I want to start to ride to work and sack off my company car – less fuel/tax/and it’ll notch up some base mileage for my own training!

Only issue is – I work at a car dealership about 14 miles away, there are no shower facilities and despite me dropping loads of hints there aint likely to be either! What do all you commuters do regarding having ironed shirts/pants and being sweaty etc??

Could get a lift in with bike, towel and new shirts once a week – think this could be the easiest way around it?

I have gym membership over the road so use their showers and towels. I leave shoes at work, and carry the rest in panniers.

Well, figure out if you need to carry everything you need that week in each day, or if you can drop off a weeks worth of stuff in on monday..

Shoes, towels, and clothes take up space, so best off doing a bulk drop on Monday.
Then you can simply cycle in with just lunch and snacks…

DrP

I ride in 3 days if I can, take kit on car days or in my rack bag if I forget. We have a shower but before we did I used to wash in the toilet, just a quick wipe down and plenty of deodorant after, never a problem.

I have a pair of shoes permanently at work and a coat too for popping out at lunchtime if it’s cold or wet.

Depending on your level of fitness, you may be pretty sweaty when you get there. I always try to get to work 10-15 mins early and cool off outside before going in and getting changed – otherwise you just get work clothes all sweaty. I don’t need a suit/ironed clothes, but would think if you pack carefully in a pannier, you should be fine. Rack and pannier(s) are going to be more comfy and less sweaty than a rucksack/messenger bag.

If you work in a car dealership, just get the valeters to give you a wash and polish!

Cycle in (11 miles) with clothes in rucksack/panniers, sit at desk a bit until cooled off, get changed in big toilet room.

I’ve cycled up to 40 miles into work like this, never had a problem.

take in all i need on monday in my caradice camper

leave the house between 6.25 and 6.45

arrive at work about 7.45

shower

get to desk about 8am

Decent baselayers, soak up the sweat, dry yourself off/chill outside, deodorant then off you go.

Easy ride in, Do you “training” on the way home.

Muc Off dry shower

When I was commuting solely by bike I left hoodie/jeans/shoes at the office, and used to take a t-shirt and boxers in my backpack. We didn’t have a shower so I’d always make sure there was soap in the bathroom and would just run a sink full of water and have a decent upper body wash and give the goolies a freshen up, then put my regular clothes and some deodorant on.

Leaving with plenty of time to cool down is a good shout, when I’m out on the road bike I do a 5k easy spinning warm up/down on every ride, so it might be worth making a mental note of a certain set of traffic lights or junction for you to slow your pace right down and spin into work, that way you can ensure you’re not dripping with sweat when you get in.

In two places where I used to have a decent commute I had different solutions to the clothes issue;

first one was have two weeks worth of trousers and shirts and at the end of the week take them to a laundrette for a service wash, pick them up the week after when you drop the next lot off.

second place wasn’t close to a laundrette so I asked around and one of the guys took them home and he/his wife washed and ironed them for me for a bottle of wine each week.

Both places had showers though so not much help their I’m afraid.

one of the guys took them home and he/his wife washed and ironed them for me

Perhaps I’ll dish that one out as an objective at my teams next appraisals… 🙂

No showers here.
Trousers & Shirt in on Monday, folded using an A4 magazine as a guide, so they go in with the laptop. Rest of week just a shirt each day.
Shower before work, so although you sweat its clean sweat.

Large baby wipes & a super absorbany towel at work. Arrid XX deodorant, drys out very quickly. A bottle of fabreeze stops kit stinking out the store cupboard. Have some cheap disposable nappies at work. If your shoes get drenched, stuff one into each shoe & they soon dry out. Clean socks & pants are simply heaven after a sweaty commute.

Full mudguards. Even in quite heavy rain, you’ll not get as wet as you think. I’m not a fan of waterproofs, I’d sooner be warm & wet than sweating profusely. I just carry a very lightweight Peter Storm cheapo jacket & trousers for the 3 or 4 times a year its really chucking it down. And dont go hell for leather on the way in, save it for the way home.

Finally, a rack & panniers. Best investment you’ll make.

