General Cycling Discussion - Chamois Cream

Does anyone out there use an alternative to cycling specific cream that works for long rides ? I have used Vasoline which seems to work ok. Has anyone tried Vitamin E body lotion?

Lonnie,

Vasoline might work but it will clog your pores and cause
all sorts of nasty things.
I'm not sure about the Vitamin E creme, I use it for other
stuff but it seems to absorb too quickly to use as a substitute
for Chamois creme.
You can use Udder Creme, or similiar lanolin based products
if you can't find Chamois Butt'r.

Marty

chamois butt'rr works great

Lonnie:

Chamois Butt'r and Assos Chamois Creme are two excellent products that can possibly save your ass. Why you would want to use any substitute for these products is beyond my comprehension. If you are going to take this attitude, you might as well wear whitey-tighties under your cycling shorts and saw yourself in half from the crotch up.

Vaseline is not to be used on your precious crotch under any circumstances. As Lotek pointed out, correctly, it clogs pores, traps bacteria and leads to infected boils. And we don't want infected boils, now do we, Lonnie?

Chamois Creme or Chamois Butt'r. Accept no substitutes.

Got it?

Good.

Underwear Nazi
All over your ass

I've had good results with generic Vaseline "creame" style. It's white and it looks and feels just like Chamois butter. Way cheaper too. $2-3.... look for it near the regular jelly.

I use this stuff called Body Butter that I get at wally world.It works great and don't cost a fortune. Beleave it or not, Preperation H works well especially if you already use it for what it is designed for.

Generally I don't use lube on rides less than 30 miles or so, but on longer rides I find it is a life saver. ;)

The favorite of ultra marathon cyclists is Bag Balm. This is available at drug stores, and farm supply stores. It is made for application to the teats of milk cows. No only does it help prevent chafing, but has addatives to help heal skin lacerations that have already developed.

Dave

hayneda:
Thanks for the tip. I know of what you are speaking. Being raised on the farm we used to use that stuff on our milkcows.
I will give it a try.

Originally posted by Lonnie Seachris
hayneda:
Thanks for the tip. I know of what you are speaking. Being raised on the farm we used to use that stuff on our milkcows.
I will give it a try.

You can buy a can of Bag Balm for about $6.00. Go ahead and use it if you think that's all your butt is worth!

Underwear Nazi
Loves his butt

Skin pores are quite capable of tolerating vaseline. Body/hand/facial creams consist of water, oil or grease from multiple sources, mostly vegetable but some animal (lanolin mainly) or mineral and a variety of soaps to emulsify the two. Additives for smell, texturizing and preservatives are present in most of these. Vaseline is pure grease (or oil if heated). Bag balm, Chamois Butter, Chamois cream, body butter are variations on a theme.
What you need in the crotch is lubrication and something that won't easily sweat off or be absorbed by the clothing. The higher the proportion of water the less likely the cream is to work. Use whatever works: it has to last, not irritate, protect and not gunk up the clothes beyond a washing machines capacity to clean. Odor is a secondary consideration (pre ride odor, not post ride). Cost is all over the map and unrelated to efficacy. Udder cream has worked for me. Steve

Just for comparison's sake:

Udder Butter (7oz @ $4.00, 33oz @ $9.00)
Ingredients: Oxyquinoline 0.22% in a base of Petrolatum*, Animal Oil, Lanolin, Castor Oil, and Fragrance.

Bag Balm (10oz Can @ $6)
Active Ingredients: Hydroxyquinoline sulfate 0.3% in a petrolatum* lanolin base.

Udder Salve by Udder Balm (5oz can @ $5.49)
Ingredients: Similar to the above* but with Vitamin E & Aloe.

Rite Aid A&D Ointment (4oz tube @ $4.99)
Active Ingredients: Contains: Petrolatum* (53.4% - Skin Protectant), Lanolin (15.5% - Skin Protectant). Inactive Ingredients: Cod Liver Oil (contains Vitamin A & Vitamin D), Fragrance, Light Mineral Oil, Microcrystalline Wax, Paraffin.

Chamois Butt'r; (8oz tube @ $11.95)
Ingredients: Water, Mineral Oil, Ethylene Glycol Monostearate, Stearic Acid, Cetearyl Alcohol, Stearyl Alcohol, Propylene Glycol, Sorbitol, Vitamin E, Vitamins A and D, Propylparaben, Methylparaben, Sodium Hydroxide, Aloe, Lanolin.

ASSOS Chamois Cream: (4oz @ $16.95)
Made of 100% natural ingredients & washes out cleanly from shorts


*Petrolatum = Vasaline (a brand name petrolatum product)

Note: The Chamois Butt'r & Assos Creme are reportedly more susceptible to breaking down under heavy sweating or on rainy rides since they are designed to more easily wash-out of your shorts.

