General Cycling Discussion - Funky cyclist tan/sunburn.

I was actually able to ride 3 days in a row from last Fri. to Sun. I rode 35 miles, 47 miles & 45 miles. During those 3 days I managed to get the ever funky cyclist tan/sunburn. I could have prevented the sunburn by using sunblock, and I will next time I ride. Though it was not to bad. This one will not peel thankfully.

Here is the kind of tan I'm talking about:
1. Hands - There are the 2 ovals and little brown dots because I wear mesh gloves. And my fingers are tanned from the about the knuckle foward.

2. Arms - tanned from where my jersey sleeve ends down to where my glove ends.

3. Legs - Really tanned/sunburned on the thigh just above my knees up to where the leg of my shorts start. Also tanned/burned from the knee down to where my socks start. This happened because I ride a recumbent. On a wedgie you don't get as tanned between the knees and ankles.

4. Face - Tanned from where my helmet starts on my forehead all around my face except where I wear my sunglasses. Imagine a racoon's face around the eyes. On the sides of my facce I have the typical white "Y" from where the helmet straps are. And of course nicely tanned ears and neck.

This tan will not go away until sometime in Nov. Though it may diminisj a little depending on how much and how often I use sunblock.

Anyone else get the funky cyclist tan? Or do you try to tan yourself evenly all over so it doesn't look strange? I don't mind personally. Because when people ask about it I can talk to them about cycling cause thats how I got it.

The recumbent tan sounds much worse then the wedgie tan!

I try to ride with a no-sleeve jersey, no gloves or socks a few times a month to dull my tan lines. This year my shorts are 1" shorter, so I am working on fixing last years short tan.

Rainbabe and the girls were giving me such a hard time about my "farmer tan" (They don't realize it's a CYCLIST tan, thank you very much!) last year that I took to wearing just a Coolmax tank undershirt once a week or so on sunny days for my commute home. This sort of evened things out some, but of course I still had the tank lines.

yet another reason to ride shirtless!!!

I do the shake and bake(tanning bed) about every two weeks.It helps.

My wife finally decided that the "farmer tan" had to go and bought me a tank-top Un-Dee shirt and sleeveless jersey for my birthday. It's only now beginning to warm up where I can wear it riding.

I wear halter tops or camisole tops made out of wicking fabric. Hard to find too, darn it... Shortest gel shorts I can find and pull them up a little on the legs while I'm riding. And some serious sun screen so if I do get a line it's not too defined and it's not a "farmer" tan. Guess that doesn't help the guys much unless you feel like being girly :P Ah well..I sound like a friggin exhibitionist, but an obvious funky tanline is just a pet peeve of mine :D

Personally I dig the bike tan lines. I get all sorts of comments from folks at work when they see the whiteness where my watch or POW bracelet normally fit on my arms.

Donna noticed she's starting to get a tan line on her legs so when we rode Sunday she rolled her shorts up a bit. I asked her if she was trying to be like Chipo but she didn't get the reference. I have thought about rolling my shorts up on my afternoon commute home but I already get enough odd looks from cars :)

I'm sure the next purcases for Donna will be some shorter shorts and a sleeveless jersey.

Zack

I tan really fast, so I got most of my tan the past few days and I already have those white hands. I just got a pair of new short shorts, so I have a band of paler skin on my thighs which I hope to even out, and yesterday I wore the sleeveless for the first time because it was really warm and sunny. The only problem is that I missed a spot on my shoulder when applying sunscreen, so I got an angry red spot of sumburn on my left shoulder. OUCH! I rarely burn, though, and it's better this morning. I think if I go out today I'll wear short sleeves. I keep thinking of maybe doing a few rides without gloves.

About a year ago I posted a thread looking for a tank-type jersey for men for this reason, one with the usual 3 pockets. They have them for ladies but not men, and that is, like, so unfair. I think there might be some for triathletes, but I have not found any. I saw a guy in Miami a few weeks ago that had one with the three pockets and a big SPEEDO logo. That would be fine with me, but when I checked Speedo's website they didn't show one. I have considered sleeveless, but, heck, I can push the sleeves up on any jersey to get the same effect, which I do sometimes.

wheres the sun, please guys tell where they are, I need to have my tan lines back

I hide as much exposed skin area as possible, since the suns waves are easily going through what was once ozone layer, that was keeping everything alive from deadly sun's radiation...

BTW, tanning increases risks of skin cancer in MANY times.

Originally posted by N_C
There are the 2 ovals and little brown dots because I wear mesh gloves.

Man...it took me forever to figure out what those two dots on the backs of my hands were. I thought they were bruises, but i was like, "they don't hurt when I press on them". so, i'm slow at times ;-/

It's rather funny to see my legs with the tan they have.

I'd ride shirtless, but, I'd stop traffic.

Burning increases your chance of skin cancer more then anything, tanning itself has not been proven to cause skin cancer.
Here is a set of facts I found on the net..
--
Facts about Tanning and Health
You want facts?

- Ancient Greek athletes learned that training nude in the sun produced better physical fitness and performance increase than training with clothes on.

- Ancient doctors knew that sun exposure helped improve recovery time with almost any disease. Look it up. It was called Heliotherapy. This practice was encouraged until doctors discovered antibiotics. Once somebody could sell you a pill, they quit recommending the free sunshine.

- Modern Doctors, such as Dr Michael Holick at the Boston University School of Medicine are proving amazing things about sun and health, especially in connection with vitamin D3 and bone health. Big deal you say? Ever heard of Osteoporosis? This condition is responsible for crippling, and killing tens of thousands of people. A broken hip, in old age, is most likely the most visible statistic related to this condition. It's devastating to many women. And entirely preventable.

- Doctors Garland and Garland proved, for the U.S. Navy, that sailors who work outdoors get less malignant melanoma (the only deadly skin cancer). They also noticed that persons who live near the equator get fewer internal cancers, such as breast, colo-rectal, and prostate cancer. They wondered if this was due to sun or some other factor. A few locations seemed to disprove the trend, though. Like Los Angeles. They looked closer at the data and found that cities plagued by smog (which blocks the sun) were more like the sun deprived cities in the northern latitudes. The correlation, when adjusted for smog, was exact. I could go on.

- Even the US FDA cannot prove suntanning causes malignant melanoma (the only deadly skin cancer), and they have been trying for 20 years. The most recent studies to suggest a link are being debunked by the original researchers, who admit they used the wrong sunlamps. Others are scaling the results back to levels that are scientifically meaningless, rendering their conclusions largely inaccurate, by their own admission.

Originally posted by Kev
Burning increases your chance of skin cancer more then anything, tanning itself has not been proven to cause skin cancer.
Here is a set of facts I found on the net..
--
Facts about Tanning and Health


Good information and good way to approach a problem. However, I qould think, the sun and ozone layer in time of ancient greeks and this time was different. Global warming with connection with ozone layer holes and recent industrial revolution in this century and tremendous amount of pollution of the atmosphere.

In a good doze, taning is wonderful, it really does stimulate our bodies to produce vitamin (what was it, B6, B12) which is rarely found in food and which is responsible for normal bone growth and strengh.

I would still stay away from the sun, and for sure in periods from 11 am to 3:30 pm when the activity is at the peak!

You know, with all these big cities around the country that have air you can almost chew, I think the sun would be the least of my health worries. Hell, there are days the smog blocks it out, so whats the complaint?