Hi all,

I’ve started riding to work (a 20 odd mile round trip) and I’m looking for some tips and tricks on keeping my riding gear fresh (well, as fresh as possible!).

I’m lucky enough to have good shower facilities at work so that side of things is sorted. What I’m asking about is the clothing. What do you all do with wet/sweaty clothes during the day at work? I’ve been sticking them in a locker but that doesn’t do much to help them dry out and I don’t think hanging stuff around my desk would be appreciated by colleagues so what other options might I have?

How do you fellow commuters tackle this?

Thanks.

-Stewart

I hang stuff by my desk – cycling clothes, motorbiking gear or gym kit

People love it (or maybe not)

I work in a open plan office environment

I hang mine up on the radiator by my desk. No one has complained yet but then we’re not a remotely formal office.

Anywhere with a breeze is good for drying kit – even outside if it’s away from rain.

Wool is great for commuting though as it won’t stink by the time you put it back on for the ride home.

I hang all my stuff in the corner of the company’s warehouse. Keeping good relationship with the warehouse keeper is the key! 8)

NEVER leave anything rolled up and locked up.

We don’t even have showers at work 🙁 Nor any drying facilities.

Try and avoid the problem in the first place – ride in slowly and try to avoid getting sweaty, obviously not easy in summer or when it’s humid. Use the ride home to get a work out.

I get the train when it’s chucking it down in the morning as putting on wet kit in the afternoon isn’t pleasant.

Maybe put in a request for a drying room or similar?

Radiators, and understanding colleagues.
The catastrophic wet days for me have usually coincided with someone being away so I have been able to annex their radiator.

Where does your heat come from in the building?
I hang my kit in our service room ,and all year round there is enough background heat to dry things out for the return trip.
I have seen people put stuff out windows on hangers when it’s dry .

Thanks all.

We don’t have radiators 🙁 ‘Heat’ comes from the ceiling so it’s not that much use.

I think I’ll bring in/get one of these radiator drier things and stick it on the window side of my desk.

We’re getting a drying room soon so that’ll make this post redundant I guess.

No old wives potions to keep things smelling a bit better or anything like that?

If my top, jacket and gloves are wet I put them on the radiator in the cloakroom.

Other than everything goes on hooks on the side of my locker. There are 4 holes on the top corners of my locker, ikea hook through each hole and all my stuff, including towel hangs there.

I have no showers facilities, not even a decent changing room – so I had to work out what works best.

To keep you smelling fresh: buy one of these “trekking towels” and a pack of baby wipes. Quick and easy. Muc-Off Dry Shower, or something like that is great too, but more expensive.

To keep clothes fresh: 1. no cotton, 2. hang them somewhere during the day.

Squaddie wash – wet wipe for your nuts, squirt of lynx to cover up the niff. Or do neither like me and revel in your own glorious man stink 🙂

Squaddie wash – wet wipe for your nuts, squirt of lynx to cover up the niff. Or do neither like me and revel in your own glorious man stink

Well done for not actually reading the op!

I don’t have drying space so have to keep it rolled up in my bag and change kit daily. It its sweaty or raining I can have one item (usually my top as I hate putting wet tops on) draped over my rucksack throughout the day to try and dry it off.

There are a few of us that cycle in our place, we’ve requisitioned the boiler cupboard for drying bike kit. It stinks but does the job.

If I didn’t have anywhere to dry stuff I’d consider taking spare shorts to ride back in, avoiding crotch rot is worth getting a few extra pairs of cheap liner shorts from Endura / Aldi / Lidl and doing a bit more washing.

@Pik n Mix – sorry lovey, don’t get em in a knot 🙂

Clothes – I stick mine on a radiator, or hang them out of the window at the back of the office if it’s a nice day. If I bother to get changed….!

I’ve already stocked up on spare base layers (so I’ve got the days of the week covered) but buying more kit for each day will be too expensive. Washing and drying stuff through the week could be tricky but with proper planning I should be sorted.

I think I’ll have to make do and get by with drying the outer layers around my desk if needed (I think I can ‘hide’ it for the most part) and look forward to the promised drying room in the future.

Thanks all. I was a bit gutted switching the tyres on my MTB for the commute (and admitting that the commute is now its primary use for the time being) but after riding in I’m just happy to be getting the extra miles and exercise in so I look forward to it now.

A decent sports wash for your kit is a good idea too. I use Halo and it ensures that over time commuting stuff doesn’t turn into a mobile biohazard. Even helps fend off the stink over a couple of days wear (only if i run short).

