At work there is one shower room for 100 people, I am the only biker so I have been leaving my bike kit in there during the day and my office clothes overnight. Now the "fun police" HR are saying I cant keep kit in there because the cleaners can't clean the shower room properly.

So, my options are to keep kit in my office which means in the morning I will have to walk throgh a busy office in my "lycra" to get my work kit and then go to the shower. Thats ok but its going to be a bit weird/embarssing.

Or I go back to putting all my work stuff back in my rucksack and carry to and from home…..not good

Should I parade proudly in my Lycra or go back to the rucksack?

What does everyone else do?

Parade proudly in my lycra. But I am blessed with the body of a greek god, so it is not particularly embarrassing. 🙂

i keep my suits at work and change, but i keep a pair of normal baggy shorts at the spot where my bike lives, and pop those on when i get to work for the little walk to the office and then leave them at the bike storage point overnight/when i'm not there. might be an option?

do the cleaners have to clean while youre at work? surely most do it at the end of the day when people have left? otherwise, they aint cleaning much are they?

Cycle to work. Strip down to a mankini and walk proudly through the office to pick-up your work gear.
Get changed. Repeat procedure in evening.

After a few days, they'll let you put your stuff wherever you want, so long as you stop wearing the mankini!!

Seriously, have you explained the problem to them? Can they not see reason with this?
If not, then I would put up with walking through the office in lycra.

The building management in my office have pinned up notices in the shower room today saying exactly the same thing. You don't work in Wimbledon do you TD?

Aphex, I leave my work stuff overnight in the shower room, thats why the cleaners complained.

I like the mankini idea………..

*Is disappointed after thinking the title might have meant this was about boffing in the office showers!*

Captain, you judged a book by its cover!

Davros, no Milon Keynes

you need to get some perspective.

Wait till you have to lock your bike up in full view of a load of jeering smokers, walk past them as they all whistle at you, walk through a *long* office in cycling clothes, collect your clean clothes and then walk down the rest of the office to get washed in a sink that's smaller than your buttie box into which dribbles a brown trickle of tepid water, carry your kit back to your desk and store it in your desk drawers, sit there sweating because it's too bloody warm, then repeat the process in the evening.

Yes, he's got a shower and he's complaining.

Samuri…..I am humbled.

I've contemplated leaving baggies in the bike shed as the shower's on the 2nd flor and the bike sheds in the sub basement, thats a lot of office to walk through…………..

Demand lockers as a solution? Either that or strip off to bib shorts and strut arround untill they give you lockers.

If it really bothers you parading in your Lycra – why not just wear baggies for the commute?

I do where baggies………..

What's this refer to then?

It's been a long day so I could just be a bit dim today

So, my options are to keep kit in my office which means in the morning I will have to walk throgh a busy office in my "lycra" to get my work kit and then go to the shower. Thats ok but its going to be a bit weird/embarssing.

OK, didnt mean to mislead. by "lycra" I meant a generic term for what I wear. Which is a Bike top (usally loud design) lycra shorts with baggies over the top. Walking through the office with SPD's clicking on the parkee floring driping sweat through an area populated by Armani suited look alikes.

OK. Ditch the baggies for a start. It's much easier to brazen these things out if people can actually see the shape of your cock through your shorts. It puts them on the back foot.

Terrydactyl – Member

Aphex, I leave my work stuff overnight in the shower room, thats why the cleaners complained.

Ah ok…

So if it's just you using it, tell the cleaners to leave the cleaning stuff out and offer to do it yourself?

(Of course you'll probably have to go on some ridiculous COSSH course in order to use said cleaning products!)

TBH, I'd be proud that I rode to work, and screw all those who mock, driving in in their big fuel guzzling cars while choking on their McCack breakfast.

Like BigDummy, I too parade proudly in my lycra. Also like him, I have the body of a god; however, in my case, it is the body of a buddha…

Can you not take in a small cupboard, a box, or a bag in which you can leave your kit in the shower room but which could easily be cleaned around by the cleaners (I assume that you have various bits of clothing hanging all over the shower room making it difficult for the cleaners). Have a chat to the cleaner and find out what may be more convenient for them.

The real answer though is MTFU 😉

BigDummy – Member
Parade proudly in my lycra. But I am blessed with the body of a greek god, so it is not particularly embarrassing.

bacchus?

TBH, I'd be proud that I rode to work, and screw all those who mock, driving in in their big fuel guzzling cars while choking on their McCack breakfast.

ditto. if they snigger they'll get bored of it after a couple of days, then you can climb the steps to your chair on the moral (is this about morals?) highground.

That should sort it!!

I meander about in my lycra and was quite shocked noone has taken the pee lol. I seem to be the only cyclist who showers in the morning?? Maybe they don't come as far as me though.