Thank you all for your responses , you have all been very helpful with exception of the guy with the underwear fettish.

Lonnie:

In all seriousness, it is perfectly acceptable to use Bag Balm...

...if you moo and give milk, that is! :mad:

I actually find Bag Balm too waxy for a "saddle area" lubricant.

And I think it is a shame to cheat yourself out of the euro-good, slightly tingly experience of Chamois Creme just to save a few pennies. Doesn't your butt deserve the best? I know mine does.

Underwear Nazi
You want cream with that?

From what I understand the oils in Vaseline and other oils hold in heat that probably want to get rid of. I dont know how much of an effect this is, but it is something to consider when looking at heavily oil based creams.

what exactly.. do... you use all those products for.. and why?


i'm definitly missing something..

Saddle sores, chafing or the prevention thereof. You rub them on your umm... "special parts" in your "special area" before you put your shorts on. Get it? :D

Before you use Bag Balm or any other ointment or lotion not specifically made for humans, be sure you are not allergic to lanolin. You really wouldn't want an allergic reaction firing up when you are miles from home.

BG4533: Your crotch on the seat under a pair of shorts is not the heat exchanger of choice. A mm or so of lube is not going to make much difference.

Jasbike: some people have skin irritation on longer rides between the inner thighs, crotch and the shorts, worsened by constantly sawing the legs up and down pedaling. Lubing the area dramatically reduces this.

Livngood: Thanks for the comparison. I was not home when I composed the
message. Most of these compounds have 20+ ingredients. I thought it interesting that Chamois Butter first listed ingredient is water. Steve

I'm weaning off salves, lanolin and tea tree oil now that my Brooks and backside have broken in together, that I have acquired three pairs of expensive but very, very good bike shorts, and my bike fit is near-perfect.

Five imperial century rides in the past three weeks, including three on consecutive days, have resulted in no significant soreness or chafing.

Noxzema.

Originally posted by sch
Livngood: Thanks for the comparison. I was not home when I composed the message. Most of these compounds have 20+ ingredients. I thought it interesting that Chamois Butter first listed ingredient is water.

The ingredients I listed were the ones I could find -- noting that Assos doesn't offer any hint of it's chamois creame ingredients anywhere on the Web.

Regarding labeling, it's worth while to note, the FDA requires manufactures to list the ingredients in "most to least" order, i.e., if your product is 80% petrolatum, 11% Lanolin and 9% Water with trace amounts of Vitamin E, etc.. that's how they appear on the label. If the ingredients are broken up by active and inactive, same thing applies for each respective list. In some cases, like Bag Balm, manufactures don't label the active vs inactive, per se, but it's relatively easy to deduce that the active ingredient is listed first, followed by... in a base of the other stuff listed in decending order according to how much of each is in the product.

Me, I've been using Rite Aid's oderless A&D ointment for a long time with good results. It's not as greasy and doesn't have an oder like most of the other brands of A&D ointments on the market. However, A&D is mostly vasaline & moisturizers and while it also does a great job of moisturizing the leather cover of my saddles through the chamois (leaving them soft, supple and shiny), it easily machine-washes out of my shorts. This is not true of some of the other brands of A&D ointment I've used and quickly discarded.

Never did the price comparison with the livestock lubes before and was surprised to see that A&D is a bit more expensive per oz. Then again, how expensive could teat treatments be given how much of the stuff you need to use. BTW, there is a 112oz size bucket of Udder Butter available for $29 for the real bargain shoppers.

I am a Brooks Swift owner and devoted user but I've always wondered about something; Brooks says to use only Proofide on their saddles, which I do, but I have noticed that after I ride while using ASSOS chamois cream, my brown saddle shows a definite darker tone in the crucial contact area. I wondered if this won't cause unwanted softening of the leather. I don't use the cream for myself, it is for the benifit of a pair of vintage Campagnolo shorts with real chamois. The skin gets hard as cardboard after a wash and I use the cream to soften it up again. Any thoughts or tips for Brooks users? Any tips on how to care for real chamois shorts?

What ever you do
DO NOT use Deep Heat or Dencorub.

I've tried Savlon before with good results

bikerChas55,

Since the Assos is a water based cream I don't think its
gonna hurt anything, nor cause excessive breakdown of the
leather on the saddle. I notice that my brooks looks decidedly
darker after a particularly sweaty ride (all of them here in texas!).
If you're really paranoid about it, check with Bill at Wallingford
Bikes.
I always used chamois butt'r for real chamois, or pure lanolin
in a pinch. I'd also kind of roll the chamois to soften it up after
washing.

Marty

I'm surprised that no one mentioned using that "Kentucky Jelly" ;)

thanks lotek, I'll give bill a call.