What is the Ultimate Outdoors Shirt?

There are more important things to worry about right now, but I have always wanted the ultimate shirt for mountain biking in the summer time. The recreational industry has oversold the benefits of texturized polyester, supplex nylon, and polypropylene. The only thing these modern high-tech fabrics are good for is not absorbing water. That is important if you are climbing a 14'er in Colorado and you get caught in a squall or hailstorm. (Well OK, they are durable. But they are unforgivably hot and sweaty.)

But I am mountain biking in warm summer weather, with low humidity. The cliche about cotton 'absorbing' sweat or water is irrelevant. So what if the fabric absorbs sweat? It evaporates quickly and cools the fabric. The only problem with thin 100% cotton is durability.

Rayon is even cooler than cotton, but weaker yet; especially near the button holes. I have yet to find a long-sleeve rayon shirt, and I don't want flamboyant tropical colors. I am a Southwesterner, not a resident of Key West, Florida.

We are starting to run out of possibilities. What about linen? I have never owned a linen shirt in my life. But I bought one recently, and used it for the first time today. It seems cool and comfortable, but I wonder about durability. Perhaps I will hand-wash and air-dry it. I need to find a less expensive, linen, long-sleeve shirt. It was a good sign that this shirt is a Cuban style shirt, considering the temperatures those poor devils deal with.

It is fun to read about fabrics on Wikipedia. Linen comes from the flax plant. It was a luxury good two thousand years ago. How could you make a fabric from reed-like plants? Seeing a new car with the latest bells and whistles doesn't really impress me, but turning flax into clothing a couple thousand years ago was truly sophisticated. I have been to summer festivals in which they sheared sheep, and spun the wool into coarse thread. (But weaving and sewing seem impossible.) How did they treat flax fibers and turn it into thread?

The other mistake of the recreation industry is to make garments 100% cotton, rayon, or linen. If they contained 10% polyester, they would be much stronger, and almost as cool. (The 100% thing is just a marketing gimmick.)

In order to get the most from camping, it helps to develop an interest in things like this. 'How the world works' will always stay interesting.  In contrast, other things like pretty scenery and novelty will wear down rather quickly.