Enjoy the commute. I was in the car today and missed a glorious ride home 🙁

It’s probably overpriced and I’m sure alternatives are available but have found this stuff good for a quick spray of the pits’n’bits if you haven’t got washing facilities
http://www.ridebosh.com/personal_care/secret_training_post_race_wash.html
For drying kit I used to discretely lay out shorts and top under my desk on paper towels but making friends with our cleaning staff gave access to an airing cupboard.
If kit gets soaked you can dry it pretty well by rolling up in a towel “swiss roll style” then giving the towel a good twist.

My old office was quite informal and I brought in a clothes horse hanger which I kept more or less out of sight under the stairs. I also had an electric heater which I used if it was wet.

The new office is far more formal and poses more of a problem. We used to have desktop machines under out desks and these were superb for drying out clothes, but they’ve since been replaced by small models or laptops.

So kit just gets layed out on the floor under the desk. It’s not very good really and it’s also a problem when I get the train and walk the 15minutes from the station to the office in the rain. The people who make the rules drive…

Due to my hilly/sweaty (14 mile 1400ft ascending) commute I always take a second set of kit for the return journey.
We have showers and a purpose built drying room but I find that if I dry my kit it begins to stink after about the first mile on the way home.
When I get home a quick wash and tumble dry and everything is ready for the next day.

Edit: Halo sports wash seems to work well keeping the pong at bay on low temperature washes.

Merino kit helps.

I hang my kit in a store room, not ideal as its not greatly ventilated, but its ok. Pongs after a few miles into the return journey, but anti bacterial washes seem to stop it accumulating.

Sports wash works acceptably and seems to stop stuff ponging on the return journey.

Or cheaper, a cap-full of detol (or even cheaper knock off stuff from the £ shop) in the wash does the same, just don’t put normal clothes in the same wash as the smell lingers on them (but they don’t pong of BO).

Or when things get really wiffy, Hydrex or similar will get bacterial smells out of anything. I use it to wash my wetsuit once a month when it starts to really f***** stink.

On a side note, washing softshells, bio, non bio, soap or nikwax tech wash?

soap or tech wash, which is just soap only more expensive afaik

+1 for merino tops for avoiding stinking out the office

I just open my kit bag (under my desk) and drape my base layer/shorts on the edge of it. They don’t really smell – I have checked with multiple colleagues, no one’s ever complained! Wet days can be a bit grim, it certainly doesn’t dry during the day, but it’s not that bad. I find unless it’s truly biblical rain that if you’re using mud guards doesn’t actually get all that wet.

Do the same whether I’m in our City office, or our regional one which is significantly less formal.

Merino and a warm room with good ventilation is the key, I put wet socks and gloves on a radiator which is always on.

we have a nice refurbished shower room. i leave my towel there permanently on the heated towel rack during the week and take it home on the friday to wash.
theres only 3 of us who use the room so leaving towels isnt a problem.
if my kit is wet then i usually hang it on the radiators in the office. shorts, tops and jacket on the radiators and shoes and socks on the heating pipes.

problem i’m gong to have soon is that the heating will get switched off during the summer so if i get caught in a downpour, i’m going to be screwed

i might have to request a portable oil filled heater to dry my kit when this happens

I used to hang mine of the chair and/or computer when i had no facilities.

We have secure bike storage near the showers here, so now i just drape it all over the bike.

I used to just hang it all off the back of my chair, or if damp over my underdesk PC. Now I just cycle in what I’m going to wear for the rest of the day as my commute is only 5 miles each way rather than 20 miles each way.
In a previous job herself used to put all her clothing over her underdesk SGI terminal to dry out. Sometimes I’d ask her to take the towels in to dry after they’d been washed as it generated so much heat.

I tend to go for merino base layers an been using one of the cheap angora Onone jackets (which is brill tbh)
All lives under the desk and I tend to change it every other day…merinos great for not stinking tbh…

I tend to also layer it so I’m not cold but not excessively hot so I’m not sweating like a pedo in a playground…

I keep a trek towel for when I do shower but most times it’s just a quick paper towels on the pits…

my stuff gets stuffed in a bag. if it’s particularly wet or sweaty I hang it on my bike in the garage and it dries enough, or I use the hair-driers in the changing rooms. now that makes the place stink.

i have a stash of Metro newspapers i picked up at the station to stuff trainers with to stop any lingering smells or dampness, otherwise i am lucky we have a rail in the bathroom area.

Maybe ask the boss if you can put up a hook or rail in the bathroom to dry stuff?