Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 46 total)
  • The nettles are stinging stronger than ever this year..
  • whatyadoinsucka
    Free Member

    My shins are really stinging this morning after hitting a few nettles on the side of woodland Singletrack,

    How do you avoid them, wearing trousers or tights is not an option, pull my socks up, maybe, ride elsewhere.

    Can anyone recommend before and after care. I usually use a dock leave and scientifically they don’t work but I always find they help, placebo may be.

    Is their a spray or such like to cover my shins before setting off..

    spooky_b329
    Full Member

    Go faster. Everyone knows they don’t sting at speed 🙂

    whatyadoinsucka
    Free Member

    It was on a fast section of riverbank as it was, if I went faster I’d be in the Calder .. @spooky_b329

    xyeti
    Free Member

    Apart from not riding it or wearing longs there’s not a lot else you could do?

    Maybe try some kind of a barrier cream before you ride and then daub some savlon cream on after a shower? Give the affected area a good scrub whilst in the shower as this will help dislodge some of the irritant left behind as you brush past, oh and as no one else has said it yet………. A dose of MTFU…….

    Sorry,

    Just use the cream 😀

    bruneep
    Full Member

    Pah nettles.

    Gorse bushes….bastid things tiny thorns take weeks to come out of skin, if at all.

    AnyExcuseToRide
    Free Member

    Global warming innit

    Nobeerinthefridge
    Free Member

    Bliss minimalist knee pads and longs socks.

    timbur
    Free Member

    Man pill time
    Tim “the gardener” Burden
    (always bleeding, getting stung/bruised)

    mildbore
    Full Member

    Aah, the warm tingly glow of summer. It’s the way they hide the brambles that gets me

    nickc
    Full Member

    they always seem worse when they’re young, but I don’t know whether that because we forget what they feel like!

    Anti-histamines are the best treatment

    adsh
    Free Member

    After care for me is antihistamine cream and a piriton tablet.

    faustus
    Full Member

    Get a grip! I doubt they are stinging stronger than ever, it’s just you’re not used to it. Hairy legs help. If you’re really that bothered then wear strimming trousers or some leather chaps like the horsey people.

    D0NK
    Full Member

    got a belt off a nettle on my ride home from work on monday, skin was still “buzzing” last night, 24hours seems a long time.

    timbur
    Free Member

    faustus – that’ll make for a hot sweaty ride!

    Murray
    Full Member
    bigyinn
    Free Member

    The first nettles of the season are always the strongest, as they grow the irritant seems to get diluted.
    Where we’ve had such a mild winter, it hasn’t fully killed last years growth off.
    They’re mostly avoidable locally at the moment, but give them a couple of weeks and they’ll be at full height.

    jimdubleyou
    Full Member

    The nettle sting was soon overridden by the blood / scratches from brambles and the like on Saturday.

    My shins look like they’ve had a date with Freddy Kruger.

    whatyadoinsucka
    Free Member

    antihistamine MTFU cream it is then, them brambles are slippery feckers, got one around my inner elbow, which took an age to tear off,
    hope the scratch will have gone before i give blood next week.

    mtf cream seems to work well, i road 12km home after popping my shoulder a few years ago, and managed to walk to a mates car after ripping an overnight stay and surgical clean on a knee last winter.

    neilthewheel
    Full Member

    Are you southern, by any chance?

    stevied
    Free Member

    The stingers I don’t mind, it’s the brambles that have the ability to wrap themselves around your arm as you brush past them..

    bigjim
    Full Member

    bloody softies, I quite like nettle sting, especially when it tingles again a few days later 8)

    n0b0dy0ftheg0at
    Free Member

    Shin guards? 😆

    HarryTuttle
    Full Member

    Dock leaves do work, most people don’t use them right though.

    I see people crushing a leaf for 10 seconds then rubbing it on the sting, that won’t work.

    You need to crush the leaf then roll it between your hands for until there’s a puddle of liquid in your palm, this might take a minute or so. No liquid and you’ve not rolled it long enough. It’s that liquid you need to put on the sting, you can chuck what’s left of the leaf away.

    soobalias
    Free Member

    its the time of year to re-build your immunity.

    centralscrutinizer
    Free Member

    Avoiding nettles is one of the basic skills I’ve mastered the best. Sit down, lift both legs up high and shriek as you sail through the patch of nettles.

    hooli
    Full Member

    As an aussie mate of mine says, 2 spoons of concrete so you can harden the F%£$ up.

    For best results, read the above in your best aussie accent.

    molgrips
    Free Member

    If ever there was a time to MTFU, it’s when faced with nettles.

    It’s well below the serious pain threshold and has no damaging effects, so the solution really is to toughen up. Princess.

    Brambles too – the only think that annoys me about them is that they rip my clothes and render biking t-shirts unsuitable for casual wear.

    scotroutes
    Full Member

    soobalias – Member
    its the time of year to re-build your immunity.

    That, I reckon.

    Plus it always seems worse if it’s wet.

    cokie
    Full Member

    Pull up your socks

    xyeti
    Free Member

    I quite like bramble rash on my arms in the summer, I know I’ve had a good one when I’ve got the little slits at the top of the forearm and onto the inner elbow, then Weeks later when you ride that same but if trail and there are barbs left on it at all you know your not the only one and everyone’s having a good summer

    unovolo
    Free Member

    My shins look like they’ve had a date with Freddy Kruger

    Snap, same here 2 weeks later and it still looks like I have been self harming.

    Don’t mind nettle stings though, I always thought the effects were worse later on in they year once they have reached full growth for the season.

    mrsfry
    Free Member

    Vaseline on your legs

    Suggsey
    Free Member

    Ride with your mate and get him to go through first at speed…..you follow right on his back wheel. I find this works every time for me (don’t think he’s realised yet) 😆

    dudeofdoom
    Full Member

    I always remember that I’ve got some comfy shin guards after I’ve been kruggered or my personal favourite of the screws of the flat pedals hitting my shin when getting fatty mcfatface thru those weird metal style things…

    I don’t mind the tingling though……like that muscle rub on your sac – sweet 😉

    crashrash
    Full Member

    Nettles – MTFU, but take cetrizine if it really bothers you. Brambles agree they are much worse though my real faves are Sloe bushes – nice thorns which break off and stay in you.

    WildHunter2009
    Full Member

    Living in Australia the pain and resultant itchy tingle is something I sort of miss. One of those rites of Spring so to speak. Freshly cut hawthorn hedges on the other hand can get to hell. How many ruddy punctures can you get in a 30 m stretch of path!

    medoramas
    Free Member

    Refreshing the topic… As after riding into the Nettles Jungle on Tuesday night I still can’t stop scratching my arms and legs… I had ridden through some big ones in the past, but this is just beyond everything!

    The first night after the ride I couldn’t sleep at all… Some Mutant Nettles out there!!!

    mountainman
    Full Member

    Agree with(Pah nettles.

    Gorse bushes….bastid things tiny thorns take weeks to come out of skin, if at all.)

    Plus one for blackerry brambles that rip open a shin .

    Cure is as other say longs or plenty of Guinness after till you forget the stinging .

    Aloe Vera gel helps too !

    Frankenstein
    Free Member

    Just ignore it mind over matter and will go away.

    Scratching will make it worse.

    Hose off using water.

    tillydog
    Free Member

    … plenty of Guinness after till you forget the stinging .

    Aloe Vera gel helps too !

    Mixed in, or as a chaser?

Viewing 40 posts - 1 through 40 (of 46 total)

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