[Closed] Bike commuters - Wearing used bib shorts

People probably wear bib shorts for more than one day, the question is whether they should.

Tops and stuff probably less of an issue if they don't pong too much.

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I'll generally get 3 commuting days out of a pair. Maybe not the most hygienic but I only have two pairs and the wife has enough washing to do.

I typically do, same gear all/most of the week (10m each way), have done for years. Yes its pretty minging to think about but hasnt done me any harm, others seem more perceptible to sores etc from it so its very much an individual thing.

Binners +1

If your ride is long enough to warrant proper gear change it daily or thats just minging.

If I am commuting in them then they do two rides, one into work and one home again. Other than that, they get washed after every ride.

no, I just have a few pairs and find I generate so much washing that I never need to wear a pair for more than one day.

Yeah I wear them for at least two days (11 miles each way). Don't think they pong too bad (how sweaty are you getting on your commute?)

Does it matter too much if your kit mings? You ride to work in it not go out on the town!

My commute takes 40 minutes each way so 3 days is 4 hours riding. I wouldn't stop and change clothes half way round a 4 hour ride.

Baselayers would be honking if used for several days, but doable at a push I guess. Shorts, no chance, reckon I'd get sores.

I wouldn't stop and change clothes half way round a 4 hour ride

I cant run a non-merino jersey for more than 2 days, they absolutley hotch, but my old Rapha merino top could easily do a week or more without any smell. Its only now its 4 years old (with pretty much daily use) that its starting to lose its magic, and i think most of that is due to too much washing. Short wise in winter im on 3/4 Altura fleece lined bibs or full endura waterproof tights. Summer is Rapha merino padded boxers, perfect for short rides with baggies over the top.

I've got a Northwave top in my bag right now that suggests I should wash it when I get to work..

Warm, comfy, smells like pee pee.

Down below chamois cream helps - I think the minty ass lard Assos stuff has anti bacterial properties that might be a decent precaution for reuse.

[quote=tonyd pointlessly vacillated]Does it matter too much if your kit mings? You ride to work in it not go out on the town!
My commute takes 40 minutes each way so 3 days is 4 hours riding. I wouldn't stop and change clothes half way round a 4 hour ride.

it's not the time riding, it;'s the fact that there's big gaps between rides wo the sweat dries out and the bacteria get busy with it

- as D0nk says too, I see

but having said that, I've a 6 mile commute and occasionally wear shorts on two days

I used to (I may sweat, but don't smell beyond my own personal atmosphere), but now I've got enough pairs of shorts, thanks to the Startcycles.co.uk Scott sale 🙂

bib shorts daily unless its really cold, dont sweat as much when cold so I can sometimes get 2 days out of them. easy go a week with the howies merino top

Shorts seem to get far less sweaty than other kit. I'm down in London 4 days with a 30 min commute - I've got 4 shirts, only one pair of shorts tho. No smell issues.

2 days max
Just stay away from lentil curry/pie and peas

Yes, 2 days max though and the bibs must be aired/hung to dry propers like in between.

nbt - Member

tonyd pointlessly vacillated »

My opinion is based on years of riding and sweating and not having suffered sores or been killed by that nasty bacteria. I don't mind if my kit whiffs a bit as I can't afford to buy more.

tonyd - nbt has some weird plug in that puts 'funny' words in front of stuff he quotes, it's not personal - just daft.

Ah OK, thanks. Thought it was a bit uncalled for!

Bibshorts, is it just me but I find they split my ball sack in two - very off putting!

Bibshorts, is it just me but I find they split my ball sack in two - very off putting!

Hmmm... Yessssss, we've seen you before somewhere.... 😉

No, I find the commute back in the same shorts pretty nasty to be honest, so wearing the next day is out for me! As said, although the total wear time is not a lot, the bacteria grows while not being worn. I find (or found as I'm a bit lazy with commuting by bike atm) that when riding regularly, should you get a sore then it became very difficult to heal up. With that in mind, I bought a separate tub of chamois crème for keeping at work.

However, if I didn't sweat so much (I've quite a long commute), then I probably would.

I have quite a few pairs of shorts though. I have a lot of old ones which have worn holes in and I just wear them as underwear. So put some baggy shorts over in summer, or tights in winter to hide the exposed fleshy bits...

My opinion is based on years of riding and sweating and not having suffered sores or been killed by that nasty bacteria. I don't mind if my kit whiffs a bit as I can't afford to buy more.

so after years of riding you haven’t managed to put a little bit aside for a couple of pairs of cheap but good shorts? so you can wear clean shorts to sweat in?
have you thought about a career change?

Shower at work and again at home, so I only honking when on bike. Who cares?
Weekly wash does me.

