidity inside is usually in the low single digits. Thank goodness nobody is really exercising in a plane in the middle of a flight.

frenchyge

Ah, "air in the airplane." Sorry, I missed that part before. That air is crappy in so many ways, but you're right -- also dry.


If there's a "Mile-high Club" forum, then hopefully they're getting the news and using their humidifiers.