ScandiHo

Does it enhance your performance?

Or is there another reason ?

UmneyDurak

It gets you in touch with your feminen side.
Mainly it's just so you don't have to deal with hair when treating a roadrash.

soccerismylife

Yes, in all seriousness it has do do with the first aid aspect of when you fall. It's supposedly easier to clean. Also some people say that it's easier to massage post-ride.

ewitz

The only reason shaving one's legs is usefull is for the pre-race and post race massage.

While it is a little easier to treat road rash, the daily massage that the pros get from their soigneurs is more therapeutic and easier to administer to denuded legs. Otherwise cyclists would shave their arms as well since there is almost as much road rash there.

skydive69

Of course apart from pros, the main reason is peer pressure. Mine are shaven BTW.

Having said that, there are endless threads on the subject if you do a simple search.

Jaco

I can say from experience that it is nice to have shaved legs for after a crash. Most people's arm hair is much less thick and coarse, so there's no real reason to shave up there. I can show you a scar on my leg from a crash I had prior to shaving that got infected due to the hair growing into the scab, and the scabs I've gotten since shaving have all healed without scars.

However, the main reason for shaving is the same as why a body builder shaves their body...to show off what you have.

Not too long ago a poster brought up an interesting point on this subject. "Why do men shave their faces?" To look younger and more attractive and to show off what's underneath the hair...the same reason cyclists shave their legs.

TheKillerPenguin

A lot of people shave their legs just for show, and justify it as preventing worse road rash. It doesn't. What it does do is prevent you from pulling hair when you're cleaning your scabs. That's a pain!

My legs are a jungle, but I'm thinking about nairing em. I'm curious to see how it feels at least once in my life.

climbo

in the bed - yes.

on the bike - no.

pseudobrit

Hairy legs on a bike looks all wrong.

Where lycra ends and hair begins tends to look like pubes hanging out of a thong.

my58vw

Peer pressure...

Out of 100 racers I saw today none had hair on their legs...

ed073

Coz it looks cool.

NJWheelBuilder

My legs feel cooler (temperature wise) when they are hairless.

velocipedio

you shave legs for the same reason you shave your face.

roadwarrior

In some parts of the world, that also applies to women...

Pack Fodder

Or is there another reason ?[/QUOTE]

Chicks Dig It!

EventServices

Rite of passage.

Just do it and get it over with.

Hipcycler

You were looking?

my58vw

Only at the females...

but it is more of it is easier to spot people with hairy legs vs not, i.e. sizing up the competition, not that I was looking at that specifically.

Voodoo76

Just do it.

Or for you overly analytical types, my legs feel a bit cooler which usually equates to better power output. I suppose that lack of hair might improve convection at the skin surface, increasing mass transfer of the sweat (evaporative cooling rate). Maby a boundary layer issue? Not sure if there is some kind of study on this, any Exercise Physiology types looking for something to do?

TheKillerPenguin

It may not keep you much cooler, as sweat is kind of beaded on my hair which I suppose would help with cooling me off and offset any extra heat held in by my hair.

What differences did you guys feel when you shaved your legs? Any? Or did all of you guys immediately shave your legs when you started riding???

skydive69

I just shaved mine for the first time last month. I don't feel any difference riding, but I like how easy it is to rub suntan lotion in before, and moisterizing cream after, plus massaging the legs is so much easier. Of course now that I am a member of the shaved legs club, I don't take any rider seriously with hairy legs!

my58vw

I rode for about 3 months before I decided it was time to do it... about the same time I started seriously considering racing. There is a difference in feeling but it is slight, the wind just feels slightly different with no hair vs having it. It was really interesting though how I really started taking riding seriously since I started doing it... now it is just part of the rutein of cycling, just happens.

I do not have a hard time taking people with hairly legs seriously, about 3/4's of the guys in the local rec club I ride with do not and some of those guys could kick my butt in climbing... so

KirkeIsWaiting

wax.

Jaco

I shaved after my first training "accident." Coming around a corner onto a woden bridge on a wet day, my bike slipped out from underneath me and there went the skin on my knee. After a few days of ripping bandages (and hair) off my legs, followed by scabs that formed around the hair (another pain in the butt and a good way to get an infection and scars) I realized that it was time for the hair to go. If you plan on racing/riding aggressively, I think hairless is the way to do it. If you're just out to put some miles on the bike and ride centuries, it's really not needed. IMO

twowheeledchigu

I agree with the "chicks dig it" response.... Any excuse to have some hotties rubbing my strong smooth legs is a good one!