What is the best *cotton* material for hot-weather cycling tops?

[Patrick Moore]

Lands' End is having a sale, and they offer some reasonably priced 100% cotton ss shirts in different weaves, plus of course knit 100% cotton polo shirts.

I am considering only Lands' End cotton shirts at this point.

I would wear these when cycling to non-cycling functions, so in "casual dress" situations.

Which would you choose for hot weather cycling? And why?

Seersucker

Chambray

Madras

Poplin

Knit

Thanks.

Aside: I've been wearing some very well made, very good looking, very comfortable, very easy care (toss in machine, hang dry, they look already-ironed), very quick-drying, and very, very durable indeed "bush"-type shirts -- straight tails, can be worn neatly untucked -- with meshed and vented rear airflow flaps; in addition to all the other superlatives, they were very cheap at about, IIRC -- this was some 5+ years ago -- $15 per, from Kohl's.

The one downside is: they are made from synthetics, and of course develop that synthetic stink as soon as you hang them up and walk away for 30 minutes.

The cottons would replace these, trading some of the described benefits for the longer between-wash life of cotton.

Thanks.

--

Patrick Moore

Alburquerque, Nuevo Mexico, Etats Unis d'Amerique, Orbis Terrarum

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[Ted Durant]

On Sunday, April 12, 2026 at 1:31:18 PM UTC-7 bert...@gmail.com wrote:

Lands' End is having a sale, and they offer some reasonably priced 100% cotton ss shirts in different weaves, plus of course knit 100% cotton polo shirts.

 

Which would you choose for hot weather cycling? And why?

Seersucker

Chambray

Madras

Poplin

Knit

Well, funny you should ask ... I have gravitated towards polo shirts in the last couple of years for warm riding, and I bought a few from Lands End last year, and that's what I brought to LA with me. 

I also have a couple of LS seersucker shirts with me here (wearing one as I type), which I love for warm weather riding, for the UV protection and keeping the material from sticking to the skin. I've not tried chambray. Madras doesn't work for me, tends to really cling to my skin. Haven't tried poplin, probably worth giving it a go, and probably looks a little neater than always-wrinkled-seersucker. I like the knit polo shirts, so far, they seem to really breathe well.

I've noted elsewhere, I think, how happy I am with my wool polos from Minus33 and Smartwool (a blend, actually).

The photos of me from the LA ride yesterday show me in the long sleeve white Lands End polo, which I especially appreciate on a sunny day for its UV protection. Basic cotton, might have come from their school uniform catalog.

Also got this short sleeve mesh on sale, and it appears to still be there, on sale. Not fully happy with the way the sleeves fit, middle of biceps so they tend to climb up.

And I got this basic light blue (hard to color balance this),  again not fully happy with the sleeves on it. But I like the performance of the fabric, and I like how normal they look on and off the bike. All of them have long enough tails that I don't feel too drafty in back.

Ted Durant

San Marino, CA USA (for now)

[Eric]

Patrick,

These days the only cotton shirts I wear riding and don't feel all swampy are seersucker! Picked up a nice Banana Republic seersucker camp collar shirt a couple years back off eBay, and it's now my favorite riding and casual nice-looking shirt in my closet. I find myself grabbing it so frequently for rides that the navy stripes are turning slightly violet from sun fading. The fabric, even when saturated with sweat, lifts itself off my skin, aiding in evaporative cooling and drying. There's my endorsement.

Thanks for the heads up about the sale! I might be picking up a seersucker long sleeve or two for the added sun protection. I have dark skin, and am always surprised how much more comfortable I feel during those exposed sections when I have a light layer covering my arms.

Eric

[Patrick Moore]

Ted and Eric: thanks, you confirmed my suspicions that knit and seersucker work best. 

One more question: Are the LE polos and ss seersuckers cut trim? I have a very long and narrow torso and sometimes have to order Large to get enough length, but I don’t want baggy = flap in wind.

Too bad about the stink on the Koh’s bush shirts, as they are otherwise excellent. Only, when I ride somewhere and sweat I am always afraid that the dreaded stink will start manifesting itself publicly before the end of my trip. I am generally safe for, say, 5 hours or so, but more than that is iffy.

[Patrick Moore]

Thanks, all. I ordered 8 of the seersuckers, having to duplicate colors since the discount applied only to certain colors. Still, all of this should see me through for the next decade. Someone emailed me offlist to describe how well seersucker works on long tours in humid areas, acting like (respondent's image) -- he's an engineer) a large surface heat exchanger.

I was interested to read that seersucker was developed in India, tho' from the Persian roots of the name (meaning "milk and sugar" for the alternating smooth and rough surface) during the Mugal period, and was beloved of colonizers from Bengal to Baguio as well as in the Southern US.

Man, I used to call Lands' End and get a knowledgeable person immediately who could answer product questions and quickly take an order. Just now I called to get information about cut and returns, was on hold for 25 minutes, got someone apparently from a discount outsourced CS mill in some backwater state of India who knew nothing, and then got put on hold for another 15 minutes before getting an American "supervisor" who answered my questions quickly and took my order. Still, $36.97 per instead of 7$4.95 per. If I'd had more patience I'd have looked at Poshmark or eBay.

On Sun, Apr 12, 2026 at 2:30 PM Patrick Moore <bert...@gmail.com> wrote:

[Chris Halasz]

It diverges from Patrick's original question (can you imagine such a thing in this group?), but so curious as to those who have compared cycling with long-sleeved seersucker vs with linen, especially in a dry (California coastal) climate? 

Thanks all, 

Chris 

[Patrick Moore]

https://youtu.be/mAUYkwFKdak

In other news, and this is Lands' End news, not cycling or Riv news, so hang up if you are not interested. Got mss saying "Cc declined, call back." And I did. Waited 10 min. But got Wisconsin-accented CS rep who fixed it all in short order. Asked her about first CS rep who knew nothing about products. She told me new outsourcing to (here it is) Belize and more training needed.

So apologies to India and Bihar or Andhra Pradesh. I've found Filipinos/as to be the best outsourced CS reps: bedside manner/general attitude. I'm sure Belize can come up to scratch with training.

Patrick "multicultural himself, so this is OK" Moore