After yesterdays ride when I forgot the talcum powder and got chafed, I made sure to use copious amounts of the stuff today.
Rode for abouyt 2 hours including a small amount of testing Muni terrain.
I’ve noticed in the past that chafing can be cumulative i.e. if it happened yesterday it’s likely to be worse today, and that’s what happened.
By the end of the ride I found myself walking stretches, which is unusual for me, but riding wasn’t any fun at that point.
I did see some friends, one of whom is thinking of getting a Muni, so I let her alter the seat height; prior to this it had been pointing to the right a little and when I put it back I made it point straight forward.
The reason it was pointing right initially was a past attempt to relieve left side chaffing (which I’d forgotton about), so this may have been a factor; today it was mainly the left side that hurt.
I’m going to have to think about getting cycling shorts, and have done another post with a question on this.
Does anyone else set their seat off center to relieve chaffing?
And, other than cycle shorts, airseat and talcum powder, does anyone use anything else to help with soreness?
Has anyone managed to build up callouses in this area?
you’ll soon get used to it. it won’t chafff anymore. you do, however, need to let the chaffing subside before you attack it with a multi hour trek again, that’s for certain.
You shouldn’t have to turn your seat, that’s just wrong.
Get cycling shorts. Any comany that has a padded chamois with no seam in the middle (although, I bet you wouldn’t even notice the seam)
The sweat wicking helps with the chaffing (although mine has wicked all the sweat it’s gonna in the first 10 minutes…Eeeeewww. They are also padded, adding a little more comfort. The are also tight on your legs keeping your loose skin from rubbing on the seat.
They come in jsut lycra and padded, which look kinda funny (although quite common) these can be worn under other shorts, like Umbro- style shorts, or the ridiculously overpriced for what they accomplish Roach shorts.
They also have cycling shorts that have this basica black and padded lycra, with baggie shorts (that have pockets) sewn over them. These are my shorts of choice. They are typically around $50-$60 cdn at bike stores. Lots of online bike stores have great deals on these. http://www.pricepoint.com comes to mind.
Harshly Chaffed? I thought this thread would be about the Oxfordshire village of that name.
I wear cheap padded Lycra shorts against the skin, and slightly fleecy cycling leggings over the shorts. I seldom suffer any chafing - last time I did it was after riding head down flat out in pouring rain for over an hour.
I would say NEVER ride with the seat off centre, because you will put all sorts of asymmetric stresses on your back.
To keep riding while allowing your chafing to heal, you could wrap an ace bandage around your leg where it’s sore. That completely eliminated the problem for me while I was putting in the long training hours before my 20 mile diabetes benefit ride last weekend. Just don’t wrap overly tight – you want tight enough to keep it in place, but not so tight it hurts or cuts circulation.
Get some Palmers Cocoa Butter Lotion from Boots. If you put it on in the evening after a ride, you’ll be fine to ride the next day. As an added bonus it smells of chocolate too.
If you do something like this, rather than using loads of preventative measures, after a few long rides on a particular saddle it’ll stop chafing you. It saves you the hassle of having to wear particular clothes or use but buttr or talc when you ride.
Has anyone tried wearing two pairs of bike shorts for distance riding? I have done that for freestyle practice, and it worked great. But I haven’t done it for any distance yet.
It’s also a great use for bike shorts that have holes in them.
Yes. Chafing was one of the main problems I had while learning to ride. My seat was rock hard, and I was uncomfortable when riding. After doing repeated long rides my inner thighs got tougher patches on them. I wouldn’t call them callouses but I no longer suffered the same chafing. Eventually I put extra padding (foam & sheepskin) on my seat, which helped too. More recently I got a KH seat, and a CF airseat. These are both far better when it comes to reducing chafing. I’ve never worn cycle shorts, but I find any trousers with smaller seams than jeans seem to rub less.
Good cycling shorts are the best thing. I can’t even think of doing a long ride without them. A long ride is anything more than 30 minutes.
I don’t like the new fangled cycling shorts with the fabric sytle pads in the crotch. I like the old school chamois style pads in the shorts. Many of the new shorts are switching to fabric like synthetics and that new style stuff causes chafing for me on long rides. The synthetic chamois stuff works best for me. Unfortunately, the chamois like stuff is getting harder to find. The chamois like stuff is so much better for preventing chafing while unicycling than the new-fangled fabric like stuff. The fabric like stuff may work OK for bicycling, but it doesn’t work well for unicycling.
Once you get chafing it just gets worse. It takes several days to recover from a case of chafing. The only cure is to wear good cycling shorts to prevent it from happening in the first place.
I have never used talc powder. I’ll use Chamois BUTT’r to keep the chamois pad from drying out and for lubricating the skin. You just need to keep the chamois pad soft and not all dried out. Good shorts + chamois pad + Chamois BUTT’r to keep the chamois pad from drying out = no chafing.
I disagree. I think that recovery from chafing is a cure in itself. You recover a few times and it keeps making you stronger, and eventually you don’t chafe. Comfy saddles and thin trouser seams are good cures too. I got some free BUTT’r with my MUni but I have never felt the need to use it since it looks messy, and I haven’t suffered chafing for ages anyway.
Yeah. Only as a last resort. It worked ok for me because I wore a larger size for the outer pair. It can be uncomfortable for long rides to have 2 pairs on esp. if they’re tight.