Just stay away from lentil curry/pie and peas

so after years of riding you haven’t managed to put a little bit aside for a couple of pairs of cheap but good shorts? so you can wear clean shorts to sweat in?

have you thought about a career change?

Chapeau tonyd, chapeau.

All the time, my ideal job would involve being overly judgmental about people I know nothing about but I'm not sure it would pay that well.

Keeps me in underpants and enough cycling shorts to last the week.

Touche!

A quick handwash while showering and dry overnight. Can't contemplate putting on skanky bibs the next day, let alone after a weeks riding. Each to their own though......

[quote=tonyd castigated nbt]WTF? Does it bother you that much that someone has a different opinion to yours?!

apologies, it's nowt personal, it's just a plugin. you can do it yourself by adding the words after the posters name, like this but with square brackets not curly braces

{quote=tonyd castigated nbt}WTF? Does it bother you that much that someone has a different opinion to yours?!
{/quote}

Jesus Christ.

Right, if you think your kit doesn't smell after more than one use you're kidding yourselves. If you don't mind that then fine. However, when you go into the changing rooms where your kit is hanging up, if you've used it more than once, then that horrible sweaty smell you think is other people? It's you. It's your kit.

I never ride more than twice in the same kit. Ride to work, ride back, wash. And even then, I take clean shorts and base layer in with me. There's a guy in work who runs every day at dinner time. He wears the same kit all week. By Tuesday the smell is unbearable. By Friday it smells like someone has killed themselves in there by eating a full box of 250 stink bombs.

I hang my kit out to dry whenever I can. I check it for smell, I shove it into my face and take deep nasal breaths. I know when it smells.

Amazingly, different people are different.

However, some of you lot are incredibly prissy and must lash the Lynx on like there is no tomorrow. Do you tke 2 hours to get ready for a night out?

No-one thinks they smell. Wear the same kit twice in one go and you're wrong.
As I say, fine. I don't really care if you smell. But you do.

Samuri, that true if you have cheap nasty synthetic crap, not true of decent merino gear, honestly try it. My winter jacket gets pretty stinky after a few days, much more so than shorts tbh, but when freezing outside id rather sweat than catch a cold wearing less or keeping it unzipped.

TBH if cycling to work (showering there) i take more importance in office clothes than cycle gear. Jumpers, 2 days max or pits of hell appear to form under my arms, shirts, socks and pants change daily, work trousers tho 1 pair for the week.

No-one thinks they smell. Wear the same kit twice in one go and you're wrong.
As I say, fine. I don't really care if you smell. But you do.

Ive asked the GF, most stuff gets a 'its fine' apart from synthetic tops which she screams and throws at the bin, so i know when the smell is no longer acceptable. Some people sweat a lot and still dont stink, others stink when they dont even seem to be sweating, all people are not the same.

No-one thinks they smell

I smell plenty, in certain conditions. Just not when I've worn the same shorts twice. Tops no, shorts yes.

Ha, ive just realised samuri your the one from another thread who actually takes a clean set of clothes to cycle home in.

I think we've worked out who the natural stinker is LOL!

Yep, I have merino kit.
Look.

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Right I'll hold my hand up to be a proper minger then.

3 commutes and I'll wash the bib's, not before. Merino wool top which never smells. I hang my kit up in the office kitchen. Ive asked all my colleagues if its a problem and not one has said it is (and I work in a building company... if it was I would be reamed).

Commute is 14 miles each way.

As I say, no-one thinks they smell. I know I do because everyone does.

the only people who don't smell is my wife and Claire Forlani

I generally don't take clean clothes to cycle home in. After all, you spend the trip home outside and you can change when you get home.

However when I come to London I have to ride to the station, sit for 2 hours near other people then ride to the office. In the summer, I do take a spare top for this.

Is that your teddy bears top Jon ?

Quality merino... and he posts a picture of an on-one top 🙄

Not to be a snob, I have Aldi, Endura, Shutt, Rohan and 1 Rapha top. There is a difference. If it smells (and the cheaper ones do for me) then its either cheap or your a stinker 😈

There is no shame in it tho despite the jesting, im a sweaty mess, even when i was at my fittest. I cant walk up more than 2 sets of stairs in a shirt at work or it goes transparent, thankfully it dosnt smell tho.

I always take a complete set of kit for the return commute (15 sweaty/hilly miles) I wash it and dry it when I get home and it's ready for the next day (if I left it to the wife I probably wouldn't see it for a week or half of it would go missing).

A man goes to the doctor.
"Doc, I fart all day long, I just can't stop. There's no smell or noise but I just can't stop farting, all day long. Can you help?"
"Yes, don't worry." replies the doctor, "take one of these twice a day and come back in two weeks."