My routine:

Set alarm nice and early
Silence alarm when it goes off
Think ‘I’ll just take 5 mins’
45 mins later leap out of bed in a panic
Wolf down some food
Pack a random selection of clothes
Attempt to set a personal best for a 10 mile TT whilst weaving recklessly through traffic and gurning like Tommy Voeckler
Get to work, shower so quickly I’m still sweating loads when I put nice clean work clothes on
Realise I’ve forgotten shoes, underpants, towel, belt, socks computer, or something else important
Feel like a pillock all day

Not knowing how fit you are you might struggle to do 30miles every day for a few months.
I leave my car at work and ride home then in again in the morning as I need the car for work purposes. Might be a good way to ease yourself into it and in the meantime remove any personal fuel benefit so you actually save money the more you ride (I say save but you’ll spend it on food/kit/repairs)

If you have commitment issues then get rid of the car straight away to give you no option.

I also have plenty of room at work for clothes and food so don’t carry anything on the bike other than tools and riding kit as needed.

Shoes / Babywipes / Deodorant all left at work.

Carradice SQR Tour fitted to the seat post. Clothes etc all folded and rolled up in a 5L dry bag (That pops into SQR Tour bag) along with pack lunch bag and small saddle bag (with spare tubes etc in).

Bags packed and ready the night before.

35 mile round trip for me, 3-4 times a week on a road bike. I keep a pair of jeans, 4 t-shirts, 4 pairs of socks, and 4 pairs of undercrackers in a draw at my desk, along with shower gel and deodorant. Towel on coat rack, spare shoes under desk.

Another draw contains boxes of that 2 minute microwave porridge for breakfast, whatever cereal bars are on special for snacks, also some ryvitas and a jar of peanut butter for emergency snacks.

Ride in Mon, Tue, Thu, Fri. Leave home about 7:20, arrive 8:20, lock bike up and cool down. Showered by 8:40, sat at desk eating breakfast soon after. Sandwich from the canteen for lunch and a mid afternoon snack to get me home.

When I drive in on a Wednesday I bring clean clothes and top up the food draw. Days mix and match depending on what’s on. Once you get yourself organised it’s pretty enjoyable.

I’m lucky that we’ve got secure bike storage, showers, and a kitchen (of sorts).

If it’s a car dealership, haven’t they got any wash/shower facilities and lockers for the mechanics that you could share ?

I managed to scrounge a locker where I work. Every few weeks I take all my shirts home, wash and iron them and bring them back in. As you say, you need a car journey to accomplish this.

I need to look smart at work, so to be honest, the locker with coat hangers is more important than a shower. If you shower at home every day, the sweat from riding is the next day doesn’t smell, if you know what I mean 😉 It’s only the accumulation of old sweat that smells….

Oh, and you’ll need lots of snacks at work….you need to feed your brain too.

If it’s a car dealership, haven’t they got any wash/shower facilities and lockers for the mechanics that you could share ?

Unfortunately theres no facilities for showering! Bit of a PITA as it’d make things easier. However, i could probably manage without as if i dont tonk it on the way there i wouldnt really be very sweaty. I could leave clothing to dry out in another part of the site and store me bike!

Think this would be a bit easier as i usually am out on a 20-30 mile road/cx ride most nights anyway at least. so the distance wont be an issue. could always go a longer way home if needs be too!

I have seen hard pastic gizmos that you can fold shirts/trousers up in to keep them from getting wrinkled whilst in your pannier. Keep shoes at work. 14 miles each way per day is easily doable every day, even at a very easy pace you can do it in under an hour. Get a nice new steel road/cross bike with a rack and full guards (leaving enough room for Ice Spikers in the winter!) and ride in everyday!

Showering after riding is not necessary as others have said, just towel/wet wipe yourself down and make sure you have a shower every day at home.

Just have a ‘scumbag shower’ I call them.

Get bollock naked in front of sink, wash plums, pits and the rest.
Dry with towel, apply deodorant – sorted.
Clean the floor.

