Best 3-4 season jacket under $600 for Florida commuter

I call BS on that. That article is talking about Long Distance riding. Not 30 minutes. Mesh is perfectly fine in any temps found in North America for at least a couple of hours.

I did multi-hour rides last summer in my mesh gear when my GS' onboard air temp gauge was showing as high as 113F (in the Sacramento area). There is NO WAY I would have wanted to do that with my Roadcrafter suit on!

39 ounces of perspiration in one hour. Can you drink enough to compensate for that? On a short ride, I'm sure that isn't a problem. I did use the "30 minute" figure in an arbitrary way because I have a commute that is between 35 to 60 minutes and the worst I've experienced is a headache by the time I get home on those very hot and humid days here in VA.

Like you, I would also avoid something like the Roadcrafter on very hot days. That is not what the article suggests. The article suggests a vented suit. Roadcrafters are a lot of things but well vented isn't one of them. The Klim Badlands is. So is the BMW Rallye 3 and others. Some air is allowed to flow but not so much as to dehydrate a person in short order.

Of course there are other solutions and things to consider. A large fairing is going to send less air over your skin even with a mesh suit. Fast riding as opposed to slow riding will accelerate evaporation. A mesh suit might be just fine in a lot of situations. The more I look into it, the more I'm leaning toward a vented suit for hot days.

Do what makes sense to you. My post was in response to AviatorTroy who was giving advice that could be contrary to what the original poster really needs.

Great article, thanks

Hi all ! I just bought a Tourmaster Transition 3 dualsport jackets for both me and my son . For $188 dollars each and free shipping hard to go wrong . They have zip out liners and the vents flow a ton of air , I also like the longer cut (especially in the back) . There is body armor on the shoulders , elbows and back . The armor is removable and the jacket is machine washable . It was really hard for me to justify more money as this jacket is awesome .

According to my experience, genuine Gore-Tex can't be matched for water proofing and breathability. Take a look at Klim Latitude- it has big vents, waterproof in its shell and comes with no thermal liner which you don't need in Florida anyway.
It is within your budget and has a pretty good armor.

Lots of replies, lots to think about, and I have been checking out every suggestion on this thread. Starting to open up my budget range a bit. Also glad to see some of the hot weather discussion taking place. I have often been a "it's too hot for gear beyond gloves and a helmet" guy during the summers here, but trying to be smarter about it now. As an aside, has anyone ever found a cool vest or shirt that actually works? I live in a swamp, and there will be times when I'll have to bring a change of clothes to the office, but what about those months outside of June/July/August? Haha Do any of these cooling vests actually live up to the marketing?

Have you tried the Motoport Aerotex?

I have the MP Aerotex liners and I have an Aerostich Roadcrafter (genuine Gore-tex) and an Aerostich Darien jacket and pants (genuine Gore-tex).

I find the MP Aerotex to be noticeably superior to the genuine Gore-tex for breathability. They are both waterproof.

Of course there's no way to know now, but I am skeptical that your headache in that situation was due to dehydration. Unless maybe you were already borderline dehydrated before you even started your ride. As I said earlier, I have spent most of my life living and riding in north Florida. I built swimming pools for a while, which involved being down inside a hole with a white sand bottom, with no breeze and no shade, for hours at a time, during the hottest parts of the summer. I feel like I have a fair amount of experience with heat and humidity, both riding and not. I have ridden across Death Valley in June wearing a Roadcrafter suit. I have raced Hare Scrambles in north Florida in the middle of the summer. I ran 14 sprint races at Roebling Road in Savannah in one weekend in July (it also gets HOT and HUMID in Savannah). I have ridden in the Sacramento area in 110F+ temps for multiple hours at a time.

I guess the most to-the-point thing I can say is that the most comfortable, and, by FAR, the safest, gear I personally have found and used, for the conditions the OP asked about, is Motoport mesh kevlar. Of course, YMMV.

Nice, I have not seen that model till now.