Two weeks later the man returns.
"Doc, that medicine was rubbish. I'm still farting like crazy and they make no noise but now they smell incredibly bad."
"Great", says the doctor, "we've sorted your nose out, now we need to fix your ears."

"Doc, a man on the internet says i smell"
"Dont worry" says the doctor, "He is just smelling himself"

And with that, adieu 😆

Yep, I have merino kit.
Look.

....which is the equivalent of:

I have a Ferrari!

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BOOM!

Ver stink is caused by bacteria feeding 'n breeding on your sweat.

I have to share my commute with lots of grumpy train commuters twice a day - in the evening, after I've bashed back to the station as quick as possible in order to get the train in time for the Udderlets' bedtime stories. So it's vital that I don't stink.

I commute 13 miles a day (on a Brompton, for shame - but it's a mixed commute involving a train) in the same Endura commuter trousers all week long when it's cold, and in two different pairs of overshorts when it's warm, with standard undercrackers underneath that get changed at each end. In the winter, I can get away with the same merino top for two days in a row under a waterproof or roubaix top, which is washed weekly. when I'm in short sleeves, they typically last one day before going in the wash.

Napisan is our friend for pongy artificial fibres, by the way - works a charm. No excuse for stinking kit.

A workmate's cycling kit (about half a dozen of us, male and female, share a single shower room at work - not at the same time) honks to high heaven. We've all told him, but he's in denial. By Wednesday, the shower room is fetid. Strangely enough, when he's on holiday, it's very tolerable.

The merino baselayer can go a while before washing, assuming it's cold enough to wear one, but everything else is in the wash after one days use. Most days I'm dripping with sweat at the end of my 7 mile commute, but temps over 30 degrees will do that.

I do occasionally catch some people up who you can smell a good few hundred metres away, I suppose it stops the unwelcome wheelsucker though...

I use the same kit all week - not shorts though. My solution is to be constantly plastered in sheep shit which is a perfect masking agent for sweat. 🙂

I don't see the issue with Washing every day. Most washiing machines now have rapid/sports washes on them and being thin don't take long to dry. I use a lakeland heated airer, put them out over night and ready in the morning.

I don't see how anyone can survive winter recreational riding if they can't clean their kit between commutes.

My issue is I then wear the kit at work as I've no access to a shower, so that's my dirty bit. But I've only got two pair of shorts on the commute circuit, it's all about routine.

If I am not in a hotel, I have enough kit to last all week without washing. I'd be wasting a long of energy if I were washing kit every night. And time.

I'm currently a 'two-days-per-pair-with-a fresh-pair-for-Friday-treat' kinda guy 😀 But my commute is going from 5 to 15 miles each way so I'm going to get a couple of more pairs in. Oh, and has already been said- Merino top all week FTW!

Cheers,
Jamie

And this is why I use bib tights with no insert. If you need tights it's cold and a pair of shorts underneath gives you extra protection for your codlings and you get to use the tights again on dry rides 😉

So OP, have you washed your dirty keks yet? 😆

I've got 3 pairs of bibs on commute duty, one of them are my Castelli ones which motivates me to do a long commute at least once a week to justify the wear/tear of washing them 😀

If i wear the same shorts more than once it's a recipe for spotty arse syndrome 🙁

I dont smell bad and wash my kit when it looks dirty which isnt that often.
Its presently hanging on the back on the bathroom door post two back to back 100+ milers (and probably a few rides before that) and theres no complaints. Anyone local is more than welcome to pop round and have a sniff.

Not suprising the world running out of everything with you lot going wash crazy.

In fact i have bikebouy but, with an eye to wear them for the next 2-3 rides and see how bad it gets.

I'm lucky in that it's my business I arrive at and I'm the only one so, no one to offend other than me.

I've just set up the business/just had a kid so money to purchase merino top/new shorts will not be around for the next year so will have to make do with what I have.

From every ones advice I'll be setting up a nice little drying rack in the officer cellar to aid in stretching out short life. At present they are still a wee bit damp when I head home on an evening which is horrible.

Was just interested how many mingers we had in our midst.

EDIT: LOL and samuri's top, I have one that is now that exact size, must read washing labels after doing the same to two lovely suit trousers; 😳

Though I don't wear bibs or otherwise - I'm a true minger and commute in my work gear most of the year except the three nice days in summer when it's shorts for the ride - my experience of several days of riding with a tent and no change of clothes is that decent anti bacterial talc (available from a chemist such as boots, other pharmacists are available) will solve (hide) a multitude of sins and go a long way to solving sores too.