What fabric should I be looking for merino, bamboo, polyester?

What do you want it for? Polyester dries pretty fast, but will be very obviously a sports t-shirt.

sounds silly, but we are trying to live without a tumble dryer and I use two t-shirts a day commuting so I want a t-shirt that is quick to dry after a wash.

Fastest drying are man made fibres. If you want something warm you can get microfleece and wear a windproof over the top.

BTW two t-shirts a day ? Wear same one twice, or three times or 4 … ? Frankly that’s what most people do.

Berghaus Tech T-shirt

I sprint to work, no way could I wear the same t-shirt at my desk.

Berghaus Tech T-shirt looks good shame it looks “technical”.

Rab Aeon t-shirt is the fastest drying item of clothing I have. Comes out washing machine very almost dry just from the spin.

^^^ I would say the same is true for any polyester t-shirt really.

Could do worse than trying the Go-Outdoors own brand (Hi Gear) ones, they are a fiver. Still look vaguely technical but at least they are all one colour.

The best ones I have for looking like a normal t-shirt are Alo Sportswear ones I got from a wholesale catalogue years ago. They have a very tight weave and are totally plain, no logo on them or anything, and look very similar to cotton (just a touch shinier). Plus they were cheap!

ok great, thanks zilog6128 no logos sounds good!

Fox tech-tee looks like a casual enough t-shirt. I don’t think anyone would really notice. Some of the designs are a bit garish. Man made too so they’ll pong a bit.

Merino, bamboo and polygiene fabrics will smell a bit less terrible after a ride. You might even get a couple of uses out of them.

You want this for £5 😀

Decathlon sells cheap polyester tees, but as I said earlier they a) look cheap and b) look like t-shirts you’d wear to the gym. If that’s what you’re looking for you could do far worse.

Not sure they’d be much use for commuting in winter, though – they provide next to no insulation, and when you sweat the damp isn’t absorbed (that much) and will be transferred directly to your outer layer. Which you’ll then need to wash too…

What @mogrim says, the really fast drying t-shirts would be quite cold in the winter. You’d need a windproof layer, gilet at least

Fast drying?

https://www.brynje.no/

hmmm.. might stick to merino then, it does dry pretty fast and keeps me warm. Really don’t want anything that looks like gym shirt.

‘Bamboo’ is just bog standard old fashioned rayon / viscose. When its not being marketed as a ‘technical fabric’ viscose is used as a cheap filler/substitute for cotton because it less sheeny shiney that other synthetics. So if you can find some well priced viscose tshirts (labelled as bamboo or otherwise) then they’ll be cheap, cotton-like to look at, comfy to wear (they are stretchier than cotton) and fast drying out of the wash.

I don’t use a tumble drier but I do spin the living daylights out of my stuff before I hang it out, usually two or three more spins after the one at the end of the wash cycle.