shins covered – how do i stop em stinging?

Enjoy it. Proof of summer and all that….

(My right hand is zinging right now – maybe not a good idea to ride through nettles with fingerless gloves)

My legs are still singing a merry tune from a fantastic nettle-infested ride last night. Arms ripped to shreds from brambles. The sensations of summertime 8)

It's part of being alive. Enjoy it while it lasts!

doc leaves. dont rub them just roll the leaves in the palms of yioru hands to get the juice then drizzle it on 🙂

Doken leaves, jedi beat me to it!

MTFU and enjoy the buzz

Take a leaf out of Sir Ran' Feinne's Book and Be a Man.

HERE

Wear some tights under your shorts. Works for me.

"shins covered – how do i stop em stinging?"

Body armour! I went out for a ride without my normal elbow pads the other night, got stung and shredded all the way home. The naysayers are wrong, armour is the way forward for even the minciest of XC at this time of year.

shins covered – how do i stop em stinging?

man up princess!!!

1. Move away from the nettles

http://www.wikihow.com/Treat-a-Sting-from-a-Stinging-Nettle

My ride today went something like this:

AAAAAAAAAAAAAH Gorse bushes
AAAAAAAAAAAAAH GAG SPLUTTER Mouthful of midges
AAAAAAAAAAAAAH Nettles AAAAAAAAAAAAAH
AAAAAAAAAAAAAH Puncture
AAAAAAAAAAAAAH I just sat on some dried gorse
AAAAAAAAAAAAAH **** another puncture

Summer MTFU time.

FCOL just MTFU 🙄

A few nettles don't stop me wearing my Kylie shorts 😉

There's a bloke in Wigan who reckons nettles are a sure fire cure for arthritis. He has terrible trouble with his and he can be seen rolling around in big patches of nettles on a regular basis in his trunks. Says it sorts them (his joints) out for weeks afterwards although he does go for a couple of whiskys afterwards to take the edge of it.

Addition

But really, they just tingle a bit. It's actually quite pleasant. It's not painful is it? Maybe some people are different and it actually hurts. Like getting your teeth drilled, now even with an injection, I can feel everything, but nettles are just a minor irritation.

I know I'd swap any irritation from nettles for agony of drilling any day of the week though.

I find irritation harder to get on with than pain tbh, that constant… well, irritation !

Cool, we have a donor. You can have my apparent indifference to nettles, I'll have your inherant resistance to dentists and their sado-techniques.

I'm not sure if these things can be emailed or not. How about padded envelopes? 😉

you must be new to this game eh?
the trick is, not to get stung!
….no sympathy :/

I've started riding in football socks. I look a dick, but it stops me getting stung much. Unlike armour you can push them down so you don't get too hot until you know you're about to encounter the stingers.

you've not had a good summer unless your shins look like they've had a serious case of pox by September.

Some people hardly react to nettles, others react really badly.

I react really badly and my skin goes really puffy & itches for about a week afterwards.
I use liberal amounts of anthisan to take the edge off the itching. Antihistamines before riding also help if you think you are going to encounter them.
I saw a tip in MBR ages ago to take a sachet of vinegar with you riding and pour it on nettle stings – apaarently it sorts them out, but not sure I want to continue my ride stinking of vinegar so am yet to try it.

I generally wear knee/shim pads in the summer round Thetford to stop getting stung, but might invest in some football socks instead.

+1 – woken up last night due to the itchiness – put some bee sting stuff on with half open eyes and took and antihistamine – think it improved but prob the latter made me sleepy 😉

tube in my desk drawer.
otherwise i spend the summer with my suit trousers rolled up on a friday morning.

2nd Samuri – I've tried it and it works, a light lashing with a stinger to the appropriate joint! Also, I eat the odd leaf on trail – that's good too, in a non-descriptive kind of way. 🙂

Witch Doctor. Works for me every time.

Sorry, I mean

Glad to see I'm not the only person to enjoy the nettle buzz. I see it as a soft form of self-harm, just like climbing long, steep hills.

Enjoy it, summer is too short without worrying about nettle & bramble issues, may fave local ride will always result in nettle stings to shins & bramble scatches to arms. Beautiful!

PS Armour to prevent nettle stings? MTFU, they don't hurt that much!

got stung on a little patch on my wrist on tuesday, still tingling now, my shins must be resistant, only usually lasts a few hours there

worst bramble ones are the long ones that wrap around your legs but you're going to fast to stop and untangle, you know once the briar reaches it's full length they are going to grip and rip, just gotta take the hit to get the sweet trails!

I see it as a soft form of self-harm, just like climbing long, steep hills.

+1 and
+1 for eating nettles.. just the very new tips are definitely the nicest bits.. very fresh taste nomnomnomnom

Beer, have a couple of beers when you get back and it changes from a stingy feeling to a warm buzzing all over your forearms. Its actually quite pleasant.

I love em too. And that feeling when you get in the bath after a ride and they all come back to life!

Yes! Ooooh YESSSSSS!!!!

I got pulled aside at work once, they were worried I was self harming. 🙂

missingfrontallobe – Member
Enjoy it, summer is too short without worrying about nettle & bramble issues, may fave local ride will always result in nettle stings to shins & bramble scatches to arms. Beautiful!

PS Armour to prevent nettle stings? MTFU, they don't hurt that much!

That's like telling someone who's allergic to peanuts to MTFU and just eat them…..
Some people react badly, some don't. Most of the people I ride with don't react badly & by the time we are back to the car park their legs are back to normal whereas mine are puffy, blotchy & itching like mad. They then remain itchy for about a week afterwards, just in time for another dose.
I get the same thing if I ride through long grasses or get insect bites, my skin just react really badly to it.

So, I'll carry on wearing pads as it means I don't have to worry about it, as you suggest above.
Also you are correct, they don't hurt but they do itch…..

That's like telling someone who's allergic to peanuts to MTFU and just eat them…..

No it isn't…..big difference between not liking nettle stings and then wearing shin pads, which might be described as overkill for a lot of riding, and someone who would die eating peanuts.

Try taking an antihistamine pre ride so that by the time you're getting stung the medication is in your system.

There's a bloke in Wigan who reckons nettles are a sure fire cure for arthritis.

My granny (bless her cottons) swore by this too. The results were fairly impressive and she underwent loads of tests to find out why it worked so well for her. Unfortunately it didn't work for everyone and some people ended up with arthritis inflamed by a walk up the woods and really bad nettle stings!

+1 for the alive feeling!

Nettles & arthritis, like a lot of medicines it requires a native, maybe uncivilised* population to show what plants have health benefits to the western explorers, who then destry their environment and harvest all the necessary plants etc. Will probably become a treatment for arthritis in a modified form at some point in the future.

*Not saying Wiganners are uncivilised (as per Samuris post) but last thing I heard was that they still suffer fron scurvy there due to their pie diet 😀

No it isn't…..big difference between not liking nettle stings and then wearing shin pads, which might be described as overkill for a lot of riding, and someone who would die eating peanuts.

Not everyone dies from eating peanuts…..that is taking it to the extreme, but plenty still get a swollen throat & itchy mouth, whereas I suspect you do not – similar to your lesser reaction to nettles than the reaction I get.

And yes, I do take an antihistamine before riding and it does help a bit but doesn't stop it completely. The resulting stings still last about a week, it's just they aren't as swollen/itchy initially…..

I agree that wearing shin pads is not strictly necessary to do the job, as trousers/leggings/football socks would also work. But shin pads allow some airflow to the back of your legs and are convenient. As I mentioned above, I will probably try some football socks if I ever remember to buy some….