73821 posts and not 1 on washing the clothes you wear while unicycling.
as i am currently horrendously out of shape, unicycling is a perspiring sport, as is standing in line at best buy.
i digress. i ride, usually at night around 11 or 12 when it’s not hot, and return 40 minutes later with rather sweaty boxers (i know i know i must transition). were many of you like me, out of shape and very very sweaty? or am i just clinically abnormal (don’t answer that)?
those who have biking shorts and who ride frequently, do you own several pairs or wash the single one thoroughly for the next day?
answer whichever question you feel is applicable. if you cannot answer a question move onto the next question. remember: there is no right answer
If you ride regularly you need more than one pair. It takes about 1.5 to 2 days for my shorts to air dry (it’s the chamois that takes so long to dry). You can get by with three pair (why is a single short a pair?) if you wash your dirty ones immediately after a ride, but more is better so you don’t have to keep washing so often. I’ve got about 7 pairs. Four of them are hanging over the bath tub right now drying.
The thought of wearing yesterdays cycling shorts is gross. One use before they head for the wash.
I’m sweaty to very sweaty after a MUni ride. I’m slightly sweaty to sweaty after a road ride. Both depend on the season.
Uh… OK.
(Switching to confession mode) I own a single pair of biking shorts. I want to buy more but until then I ride in it on several occasions and then timing the wash between rides. Maybe the idea of riding 4 days for an hour each is about as gross as one 4-hour ride?
Now that we’re at it. Do you folks wash your armour (shin, wrist, elbow protection etc)? I’ve never washed mine, mindful of the old saying “Don’t wash your Roach armour” but they are becoming somewhat stinky. (No, it’s not my biking shorts.) Any advice?
My 661s get a bit smelly after a while… I throw them in the shower every now and then and give them a blast with extremely hot water. It seems to do the trick…
I wash my Roach pads. I use soap and hot water in the tub. You gotta wash them before they get powerful stinky. Once they get too stinky there gets to be a point where you cannot get the stink out any more by washing them. If you don’t wash them enough they’ll smell OK right after you wash them, but after you wear them a few times the bacteria will get reinvigorated and they’ll be back to their old stinky state. You gotta wash them before the bacteria get too settled and happy.
They kill the bacteria that cause the stink. They use nitric oxide gas to do the killing. I haven’t seen that product idea make it to market yet. The article makes it sound like they want to market a shoe deodorizer box.
Washing Roach pads doesn’t really kill all the bacteria and that’s why the stink comes back so quickly. If this nitric oxide gas thing is able to kill the bacteria then the war will be won and the stinky Roach pads will be defeated.
Alternatively, would it work in the washing machine on a ‘soft’ program (lowish temp and not too much agitation) and regular washing powder for coloured stuff? That’d be easier than the hot tub or extremely hot shower (Phil) solutions.
I have 661 4x4’s and Harbinger Extreme Gloves. What kind of temperatures would they stand while being washed? I would be wary of ‘extremely hot’.
And does anyone ever wash or otherwise clean the inside padding of their helmet? Surely mine gets a lot of sweat too from my bald (if not bold) and shiny brain pan.
I have several shorts and cycle them. My 661 arms and legs I throw in the washing machine with soap and the hot water setting and then let them airdry. The same for the stripped-down Camelbak, which gets super-sweaty where it touches my back. For the Harbingers I use Woolite in the sink with hot water. The helmet I rinse with the Woolite solution; the pads I take out and squish around with the Harbingers.
I actually have 2 sets of the 661s now to try to keep the locker room stink down.
My body I wash at least once a month at the laundromat in one of the front loaders. It’s a great ride, too.
John, when you make your Nitric oxide box, make it big enough for the pads, and add an inhalation port too!
It’s Nitric Oxide (NO) not Nitrous Oxide (N2O). Nitrous oxide is also known as laughing gas, that’s probably what you were thinking of. You don’t want to be breathing the nitric oxide.
I’m with Klaas. I wash mine after the Unithon (once per year), when the mood strikes me (not that often) or when my wife threatens to throw them out (slightly more often than when the mood strikes me).
over the years, i just get cycling shorts and jerseys when they’re on sale. i currently cycle through about 10 pairs of each along with other cycling gear (headbands, jackets, sox…). it’s enough for a full load every other week or so. just start collecting and cycling.
I’m a believer in washing shorts after each wearing, although if I ride to work I use the same shorts to come home.
I’ve washed my Roach look-alike (Nuke Proof) pads on the gentle cycle and they came through fine. Just make sure the velcro is done up so it doesn’t grab everything it touches.
For helmet pads, either handwash, or bung them in a sock with the end tied up. I’ve got a big rugby sock which I could probably fit my wristguards in too (and handily doubles as a christmas stocking).
Usually when I get round to washing it I just bung all my stuff in a bowl of really hot water with washing powder, bash it around a bit, leave it soaking for half an hour and then come back and rinse it off. Works fine for wristguards, camelbak, waterproof (cheap one, don’t do this with expensive waterproofs), helmet pads etc.
As for shorts, most of the time I ride in normal clothes anyway, cos my normal clothes are riding friendly (combats etc.), I only really wear cycling shorts on really long rides anymore. I do wear cycling tops in winter, but I made sure to only buy ones that could go in the washing machine.
In a fit of laziness, I abandoned hand washing the other day and threw my Core-Rat armour, my cycling gloves and my helmet pads in a delicate cycle cold wash with soap. Everything seem to have without with wear, and all items are WAAAAAAY more olfactorally pleasing…
(I hope that you are all looking just tickled as you type this, just like the people in the TV commercials for laundry detergent who look like they would rather be doing their laundry more than anything else in the whole darn world!)
LOL