UV Arm sleeves...

[fossyant]

Long sleve summer top as an alternative ? Currently using one, as my local trails are overgrown and it reduces bramble and nettle strikes.

 

[ColinJ]

I cover up with that factor 50 emulsion paint stuff, which gets everywhere. Last weekend I managed to miss a big patch of my right calf muscle. Owwwwww.

I did something similar on the Dales forum ride last year ...

You know that people say that cheap sunblock doesn't work, and that you need to reapply sunblock every hour or so? Well, I burn easily and I had inadvertently turned myself into a sun exposure guineapig. Ladies and gentlemen, I humbly present 'Mysteriously shaped sunburn man'. Or, one of his 2 mysteriously burned legs ...

View attachment 418516
I have the same triangular burn on both legs. At first, I couldn't understand how it had happened so I replicated my pre-ride sunblock application. I realised that I apply the cream in a diagonal upward motion of my hand. I must have done it in both directions but missed a patch on both legs because I hadn't gone along the 'sock line', the top of the sock causing the straight line at the bottom of the burn. You can see that the rest of the leg is fine so the sunblock did its job. (The freckling is historic.)

 

[ColinJ]

Long sleve summer top as an alternative ? Currently using one, as my local trails are overgrown and it reduces bramble and nettle strikes.

I have a very lightweight long-sleeved base layer which I put up with as long as I can on long hot summer rides. Its sleeves do not completely block the sun but they do enough for me to get away with a light application of sunblock on the outside of my arms. I still have to apply the sunblock, because if overheat later in the ride and remove the base layer then I'd be in trouble without the sunblock.

I can pull the sleeves up and down to suit changing conditions and I don't have to worry about arm warmers slipping down, as most of mine seem to do.

 

[andrew_s]

Mine are SPF 40+ and if you are really hot you can soak them in water to help cool yourself.

My memory says that, for regular clothing at least, the SPF goes right down when the fabric is soaked.
Worth checking up on properly.