A lock is preferable…

If you shower at home every day, the sweat from riding is the next day doesn’t smell,

Yep. Shower before you leave, clean clothes, not so much of a problem. Not wearing a rucksack really helps though, eliminates a lot of sticky sweat.

there’s showers at my work, and my commute is only 4ish miles too. and we don’t have to wear suits/ties, so it’s a bit easier.
on a monday morning, i carry a pair of trousers and clean towel in along with the usual shirt/trollies/socks. i leave my work shoes at work (we’ve got a secure store room for all of our spare IT kit that only the few of us in the IT dept have access to, which is a massive plus point too!)

so my routine goes like this: get up, put cycling stuff on, guzzle a glass of water and clean teeth then a 10/15 mins ride in, shower and get changed. then do an hour or so’s work, then beans/grilled tomatoes on a slice of dry wholemeal toast with a mug of green tea for brekkie.
it’s slowly but surely turning me into a superhuman.

Not a lot that’s not been said already, but:

Suit and shoes stay at work, I have a seatpost mounted Carradice SQR Tour Slim (16L, 10kg max) with a drawstring gym bag inside containing shirt loosely folded, Business Socks, spare pants if it’s hot or wet, little flannel if it’s pissing down, baby wipes if it’s hot. Full mudguards for most of the year.

I try to slow down for the last mile or so, as much to avoid sucking in lungfuls of the increased fumes as for a cool down.

I had to take the tube in this morning, wearing a suit and a rucksack. I arrived sweaty and just had to sit in it.

get up at 8.15, get showered, leave at 8.35/40 get to work for about 9.

leave at 5 get home for 5.10/15!

The benefits of a 3(6) mile commute! 😆

I leave smart shoes, a couple of pairs of jeans and wash kit at work, I pack a shirt, socks and crackers into my camelbak. I’m lucky that we are smart casual here. I take my jeans home on Friday’s for a wash.
We do have a shower here but you can get clean with a strip wash in the lavvy with a flannel and stuff. It takes me about 15 minutes to cool down though so I don’t shower for a while each morning or you sweat into clean clothes. I’m doing this 15 miles each way 5 days a week no worries, I’m dreading having to tube it again in the winter. Top tip a microfibre cloth is smaller and more effective than a towel!

shower before I leave home, no need at work. take it easy on the last leg to cool down a bit. panniers, not backpack.

careful clothing selection helps too. I use craghoppers ‘solar-dry’ trousers which look okay at work and I find loose boxers help.

embarassing to admit obviously, but I do wear undies under my lycra shorts :oops.

nothing so complicated as molgrips – what are socks computers?

Shoes, trousers and jacket kept at work, along with baby wipes and deoderant.

Carry shirt (rolled up, socks and pants in pannier along with packedlunch, waterproof and spare tubes in pannier.

Shower at home, 12 mile ride in, cool down at desk while checking colleagues diaries and worktrays, wipe down with acouple of baby wipes, good dose of deoderant, no complaintsas yet.

Worth getting kit ready the night before though.

Ride in, sit at desk in sweaty cycle gear until something or someone reminds me I need to get changed. Change into slightly less sweaty civvies (jeans & t-shirt) for a while. Put sweaty cycle gear back on and ride home. Shower when I get home. Repeat.

I normally carry clean jeans & a couple of t-shirts in with me on a Mon, clean undercrackers/socks in the pannier every day.

I have no need to be smart at work which helps enormously, there’s also not many of us in the office which definitely helps. Never use deodorant as I don’t smell 🙂

Babywipes will sort out the hygiene thing. Leave as much stuff as you can at work; shoes/wash kit/towels. On Monday I bring in all my clothes for the day and leave trousers at work for the rest of the week. Subsequent days means just bringing in keks, socks, shirt. Repeat for next week.

Suit, shoes and toiletries kept at work
Shirts and underwear rolled into a bag in a small rucksack daily.

We have showers and lockers at work. With no shower available, shower ar home then have a stripwash in the toilet – that was my previous option. Just be sure to cool off well first.

When I worked in places like that I’d use monday to take in clean clothes.
The rest of the week I’d get up, poo, shower, shave, then cycle in.
Have a strip wash in the bogs when I arrive, dressed, ready to go.

edit: Now I have shower facilities. I take my clothes in every day with me. The trick is to roll them up rather than fold them. When I get to work I put my shirt on a coat hanger and put it in the shower on red hot. The steam removes any creases.

easy peasy.. Get fitter, don’t sweat!

oh, yeah.. nearly forgot

Not wearing a rucksack[b] helmet[/b] really helps though, eliminates a lot of sticky sweat.