Terradactyl, change your job title & relocate to smaller premises! I see from your profile that you're a Product Manager. I'm a Site Manager and the only person who cycles to work in a department of about forty people. I've put a numerical key-pad on the shower, banned the cleaners from it and not passed on the keypad code to anyone else, (officially I've restricted access to it for reasons of health & safety – it flooded once about three years ago). I don't keep my work clothes in it, just my collection of towels which I launder about twice a year. I generally change back into my cycling clothes after showering (wear baggies but swap liner shorts for proper undies) and my exclusive access to the showering facilities means that it's not unusual for me to appropriate them to wash down my bike, kayaking gear, or the odd oily outboard.

Even if the cleaners had access to the shower room they couldn't clean it properly 'cos they're inefficient contract cleaners pushed upon us by the inept & remote upper tiers of our management and controlled by third party companies. If we employed our cleaners directly then they'd be assigned to cleaning my dirty mountain bikes and not leaning on a broom for several hours each morning gassing about football 😉

Right, I have cleared my stuff out of the shower room and put it my office. Having thought it through the answer is to MTFU and proudly strut through the office tomorow morning. Why the F should I be embarrassed etc.

Hell, I might just sit at my PC for bit and do a few emails fully Lycrerd (if there is such a word) before I go for a shower.

CFH we have a computer system at work called the BOF – why am I the only one who cracks up laughin at conversations such as:
"Wheres Dave?"
"Oh, I think he's boffing"

*splutters

Hey, you de man! On another note, has anyone else noticed that the pudgy little tyke in the lower right of that pic is weeing on the wine barrel Baccus is sitting on? Is he a wine snob making a comment on the quality of the booze, or just metaphoricaly weeing in Baccus' shoes?

🙂 @ Clarey!

I have a locker by my desk, then have to walk the best part of half a mile (through 2 buildings, and over a great big bridge) to the shower. People are used to it now…

At work there is one shower room for 100 people

Doesn't sound much like fun – reckon it'd get a bit cramped 😉

You need to quote this to your HR womk

Adequate, suitable and secure space should be provided to store workers’ own
clothing and special clothing. As far as is reasonably practicable the facilities
should allow for drying clothing. Changing facilities should also be provided for
workers who change into special work clothing. The facilities should be readily
accessible from workrooms and washing and eating facilities, and should ensure
the privacy of the user, be of sufficient capacity, and be provided with seating.

From the Workplace (Welfare) Regulations 1992 Pamphlet IND(G) 244.

On a serious note, (sorry, I was only having a bit of a laugh), try going in a lot earlier if you can. I aim to arrive at the office for about 7am, I still catch the night shift/early morning print workers and there's usually a few keen ladies around the office at that time but there's a lot less than normal. When I leave, I usually change in the front toilets and then walk round the back of the building. It's a long way round but it avoids walking back through the office.

Why is it that people who don't mind riding their bike to work wearing Lycra in full view of hundreds of other road users, pedestrians etc, are scared/embarrassed of walking through an office???

Hell, I might just sit at my PC for bit and do a few emails fully Lycrerd (if there is such a word) before I go for a shower.

Works for me.

I have a filing draw in my desk which gets used as a wardrobe. And I have a coathanger hung underneath the desk that I hang my towel on to dry.

Unfortunatley, don't have a CRT monitor any more – that used to be great for drying wet gloves and socks.

🙂

Terrydactyl – Member
Hell, I might just sit at my PC for bit and do a few emails fully Lycrerd (if there is such a word) before I go for a shower.

I do it every morning (that I ride). Arrive early (to avoid the traffic on the roads rather than people in the office), sit at my desk while I cool down, have brekkie, catch up with emails, realise I've been sitting there for an hour in my cycling gear, go and get changed.

Hell, I might just sit at my PC for bit and do a few emails fully Lycrerd (if there is such a word) before I go for a shower.

Works for me.

Works for me too. I've even been known to go to 9.30 meetings in my baggies and cycle jersey. Comes at a cost though… I'm known to one of the directors as "Dave the Bike".

I can picture Laura Scott. I bet she drives a mini convertible and doctors the minutes to meetings. 😡

It's just a whole lot better if you decide not to give a shit really, saunter up the three flights of stairs, stroll through the office, sit at desk in sweaty tatty commuting clobber, do 8:30 teleconf, drink coffee, get changed and have shower at about 9ish, stuff sweaty clothes into bag, sit on STW for an hour, eat shitloads of food in front of the perpetual dieters, have a kip in the spacious special toilets, do some work, get changed into still damp and stinking clothers, ride home via the pub, have 3 pints, get in just in time for the TdF highlights.

stride through like a man