Beating the heat on your bicycle surprisingly possible with some tricks learned over the years. Got your own trick? Please post it in the comments below.

HEAT

Your body will begin to pick up heat from various sources, and you can fight them all.

Never pedal hard. A slow, minimal amount of power keeps you cool and rolling, without breaking a sweat. Shift gears to always use a light amount of pressure and spin at 75 rpm+. Consider coasting down hills.

Minimize changes to speed - if it's a choice between rolling into the light slow at 3mph, versus zipping up to it and making a complete stop, choose the former. Look at crosswalk timers and perpendicular traffic signalheads to gauge when the light is going to go green.

Minimize exposure to direct sunlight. Prefer routes with shade. When stopped at a light, it's better to stop shy of the stop line and take cover in the shadow of a telephone pole than to pull all the way forward and bake. When riding, you can often get the shadow of some phone lines to cover your back - look at your shadow to make sure you're in it - I'm not sure this makes a difference, but it can't hurt to have a few less photons heating you up.

New blacktop bakes you like a pizza. Consider avoiding those roads.

COOLING

How hot you feel also is influenced at how easily your body cools itself.

Wind chill in the winter is a pain in the butt, but it works in the summer too, folks. The faster you're going, the more it cools you - this is the primary reason it's cooler to bike than to walk. Get more wind chill - if you're hot, ride on the handlebar tops on the way down hills.

Cotton takes sweat and turns it into a sticky insulator. Synthetic fabrics deal with sweat much better. You'll feel cooler. The ultimate in bike clothing are those tight lycra pants and shirts, which gets the skin on all your body into the cooling game. Summer is no time to be shy!

Backpacks and messenger bags are extra layers of clothing. They take away area you could be using for heat dissipation. Use saddlebags or rack-mounted milk crates instead.

You lose a lot of heat through your head. The more expensive helmets are better at ventilation and airflow. Of course, the best airflow of all comes from wearing no helmet at all - if you're taking it easy like you should, your chances of a fall should be at their low ebb.

Drink and drive! Make sure you've drunk plenty of water. If your body runs out of sweat, it will heat up and you're in medical danger.

Giving full-arm hand signals gives you an excuse to get airflow into those sweaty armpits - there's a cooling benefit, even if nobody is around to see it.

THE ROUTE

Plan your trips for the cool times. You can bike in in the morning, and ride the air-conditioned bus most of the way home. On the other hand, most people have showers in their home, so a little sweat is not going to kill you if you're throwing those clothes right into the hamper anyway.

EFFICIENCY

"But Dave, how am I supposed to pedal easy, and go fast? Isn't that a contradiction in terms?"

The other variable is the vehicle. A light, fast bike gets you more wind chill for the same amount of effort.  Don't have a light, fast bike? You can get the same effect by stripping off those components you never use, like that front touring rack, or the bungee cord collection. Do you hear me Emily Boone?

Faling all that, if you're like me, losing 10 lbs off my body weight is worth the same performance as a $2000 carbon racing bicycle...

Add your own:

That's what I got. What else did I miss? Post in the comments...